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| Australia's chief scientist Dr Alan Finkel says the vocational educational and training system needs to be more responsive to changes in technology. Wayne Taylor |
Innovation and Science Australia's 2030 strategy plan, to be released on Tuesday, proposes world-leading initiatives to raise the country's aspirations on what it can achieve akin to US President John F Kennedy's "moonshot" challenge.
According to the independent body's plan, the reef mission would restore and protect the reef from climate change, boosting scientific research while creating new products, start-ups and niche industries such as in bio-materials and 3D printers.
The Turnbull government's current Reef 2050 plan provided a "strong base" for the mission, the ISA said, but was primarily focused on direct threats to the reef such as the coral-eating crown-of-thorns starfish.
"It does not have an explicit climate adaptation strategy and is therefore insufficient to safeguard the reef beyond 2030."
Minister for Jobs and Innovation Michaelia Cash claimed the government has already moved to action the ISA's recommendation, by "committing last week to fund groundbreaking research to preserve the Great Barrier Reef".
However, the government's $60 million reef package focuses on targeting the crown-of-thorns starfish and land-based run-offs, with just $6 million spent on research and development for adaptation.
'Hydrogen City'
The ISA's other national mission candidate was converting an entire city to clean hydrogen gas by 2030.
Zero-emission energy sources such as solar, wind or hydro would be used to produce the hydrogen by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen.
"This has never been done at the scale contemplated in this mission," the report said.
The technology improvements resulting from the large-scale deployment of hydrogen technologies would then create export opportunities and make Australia a leader in the field.
Public and private sectors would fund both projects at an estimated $500,000 over 10 years.
But the ISA's most "ideal" national mission would be to integrate DNA studies and precision medicine into the healthcare system.
The medicine mission would allow for early diagnosis and prevention of diseases, making Australia "the healthiest nation on earth".
The ISA said Australia was already "well connected" to international efforts in the area and the mission would build on the government's medical research future fund and $500 million already committed to the biomedical translation fund.
Skills shortage requires education revamp
At the heart of the ISA's innovation agenda was a re-booting of the educational and training system.
Despite recent fears that automation will destroy jobs, the ISA forecast that a "shortage of workers is a more likely problem than a shortage of jobs".
It forecast a looming retirement boom from an ageing population would create a 6 per cent skills shortage by 2030.
At the same time, technology meant 92 per cent of future jobs would need digital skills and 45 per cent would require people who can configure digital systems.
The ISA recommended "refining" immigration restrictions to attract specialists and entrepreneurs and increase training for teachers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
ISA deputy chairman and chief scientist Alan Finkel told The Australian Financial Review it was essential the future workforce had strong knowledge in disciplines as well as "21st century" skills such as creativity and problem-solving.
However, he said teachers' training and knowledge of their own disciplines needed to improve.
"There's no point raising the bar of students' aspirations if you don't also coach them to clear the bar."
The ISA recommended that teachers spend a minimum number of hours every year in professional development for their specific discipline to ensure their knowledge is up to date.
The report also called for a review of the vocational education and training system to ensure it is more responsive to new technologies and to link VET funding to employment outcomes.
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