Australia's NSW Innovation Blue Print 2035 Vision

Tommy Dam
Apr 16
9 min read

Updated: Apr 16

Innovation is no longer a luxury; it's the lifeblood of economic growth, social progress, and environmental sustainability. In an increasingly competitive global landscape, fostering a dynamic and robust innovation ecosystem is paramount for any region aspiring to future prosperity. The NSW Innovation Blueprint 2035, a comprehensive 10-year plan by the NSW Government, offers a valuable framework for understanding the key factors that drive innovation. While focused on New South Wales, the principles and strategies outlined in this document provide crucial insights applicable to any entity seeking to cultivate a fertile ground for new ideas, breakthrough technologies, and thriving innovative businesses.

Drawing on the NSW Innovation Blueprint 2035, this blog post will delve into the essential elements that constitute a successful innovation ecosystem, the strategic priorities, necessary investments, vital infrastructure, crucial talent development, and the importance of seamless engagement that underpin a vibrant innovation landscape.

1. Strategic Vision and Collaboration: Setting the Stage for Success

A thriving innovation ecosystem doesn't emerge spontaneously; it requires a clear, long-term vision and well-defined priorities. The NSW Innovation Blueprint 2035 underscores the necessity for governments to set a stable policy environment that encourages entrepreneurship, risk-taking in adopting innovations, and investment in scaling businesses. This long-term perspective provides the necessary confidence and direction for all stakeholders within the ecosystem.

As noted in the Blueprint, governments worldwide are increasingly adopting interventionist industry policies to strategically spur economic activity. Innovation-intensive businesses are naturally drawn to regions where these policies facilitate access to customers, talent, and capital. Therefore, a consistent and accessible policy framework is crucial for strengthening and growing an innovation ecosystem.

The Blueprint also emphasises the importance of collaboration across government, industry, and academia. No single entity can build a thriving innovation ecosystem in isolation. By working together on shared goals, the full potential of innovation to deliver future prosperity can be realised. The NSW Government recognises this and aims to foster partnerships between research organisations, entrepreneurs, innovating businesses, investment firms, and community builders.

Furthermore, a clear strategic vision helps to coordinate innovation efforts around key missions and challenges. The NSW Blueprint aligns its innovation priorities with the NSW Industry Policy, focusing on pressing challenges such as housing affordability, achieving net-zero emissions and energy transition, and boosting local manufacturing. This mission-based approach provides a clear direction for innovation activities and ensures that they contribute to broader societal goals.

To effectively deliver on this strategic vision, the Blueprint proposes several key actions:

Committing to a long-term vision, goals, and key action areas through the release of the Innovation Blueprint itself. This addresses the stakeholder demand for a clear economic strategy and aligned innovation policy.
Confirming a future operating model to support whole-of-government innovation policy and program delivery, facilitating knowledge sharing, best practice discovery, and network building across government agencies. This recognises the potential for improved leadership and coordination of government innovation initiatives.
Improving navigation and accessibility of government resources by enhancing connectivity between NSW Government agencies and clarifying their roles and responsibilities. This aims to create a more welcoming environment for innovative businesses, talent, and investors.

2. Fueling Innovation: The Power of Strategic Funding

A robust innovation ecosystem requires a supportive funding environment that extends the availability of capital to a wide range of opportunities. The NSW Innovation Blueprint 2035 acknowledges that while the state's investment landscape has grown, capital availability doesn't fully extend across all stages, sectors, and founders. This creates "valleys of death" for businesses as they try to prove their product value, access markets, and scale globally.

The Blueprint highlights that there are significant skews in investment allocation, with key industries often underfunded compared to global peers, and women founders receiving significantly less VC funding despite demonstrating strong returns. This underscores the need for targeted initiatives to address these funding gaps.

To overcome these challenges, the Blueprint outlines several funding-related actions:

Supporting the growth of innovation-intensive businesses via the MVP Ventures Program and reviewing its guidelines to ensure equity in who receives support. This program helps early-stage startups de-risk product development.
Considering the establishment of a standing Emerging Technology Commercialisation Fund for opportunities aligned with state priority areas. This would consolidate existing funds like the Physical Sciences Fund and Biosciences Fund to improve accessibility and expand its remit.
Exploring the development of an Innovation Challenge and Procurement Program to connect innovation-intensive firms and government agencies to identify and source solutions, with a clear pathway to procurement. This leverages the government's significant procurement spend to support local innovation.
Investigating the development of a NSW Government Strategic Investment Fund to catalyse private sector investment, particularly VC, in target areas and for increased diversity in founder demographics. This could operate as a Fund of Funds to support a larger and more diversified investor base.

