Talent, innovation and education
A hot spring of innovation
Australia has a distinguished history of innovation. Home to 13 Nobel Laureates, our prolific record of creativity and innovation has given the world inventions such as ultrasound, the black-box flight recorder, electronic pacemaker and wireless networking technology. Against this backdrop of ground-breaking work, Brisbane – home to the development of the world’s first cervical cancer vaccine – has been singled out as a hot spring of innovation by global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company. Forty per cent of the national games industries are based in Brisbane and The University of Queensland is commercially focused to spin off research projects into private industry. Combine this with the greatest number of patents in Australia and the highest level of income from those patents, Brisbane is not just poised on the edge of innovation, it is leading the charge. For Brisbane, and Australia too, investing in innovation and the human capital that drives it is crucial to sustaining, and building on, current success. Brisbane chooses to make innovation a cornerstone of our future.
World-class thinking
Brisbane’s talent is young, skilled and often multilingual. The Financial Times fDi Magazine recently awarded Brisbane in the top ten Asia-Pacific cities of the future for best human resources. As the city continues to attract large numbers of international migrants, the talent pool grows in skill and diversity. Brisbane is emerging as a leader in innovative and knowledge-based industries including: clean technologies and renewable energy; digital industries; food and beverage processing; infrastructure; innovative manufacturing; life sciences; logistics and distribution; and mining technologies and services. In Brisbane we are fortunate to draw talent from a creative, cosmopolitan, highly-educated labour pool. Brisbane’s excellent universities and superb quality of life have made the city a magnet for professionals. Most importantly, Brisbane’s human capital easily measures up to the world’s best.
Brisbane also draws great strength from its tertiary education sector, boasting three world-class universities each recognised for the quality of its graduates and its research and development initiatives.
Griffith University
Regarded as one of Australia’s most innovative tertiary institutions and one of the Asia-Pacific region’s most influential universities, Griffith University is renowned for its global perspective. Its world-class research centres are breaking new ground in drug discoveries, health, environment and social sciences.
Queensland University of Technology
With over 40,000 students and a reputation as “a university for the real world,” the Queensland University of Technology is the largest provider of bachelor degree graduates into the Australian workforce and a growing leader in innovative areas of research and development.
The University of Queensland
The University of Queensland (UQ) is consistently rated as one of the world’s best. With a strong investment in research and development and state-of-the-art facilities, UQ ranks first amongst Australian universities for license income, value of equity holdings and invention disclosures, new Australian patents and active start-up companies.