Like many countries, Australia is concerned with brain drain--where the best and brightest individuals head overseas for greener pastures and fatter salaries--and the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry is not immune.

One government initiative designed to promote research and reduce the brain drain in ICT is the Information and Communications Technology Centre of Excellence, which is run by NICTA (National ICT Australia consortium).

NICTA's mission is to increase and commercialise research in Australia, improve the quality and quantity of students, and interact with other industry and research organisations.

Originally based on the idea of being a "centre of excellence", NICTA was changed to a distributed model so the AU$129.5 million of federal government allocation wouldn't be concentrated in one place.

The first researcher to return under the NICTA umbrella was Dr Will Uther, who investigated several options after receiving his PhD from Carnegie Mellon University before deciding to join the consortium.

"As I was finishing my PhD, I was tossing up whether to go into academia or (go) into industry," Uther told ZDNet Australia .

He observed that the way the academia worked in the States was quite different from Australia.

In Australia, an academic is essentially an individual person who runs a research group, much like a managerial role, he says.

"In the US, an academic can either go into one of the top universities, which have a huge work load with the requisite drain on lifestyle, or be employed by one of the second-tier universities--a lower workload with students that aren't as good," adds Uther.

The journey home

Uther believes Australia offers the best of both worlds--a nice balance between good students and quality of life.

"One of the things that really attracts researchers is working with good students," he explains. "Researchers tend not to do things by themselves, you lead a research group. Now, universities are where all the students are. So there has to be a close collaboration between the universities and NICTA." He said in the initial phase, the organisation would have to work with universities before it can attract overseas researchers.

Take the University of New South Wales as an example. He says the best students in NSW are there and in fact, the varsity is fast producing the best talent in the country and it's "stealing students from other universities."

"So, you get good students and on top of that, you've got a saner lifestyle...and while I'm willing to work hard, I do want a lifestyle that goes with it," Uther says, adding he prefers Sydney to Boston.

Nipping IT in the bud
Initially, many of NICTA's researchers will come from the two universities that formed part of the initial proposal, the University of New South Wales and Australian National University. Last year, Dr Brian Anderson, NICTA's chief executive officer, gave the assurance that the new highly-funded centre would not steal researchers from the universities, and Uther claims that's still important.

"I think NICTA does have the ability to attract people back because it does pay a little better than a normal academic here, and while it's not on par with US salaries, at least it shows it's trying," Uther says. "Obviously, money is important, but not in absolute terms because if you're not willing to pay someone, then that's an indication that you don't respect what they can do."

"Why do I think others will come back to NICTA? I think it's more attitude than anything," he notes, adding that the organisation is pushing ICT in a manner intended to develop good staff in Australia, as well as good PhD students. "It's trying to develop US-style PhD students."

Uther believes studying for a PhD has a different image in Australia than it does in the US, and this is affecting the type of people who choose to obtain a doctorate.

"If I look around, the people who are doing PhDs here are geeks...top of their class and didn't have the drive to go straight into industry. The ones who were top students and had a flair (for something) would seek employment and get hired because that was the way to make money.

"In the US, having a PhD is seen as part of leading a technical group in a company. There's a lot of benefit in having those research skills as part of the management of researchers...academia is not considered a sheltered workshop for the intellectually gifted," he says.

For instance, at Carnegie Mellon, around one third of PhD students would go into academia, another third would venture into startup companies, and the rest into industry research labs.

"If you get a PhD in Australia, it's assumed you're going into academia. I think that leads to everyone who gets a PhD [being] sort of this fuddy duddy professor and it's self-reinforcing," Uther says.

While this scenario isn't widespread, he maintains that PhD students in the US were more driven compared with their Australian counterparts.

"I'm hoping we can change the whole perception of what a PhD is...not just a union ticket for an academic--it's more than that, it's how you conduct research," Uther says.

"A PhD is how to produce people who are not only good at doing what has been done before, but can go on and do new stuff, and then can we get the Australian companies to realise they should get a PhD to lead an industry development group," he contends.

Reaping the rewards of Australian innovation

One of NICTA's main aims is to commercialise innovative technology and software developed by its researchers. Historically, Australia has had a poor track record in commercialising the inventions of its researchers, but the organisation hopes to change that.

"One goal is to reward the researchers who come up with these ideas with equity in the companies, so NICTA gets some obviously," says Uther. "There's a financial incentive that NICTA can use [to attract researchers]."

"The centre will use whatever commercialising approach a particular technology requires to achieve its mission, including licensing usage rights, sale of technology, joint ventures, start-ups, and high-end consulting," reads the NICTA Web site. However, to maximise its impact on Australia's economy, NICTA will have a primary emphasis on creating start-ups and growing SMEs.

The focus on commercialisation is one of the things that is likely to attract researchers, according to Uther. Even if it isn't something the researchers are looking at now, they will appreciate the knowledge that the expertise is available.

In the US, there is a mutual respect between technical and financial people that is lacking in Australia, according to Uther, and this has dampened the success of Australia's IT industry. Although the two groups have different goals, the separate goals are complementary rather than adversary.

"The driving force behind engineers having the ultimate mouse-trap...was to have the ultimate impact on the world," says Uther. Financial people are, obviously, better at making money than techies. If a product can sell, and if it becomes mainstream, then it has made an impact plus financial gains. "So the two goals coincide," he adds.

At Stanford University and MIT, there are academics who leave the university to start their own companies, often taking with them the group of PhD students who were involved in developing the idea being commercialised. Once the startup phase is over, the academics hand over the company to someone who is better at running a business rather than starting it, and return to academia to develop the next idea.

"I see NICTA as being a wonderful way to get that cycle going in Australia," says Uther. "Because within NICTA, I can be associated with the university here, and then if I get an idea that is commercialisable, I can take it to the other half of NICTA [which has all the expertise and facilities to commercialise it]."

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