The intensified engagement with various government department and agencies that we reported about in the last Newsletter has continued. This has included three visits to Canberra and two delegations visiting ACE from Canberra. This engagement concerns a variety of issues like Innovation and Science Australia’s audit of the innovation eco-system; the planned “Entrepreneur Visa” (like the former a part of the National Innovation and Science Agenda); continued research on “nascent entrepreneurship” in Australia through the GEM and CAUSEE research programs; and the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science’s collaboration with the Australian Bureau of Statistics to develop a longitudinal data set (EABLD) to track business dynamics over time.
The media attention has also continued. On February 5, Per Davidsson gave a radio interview for 612 ABC Brisbane in connection with the public launch of the CAUSEE data set (and cited The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy In one of the answers!). On April 13 he was back on the air, now for 666 ABC Canberra on the above-mentioned topic of the entrepreneur visa. Deputy Director Paul Steffens has also hit the media with insights from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) project featured in an article in The Australian concerning women’s entrepreneurship.