I would like to begin by acknowledging the Gadigal people of the Eora nation as the Traditional Owners of the land that we are on today, and pay my respect to their Elders past and present.
Thank you to Minister Ciobo for your kind words and your support of CSIRO's global push these past three years, and thank you all for being here this afternoon as we launch our Sunrise Industries Report.
CSIRO has many long-standing partnerships in the ASEAN region, and just yesterday I was delighted to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with our counterparts in Vietnam, the Ministry of Science and Technology of Vietnam, or MOST.
The MoU is notable for the breadth of research it includes, from our traditional environmental and resource-focused partnerships, to new work together on shared opportunities in precision medicine, OneHealth, and Industry 4.0, as the world evolves to Society 5.0.
The notion of shared opportunities is really at the heart of CSIRO's Strategy 2020. It recognises that the world is becoming flat and as borders become less tangible, Australia's opportunity, and that of our neighbours, will be to play to our respective strengths while deepening relationships that complement each other's needs to create more new value through collaboration than either party could alone.
So it's probably no surprise that CSIRO is on the front foot when it comes to playing to Australia's strengths. The Sunrise Industries Report highlights numerous examples of our research opening up opportunities for Australian industry to leverage our national advantages on the world stage.
In fact, opening international doors for Australian industry is essential to our own national innovation performance. The reality is that with our small population, we're only going to be competitive on the international field if we play as Team Australia.
Luckily, your National Science Agency – CSIRO – has become the most collaborative research organisation in the country – we work with all 40+ Australian universities, with every government department, with every major national industry, and with more than 3000 small and medium businesses around the country.
Through our long-term partnerships in the ASEAN region, and our understanding of the shifting dynamics in the region, we're able to open more doors for Australian innovation into Asia, and as a result, deliver more returns back into Australian science.
We've heard a lot about the power of AI to transform the healthcare sector as we know it, we know because we published the first scientific evidence that data saves lives - but let me briefly mention another advantage that Australia offers its regional partners in lifting quality of life and reducing healthcare costs.
CSIRO's 100-year-old history of world-class food and agricultural and genetic research means Australia is uniquely placed to become not merely a food bowl, but Asia's delicatessen, providing a range of high value nutrition to our neighbours – health products that reduce cancer, obesity, and diabetes.
In addition to transforming healthcare, we can improve people's diets to prevent a range of chronic diseases, and grow our food in more sustainable and ethical ways.
For example, CSIRO developed an ultra-low gluten barley that's now being brewed into gluten-free beer in Germany.
We developed a high amylose wheat with extra high levels of resistant starch, a type of dietary fibre that helps protect against bowel cancer and Type 2 diabetes – and it's now being baked into bread in the US.
And well before these grains were in market, we developed a barley with extra high levels of resistant starch called BARLEYmax. Our first international license for BARLEYmax was signed in Japan, and you can now find more than 20 products on Japanese shelves as consumers look for ways to enjoy a western diet without the detrimental health impacts.
So I'd like to congratulate the authors of this fantastic new report, Sunrise Industries. It picks up seven emerging industries, but regardless of your industry or interest, I'd recommend you come and talk to us about how the depth and breadth of our 100-year-old, world-class, national science agency can accelerate your ASEAN innovation advantage.
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