These initiatives recognise that government investment plays a critical role in creating new innovation-intensive businesses and encouraging existing ones to adopt innovative practices. While private investment is crucial, it is often insufficient to capture the broader spillover benefits of innovation, such as knowledge, skills, and environmental improvements. Therefore, strategic government funding is essential to supplement private efforts and maximise these spillover benefits.

3. Cultivating Innovation Hubs: The Importance of Place

The creation of world-class, affordable spaces to innovate around the state is another key pillar of the NSW Innovation Blueprint 2035. Extensive evidence demonstrates that the clustering of innovative business activity improves the quality and quantity of these activities, boosts firm performance, increases employment, enhances access to finance and R&D expenditure, and drives economic growth.

Innovation precincts, startup accelerators, incubators, and infrastructure like flexible prototyping and pilot-scale manufacturing facilities play a vital role in fostering this clustering and collaboration. These places bring different parts of the ecosystem together, facilitating knowledge and skills spillovers that drive innovation and productivity.

The Blueprint outlines several actions related to places:

Transitioning to the flagship hub located in Tech Central for technology-intensive businesses at different growth stages. This dedicated hub within NSW's largest innovation district will provide services and facilities fit for purpose for startups and scaleups.
Exploring ways to support businesses at all stages of growth to navigate innovation infrastructure, connecting them with necessary lab space, equipment, expertise, and pilot manufacturing capabilities across universities and other facilities.
Considering the development of an Innovation Infrastructure Co-investment Fund to attract investment in shared NSW research and innovation infrastructure, making access more affordable.

Activating these publicly funded innovation spaces is also crucial. This involves continuously engaging relevant stakeholders, encouraging utilisation, collaboration, and knowledge sharing through activities like tech showcases, masterclasses, investor office hours, mentoring, and networking.

4. Nurturing Talent and Expertise: The Human Capital of Innovation

A thriving innovation ecosystem is fundamentally built upon talented and skilled people. The NSW Innovation Blueprint 2035 recognises that NSW boasts world-class universities and a significant pool of experienced founders, executives, and investors. Mobilising this talent to support the creation and growth of innovation-intensive firms is key to commercialising research and building major global businesses.

The Blueprint emphasises that availability and access to the right skills and experience at different stages of a business's growth, particularly during scaling, are critical for retaining these businesses in NSW. Boosting connections between early-stage startups and those who have successfully scaled global businesses can effectively leverage the experience of the "unicorn club".

Capability networks are identified as powerful mechanisms for connecting expertise suppliers with those who need it. Targeted networks in critical technology sectors can translate NSW's talent and research strengths into a competitive advantage.

To support talent development and activation, the Blueprint proposes the following actions:

Considering support for management programs and networks for founders at different growth stages, with a particular focus on the pre-scaling stage where founders often face unique challenges in managing larger teams.
Exploring how NSW can support more diverse founders through targeted pre-accelerator programs to address systemic inequities in accessing innovation services, education, and funding. This aims to broaden participation in the innovation ecosystem.
Examining capability networks to connect more SMEs with expertise in NSW's research sector, enhancing their global competitiveness.
Considering creating sector-specific networks, such as a Housing Innovation Network, to connect relevant stakeholders working on enhancing the development and commercialisation of new technologies in that area.

5. Fostering Engagement: Connecting the Ecosystem

A dynamic innovation ecosystem thrives on easy engagement between stakeholders, effective showcasing of innovation, and the ability to attract strategic activity and investment. The NSW Innovation Blueprint 2035 recognises that while NSW has an active ecosystem, simplifying how the government shares information about its initiatives is crucial for increasing engagement.

Investment NSW currently provides support for businesses to access and navigate government programs, along with global VC investor engagement through its global trade offices. The Fostering Innovation Sponsorship program also supports various innovation activities and events.

To further enhance engagement, the Blueprint proposes the following actions:

Investigating a new, integrated service model for NSW programs and services to make them easier to find and navigate, potentially including a one-stop digital shop and a dedicated "front door" team to provide information and answer questions.
Exploring the launch of an annual Tech Week to strategically showcase local innovations and attract top global investors and talent through exhibitions, pitch sessions, and networking opportunities.
Engaging with global and local investors to bolster international venture capital investment into NSW by developing strategic relationships and showcasing NSW's innovation-intensive businesses through the global trade and investment network.
Continuing existing support for impactful activities that convene the local innovation ecosystem via the Fostering Innovation Sponsorships Program. This program plays a vital role in building partnerships, supporting mission-driven work, increasing visibility of innovation precincts, representing industry interests, encouraging equitable participation, and recognising success.

