I'm delighted to bring you a special podcast leading up to the 2023 National Innovation Policy Forum, presented by Cooperative Research Australia, to bring leaders from business, government, research – and boundary spanning organisations to focus on the future of the Australian innovation system.

 I had the opportunity to have a pre-forum conversation with co-patrons Catherine Livingstone AO and David Thodey AO for their thoughts on the current innovation landscape, the role of policy, and the importance of a shared vision for Australia's future. In our discussions we touch on the notion that innovation is a fundamental part of what we do as individuals and as a society and discuss how that inherent tendency intersects with government policy and its role in the national innovations system. We touch on the challenge of individuals being caught in small pockets of the system and the need to view the broader innovation landscape, the previous diagnoses of the innovation system, most recently reflected on by Dr John Howard and the need to reach beyond the political cycle to establish stable policies that encourage longer term investment from research and corporate sectors.

 We also set the scene for the Forum around the challenges of translation and scaling innovation into successful businesses. We reflect on research translation and the gap between innovation exiting the research and early stage (venture) sectors and moving through scale and into more commercial, customer orientated settings and explore aspects of market, research culture and the local tolerance of failure.

 We hope you enjoy this special podcast that sets the stage for the National Innovation Policy Forum, where these critical discussions will unfold.