The research collaboration paradox: a tale of two governance narratives in an Australian innovation setting

Australian government policy aims to exploit university–industry research collaboration to transform the nation from a ‘lucky’ country enjoying the riches of agribusiness and resource exploitation, to a ‘clever’ country, exporting ingenuity and innovation globally. The Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) program has operated for more than a quarter of a century, but successive modifications demonstrate an inherent tension between two governance narratives pertaining to university–industry collaboration. This brief discussion looks at how the gradual privileging of one of these two narratives over time could potentially compromise genuine innovation‐producing collaboration. Policy makers therefore need to find ways to reconcile these two narratives.