Nudging towards innovation

There are myriad ways governments can promote innovation without spending money, says economist, entrepreneur and commentator Dr Nicholas Gruen.

This is the “Innovation without money” agenda he championed as Chair of Innovation Australia. 

In a presentation at UTS Business School – where he was recently appointed Adjunct Professor – Dr Gruen discussed the myriad ways governments can promote innovation without spending money. 

More and more successful innovation involves collaboration between different actors in the economy, he noted. 

It stands to reason that there are strict limits to the extent to which traditional subsidies to activity – whether that activity is in government, the private sector or in a space such as education or the not-for-profit sector – can generate innovation, compared with more nimble means of bringing the state and others into better collaboration. 

The presentation canvassed a wide variety of novel means by which policy makers could drive innovation with minimal government expenditure.

Listen to the presentation here and see Dr Gruen's slides here.