The Office of the Chief Scientist released on 14 February 2013 the paper titled "Top Breakthrough Actions for Innovation" (PDF, 164KB). The paper identifies five breakthrough actions governments could take to make Australia a more innovative nation. Some key statements that are part of this paper include:
The Commonwealth should require every Australian STEM degree course to provide an opportunity for a substantial number of students to undertake a business placement or project for university credit to the value of one full-time semester. These could be either domestic or international placements.
For example, it is already an institutional accreditation requirement of Engineers Australia that all engineering degrees include a 12-week ‘Exposure to Engineering Professional Practice’ component. This is an important start; but to change the culture, we have to change the scale of these initiatives across the broad range of STEM subjects.