Overcoming Challenges: A Proactive Approach

The NSW Government faces several challenges in fostering a thriving innovation ecosystem. The NSW Innovation Blueprint 2035 directly addresses these through its strategic framework.

Addressing below-par global performance

The Blueprint's focus on a clear long-term strategy, targeted funding initiatives, and enhanced engagement with global investors directly aims to improve NSW's innovation metrics compared to international peers.

Bridging sectoral disparities

By coordinating innovation around key missions and providing targeted funding and capability networks for sectors like construction and advanced manufacturing, the Blueprint seeks to level the playing field and drive innovation across all industries.

Enhancing diversity and inclusion

The Blueprint explicitly prioritises increasing diversity through equitable funding program guidelines and targeted pre-accelerator programs, aiming to unlock the untapped potential of under-represented groups.

Responding to economic, social, and environmental risks

The mission-based approach, coupled with programs like the Innovation Challenge and Procurement Program and sector-specific networks like the Decarbonisation Innovation Hub and the potential Housing Innovation Network, directly leverage innovation to address these critical challenges.

Measuring Progress - Tracking the Impact of Innovation

The NSW Innovation Blueprint 2035 recognises the importance of measuring progress to ensure the effectiveness of its strategies. It outlines key metrics related to economic growth and inclusive participation in innovation.

Economic growth will be tracked by the growth in the number of innovation-intensive firms, their gross value-add to the NSW economy, and the number of jobs created by these firms. These metrics reflect the ability of the ecosystem to create and support businesses investing in R&D and generating economic value.

Inclusive participation in innovation will be measured by tracking the increase in participation of under-represented groups, including women, racially and ethnically diverse people, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, in NSW Government innovation programs. The Blueprint acknowledges the challenges in setting initial diversity metrics due to a lack of historical data and emphasises the need to develop an internal government standard for data collection.

By setting clear targets and diligently tracking these metrics, the NSW Government aims to monitor the impact of the Blueprint's initiatives and adapt its approach as needed.

Empowering Tomorrow's Innovators: How The Western Sydney Tech Innovators (WSTI) Aligns with the NSW Innovation Blueprint 2035, with Support from Carelogix

Innovation is the engine of progress, driving economic growth, social advancement, and environmental sustainability. The NSW Innovation Blueprint 2035 provides a comprehensive 10-year framework for fostering a thriving innovation ecosystem in New South Wales. At the grassroots level, organisations like WSTI (a not-for-profit initiative focused on social impact) are playing a pivotal role in bringing this vision to life by empowering underserved communities to leverage technology and become the next generation of innovators and leaders within their own communities.

WSTI's mission is deeply resonant with the core principles of the NSW Innovation Blueprint 2035, particularly its strong emphasis on increasing diversity within the state's innovation ecosystem. The Blueprint explicitly recognises that a lack of diversity is a missed opportunity, hindering the full potential of NSW's citizens and communities. By focusing on underserved populations, WSTI directly addresses this critical need, unlocking new perspectives, experiences, and potential that can fuel more equitable and sustainable growth across NSW.

Furthermore, WSTI's commitment to providing events and resources for the next generation to lead aligns seamlessly with the Blueprint's focus on supporting talent and the activation of key innovation hubs through targeted capability programs. The Blueprint underscores the importance of mobilising talent to drive innovation and build global businesses. WSTI's efforts to equip young individuals with the necessary technological skills and knowledge are directly contributing to this goal, ensuring a robust pipeline of future innovators and leaders within Australia's wider underserved communities.

The strategic partnership between WSTI and Carelogix exemplifies the collaborative ecosystem envisioned by the NSW Innovation Blueprint 2035

Carelogix's expertise and technological advancements is directly ideated from WSTI's mission, enhancing its ability to drive innovation, foster emerging talent, and empower underserved communities. This synergy strengthens both organisations, demonstrating how established entities can accelerate the success of transformative initiatives.

This alignment reflects the Blueprint’s call for dynamic partnerships that bridge technology, education, and social impact.

Ultimately, WSTI’s work is not just grassroots innovation—it is a critical pillar in realising the NSW Innovation Blueprint 2035’s vision. Through a shared commitment to inclusion, sustainability, and technological advancement, WSTI and Carelogix are shaping a more diverse and forward-thinking future for NSW. This partnership exemplifies how strategic collaboration can unlock the full potential of the state’s innovation ecosystem, fostering long-term prosperity for all.