CAPITALISE ON SCIENCE SKILLS
Media coverage of former senior CSIRO (Commonwealth Science & Industrial Research Organisation) scientist’s views on the CSIRO is part of a bigger and ongoing debate that needs extensive public discussion. A harsh truth needs to be confronted: Australia is a leader in many fields of science but remains poor at the business of science.

It is in this context that we must assess scientists' concerns about the funding of public-sector science, the threat of declining strategic and basic research relative to applied science, and specific issues such as external earnings targets for CSIRO.

Australia continues to sit on intellectual property, not knowing what to do with it, or gives it away to more entrepreneurial nations. This is not due to lack of funding but lack of appropriately placed business expertise. This is partly due to factors of culture and attitude.

When Australian science is deployed with the support of very scarce domestic venture capital, it often ends up in trouble. When our science links to international venture capital, we tend not to secure a partnership that allows us to capture the benefit and develop commercialisation competencies.

Given the attitudes of scientists and public-sector science managers, this shortcoming is no surprise. An endemic cultural antipathy exists between Australian public-sector and academic scientists and the world of business. While this is not exclusive to Australia, it seems to be particularly strong here. There are some exceptions, but as a general phenomenon it is difficult to overstate the problem.

Why is this happening? What are the drivers? Australia does suffer from "ugly entrepreneur syndrome", while for Americans, with whom our science competes, "entrepreneur" has positive associations.

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利用科学技能

关于前联邦科学和工业研究组织 CSIRO（Commonwealth Science & Industrial Research Organisation）资深科学家对CSIRO的看法的媒体报道是一个更大和正在进行的辩论的一部分，而这场辩论需要进行广泛的公众讨论。需要面队一个严峻的事实：澳大利亚在许多科学领域中处于领先的地位，但在科学商务方面仍然不佳。

正是在这样的背景下，我们必须评价科学家的忧虑，这些忧虑是：公共部门科学研究的经费、与应用科学相关的战略性和基础性研究水平降低的威胁以及例如CSIRO的外来收入目标这样的具体问题。

澳大利亚仍将知识产权搁置着，因为不知道用它来做什么，或者将它送给更具创业精神的国家。这不是因为缺乏经费而是因为缺乏给予恰当地位的商业专业知识。这部分上是由于文化和态度的因素。

当澳大利亚的科学研究在非常少的国内风险资本的支持下得以运用时，它通常以产生麻烦而收场。当我们的科学研究与国际风险资本发生联系时，我们往往无法得到一种使我们能获得利益和发展商业化能力的伙伴关系。

考虑到科学家和公共部门科学研究经理人的态度，这一缺点就不足为奇了。 在澳大利亚的公共部门、学术科学家和商界之间存在一种流行的文化抵触。虽然这并不是澳大利亚独有的，但似乎在澳大利亚格外强烈。有一些例外，但是作为一种普遍现象，这一问题非常严重。

为什么会发生这样的情况？是由什么造成的呢？澳大利亚的确患有“丑恶企业家综合症”，然而对于美国人，即我们的科学研究的竞争对手，“企业家”使人产生的联想是正面的。