Working together to get the best, cutting-edge technology, fast

It is clear that a culture of collaboration is necessary for success, and so is innovation.

Chief Defence Scientist Professor Tanya Monro AC. Picture: Department of Defence

We are living in the age of acceleration, and nowhere is that more apparent, or more important, than in the realm of defence science and technology.

Acceleration is speeding the capability pipeline from proposal to prototype, and it’s shaping the structures we use to achieve the breakthroughs that will help secure Australia into the future.

Acceleration is just one of the words I’m using a lot at present. The others are asymmetry and urgency – they’re a reaction to our strategic circumstances and part of the reason for our reorganisation of the Defence Science and Technology Group (DSTG) last year.

Australia has developed a unique, adaptive and secure defence science ecosystem, with the DSTG at its core.

As the Chief Defence Scientist, it is my responsibility to ensure that this network is activated and running at speed to deliver cutting-edge technology into the hands of our war fighters.

It is one of the most fascinating and impactful places to work in Australia.

A decade ago, DSTG was primarily valued by government as a source of deep expertise that could provide technology risk evaluation on the acquisition of military capability.

Fast forward to today, and our organisation has evolved.

We’ve become problem solvers for Defence – developing innovative technologies that can be delivered by industry and developed into operational capability; shaping innovation, science and technology within our organisation, and across the nation.

We’re collaborators. We bring together Australian scientists, academics, entrepreneurs and business leaders, and partners from overseas, to solve problems both emerging and intransigent, and we test the solutions in the hands of our world-class Australian Defence Force personnel.

The solutions that are most important now are those that give the ADF an asymmetric advantage where, through a sustainable application of both human and financial resources, Australia can deliver a deterrent.

Those solutions need to enter into service quickly because potential adversaries are moving fast.

This change has not only required a structural transformation, but careful prioritisation to ensure our programs are designed to solve Defence’s biggest challenges.

The Defence Science and Technology Strategy 2030 – “More, together” – launched the concept of STaR Shots (Science Technology and Research Shots), which describe Defence’s problems or challenges, but don’t prescribe narrow technological solutions. They are deliberately open-ended and make DSTG part of the process of defining and then addressing them.

An example is CADRE-OCE – the Centre for Advanced Research and Enterprise – Operating in Chemical Biological Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Environments, which will be launched formally later this year to support the OCE STaR Shot.

The inaugural centre director is Professor Jia-Yee Lee, who is pulling together a team from the University of Melbourne, eight other academic institutions and 34 industry partners to develop new concepts and technologies that enable Defence personnel to endure and operate safely and effectively in CBRN environments.

‘We need to broaden our diversity and improve gender equity in our science and technology sphere’

Some of our challenges aren’t just military; they are whole of nation challenges and DSTG is sometimes uniquely qualified to take a lead in addressing them.

At the Australian Defence Science, Technology and Research summit (ADSTAR) in Sydney last July, Defence launched the Safeguarding Australia through Biotechnology Response and Engagement alliance, SABRE.

This brings together biotechnology expertise from Australia’s universities, small-medium enterprises, research institutes such as CSIRO and the Department of Industry’s Medical Technologies and Pharmaceuticals Growth Centre. It also includes bodies such as the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, and connects them with the needs of the defence and national security sectors.

The aim of the new alliance is to break down traditional stovepipes that have restricted the flow of information and hindered closer co-operation between the major players. By harnessing these capabilities we can better safeguard the country against threats such as an environmental or biological attack that could threaten our national food and biosecurity.

One of my most important roles as chief defence scientist is to nurture and grow the pipeline of young Australians seeking to apply their STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) skills, either in uniform or in organisations like DSTG.

More than 40 per cent of the Australian Defence Force’s military roles and more than 30 per cent of our civilian roles are STEM-based in terms of expertise. This figure will grow as Australia learns to produce, maintain, operate and steward a sovereign fleet of conventionally-armed, nuclear-powered submarines, and Defence’s need for qualified, experienced people will grow, too.

We need the best and brightest minds working across the national innovation ecosystem to deliver Defence capability. To achieve this we need to broaden our diversity and improve gender equity in our science and technology sphere.

This was the key thinking ­behind the design of our ­NAVIGATE career development program. We launched the program last year, attracting nearly 900 applicants. Of these, 70 mid-career scientists were selected based on their potential and ability to deliver; 43 per cent of them were women.

Our navigators bring us experience in working in a diverse range of external organisations which will accelerate changes in our culture, supporting Defence to partner deeply across Australia.

It’s clear to us that a culture of collaboration is necessary for success, and so is innovation. Defence’s commitment to supporting innovation in partnership with Australian industry and research organisations will continue to be at the heart of what we do. Asymmetry must be part of our advantage, and we need the technology, equipment and expertise that delivers this advantage quickly.

Working together, our scientists shoulder to shoulder with the ADF, industry, and academia, is how we’ll maintain a strategic advantage, and how we’ll become more resilient than ever before.

Because together, we are more.

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Professor Tanya Monro is Chief Defence Scientist.