Tesla chair takes lead in Australia's major research overhaul
Australia picks **Robyn Denholm** to fix its research-and-development system thats been untouched for two decades. The country aims to boost its economy beyond just mining and resources
In a bold-move Australia picked Robyn Denholm (Teslaʼs chair) to head-up its first research-and-development review in twenty years; the government wants to fix the countrys falling R&D performance
The review team includes three other science-and-business experts whoʼll work on making research more useful: linking labs with companies and finding new ways to grow beyond just digging stuff from the ground. “We need to ask hard questions about our R&D because its been getting worse“ Ed Husic the Industry Minister said in Dec-2024
Harvardʼs data shows Australia isnt doing great with new ideas - its ranked 93rd out of 133 countries (behind Uganda and Laos) which is pretty bad for a rich country. Before joining Tesla Denholm worked at Juniper Networks and Telstra; Forbes magazine says shes one of the top-100 powerful women worldwide
When reporters asked about her boss Elon Musk (who doesnt like some Australian tech rules like social media age limits) Denholm stayed on-topic: “Today is about the R&D review“ she said
