Investment NSW’ incoming deputy secretary has acknowledged the government needs to do more to support and capitalise on the deep technology being developed in the state ahead of a new innovation plan from the Minns government.
Rebecca McPhee will officially start in the role next week, joining the economic development and attraction agency after five years at Sydney Metro.
But on Wednesday she flagged a need to hit the ground running as the state government finalises its Innovation Blueprint and the local sector reels from cuts to innovation funding.
“New South Wales is a powerhouse of ideas,” she told the Tech23 event in Sydney.
“Last year, 61 per cent of all of the venture capital raised in Australia was raised in NSW. And as the NSW government, we’re really keen to keep that momentum going.
“NSW has produced 17 of Australia’s tech unicorns and a further 28 future unicorns, who are significant employers in our state.”
“But we know that more work is needed to reinforce the significant upstream advantages that we have in world class research in multiple areas of medicine, future food and sustainable agriculture, advanced manufacturing and engineering here in NSW.”
Ms McPhee joins the agency after its move to the Premiers’ department, deep cuts to staffing and the winding back of several of the innovation programs it had been running.
But the state continues to fund Australia’s largest innovation district Tech Central and its scale up hub, the Sydney Quantum Academy, The UTS ‘Vault’ and the Cicada Innovations health accelerator at Westmead, as well as several continuing programs through the state’s Office of the Chief Scientist.
“As government, we also recognise that more work needs to be done to build on the strong progress in recent years in building New South Wales’s innovation systems,” Ms McPhee said.
“For that reason, the Minister for Innovation, Science and Technology, Minister Chanthivong announced the development and Innovation Blueprint.”
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