FACTBase Bulletin 68 - Perth's Innovation Hotspots and Collaborations

This Bulletin focuses on understanding innovation and collaboration in Perth. It uses a frequently used proxy to measure innovation - patent applications - which were extracted from the OECD Regional Patent (REGPAT) statistics and provide a suitable indicator of overall innovative activity. This Bulletin is the seventh research input into Hashtag Perth.

Key Findings

• Innovation is a key input across the entire Australian economy and all industries, ensuring global competitiveness. Perth is the hub of such activities for Western Australia.
• While Perth does less patenting than other cities, it most likely innovates in a unique global space. This is related to its specialised resource economy.
• There appears to be an inverse relationship between Perth’s economic wealth and patenting activity.
• Spatial patterns for patenting collaborations in Perth have become less centralised.
• Australia’s innovation levels have remained nominally similar since 1999, unlike the surge found in other nations.