The Australian Government's Innovation Report

FIGURE 1: Percentage change in the Australian 2004 and 2006 scorecard values compared to the percentage charge
between the 2002 and 2004 scorecard values.
Public R&D
Scientific & technical articles per capita
US patents per capita
Business R&D
Tertiary education
Science graduates in employment aged 25-34
Researchers in labour force
Venture capital
Investment in ICT
Internet usage
Broadband subscribers
Investment in new equipment
International S&E collaboration
MFP growth 1999-2003
-50 -25 0 25 50 75 100 125 150
Percentage change between scorecards
Sources: See Table 13.
2004-2006 Scorecard Comparison 2002-2004 Scorecard Comparison
Figure 1 shows that nine indicators out of 14 comparable indicators had nominal value increases between the 2004
and 2006 scorecards. Eight of the 14 indicators improved in each scorecard since 2002. The significant
improvements were in:
• public sector R&D expenditure (from 0.76% of GDP to 0.77% and now to 0.78% of GDP);
• scientific and technical articles (from 1090 articles per million population in the 2002 scorecard to 1154 and
now to 1279 articles per million population in the 2006 scorecard);
• business sector R&D expenditure (from 0.72% of GDP to 0.89 % and now to 0.94% of GDP);
• percentage of workforce with tertiary education (from 18% to 20% and now to 22 %);
• science graduates (from 1303 employed per 100 000 in the workforce aged 25-34 to 1942 and now to
2020 employed per 100 000 in the workforce aged 25-34);
• researchers (from 68 researchers per ten thousand labour force to 74 and now to 80 researchers per ten
thousand labour force);
• internet usage (from 465 users per thousand population to 601 and now to 704 users per thousand population);
and
• broadband subscribers (from 35 per one thousand population to 77 and now to 174 per one thousand
population in the 2006 scorecard). This indicator displays the highest growth of all indicators.
126 Backing Australia’s Ability