Thank you all for participating in our recent survey on innovation attitudes in Australia. The survey was conducted on behalf of the Society for Knowledge Economics (SKE) [1] among the Open Forum community, which comprises some 1500 top decision makers in the public and private sector, as well as academics and members of the wider community.

Over the last couple of months, we asked you to share your thoughts on key attitudes, values and beliefs impacting Australia's innovation ability. Specific policy suggestions were sought on the proposal for the establishment of a stand-alone national innovation portfolio, its purpose and desired outcomes.

The survey was motivated by the recent national inquiry into the National Innovation Agenda proposal by the Victorian Government, and the general urgency shown by the business community in asking the country's leaders to show more commitment in dealing with innovation hurdles in a more systematic manner.

We are very pleased to inform you that the Open Forum community provided a number of high-level policy suggestions, which will be used by the Australian Society for Knowledge Economics to inform the society's input into the national policy debate.

The overwhelming majority of the respondents believe the nation is in dire need of a co-ordinated national policy on innovation, and are in favour of establishing a stand-alone innovation portfolio to co-ordinate innovation activities across sectors and institutions, and facilitate a cultural shift towards a more sustainable, distributed society model.

Please refer to the attached report (follow the link below) for the summary of key survey findings.

This survey is only one in a long line of projects Open Forum has undertaken over the last 12 months, and will continue to undertake, in an attempt to open-up the process of policy development to all of you.

Curiously, we noted our survey didn't attract any responses from Western Australia, Northern Territory or Tasmania, and would like to invite all of you reading us in those states to become more active in engaging with the rest of the Open Forum community.

Finally, we are pleased to announce that the winner of the BRW annual subscription for participating in the survey is Stephen Wilson, Managing Director of Lockstep.

We thank you all for your participation once again.  Keep sharing your thoughts and shaping the future of Australia!