Section 1

Patents and Applied Income Sources

In Australia, 09 Engineering and 11 Medical and Health Sciences both demonstrated strength in applied research, together being responsible for more than half of the patents registered in the three-year reference period that were submitted to ERA 2015. The 11 Medical and Health Sciences attracted the greatest investment from industry and reported the most research commercialisation income, which includes income generated from patents. However, 09 Engineering attracted the greatest share of CRC income.

The first chart shows the two-digit FoR codes which have patents as an applied measure ordered by number of patents. It also shows the HERDC Category 3 and 4 income, and the Research Commercialisation for these codes. See Section 4 for a more detailed breakdown.

Patents and applied income sources by FoR code

Bar graph displaying the number of patents, and income received from HERDC Category 3 - Industry and Other Research Income, HERDC Category 4 - CRC Research Income and Research Commercialisation Income by each Fields of Research code. The chart shows the two-digit Fields of Research codes which have patents as an applied measure ordered by number of patents. The two Fields of Research codes with the most overall patents and applied income were 09 Engineering, and 11 Medical and Health Sciences. These codes are further analysed below.

Engineering patents and income from applied sources

Electrical and Electronic Engineering (0906) was responsible for the highest share of patents (29 per cent) within engineering and also producing high levels of research commercialisation income (28 per cent) while attracting moderate levels of support from industry and other research income sources (13 per cent) and CRC research income (eight per cent).

In contrast Resources Engineering and Extractive Metallurgy (0914) account for a 10 per cent share of patents however this field also reported a high proportion of the research commercialisation income (20 per cent), investment by industry and other research income sources (19 per cent) and CRC research income (24 per cent).

Bar graph displaying the number of patents and income received from <abbr>HERDC</abbr> Category 3 - Industry and Other Research Income, HERDC Category 4 - CRC Research Income and Research commercialisation Income by each four-digit Fields of Research codes in Engineering. Electrical and Electronic Engineering (0906) had the highest number of patents and research commercialisation income of all the four-digit engineering codes.

Note: Only four-digit Engineering codes with patents submitted are shown in the chart.

Medical and Health Sciences patents and income from applied sources

Clinical Sciences (1103) produced the largest share of patents (15 per cent) within the 11 Medical and Health Sciences. This discipline was responsible for a 21 per cent share of income from industry and other research income sources, a 12 per cent share of the reported research commercialisation income, and nine per cent share of CRC research income.

Immunology (1107) reported the greatest amount of research commercialisation income, comprising 45 per cent of that income type for all of the 11 Medical and Health Sciences.

Note: Four-digit Medical and Health Sciences codes that had no patents are not shown in the chart.