The evaluation was overseen by a working group comprising officers from the former Department of Innovation and Tourism Industry Development (DITID), Department of the Premier and Cabinet (DPC) and Queensland Treasury, in consultation with the Advance Queensland Evaluation Sub-Committee.
The evaluation took a whole-of-initiative view of the implementation, achievements and benefits of the programs and activities July 2015 to June 2018. The evaluation collected and analysed data from semi-structured interviews, online surveys, program documents, performance reporting and data and desktop research.
Findings of the evaluation informed the Building our Innovation Economy: Advance Queensland Strategy.
Key findings and recommendations
The evaluation found that Advance Queensland has positively impacted the Queensland innovation system. Key findings include:
- increased innovation capability, with more than 70% of startups reporting that Advance Queensland support has strengthened their innovation capability
- increased investment, with approximately $1.40 of funding leveraged for every $1 of Advance Queensland funding invested, and 60% of businesses reporting that Advance Queensland has improved the quality of their market-ready products
- increased economic benefits from innovation with 65% of businesses and startups reporting Advance Queensland has helped them to improve profitability and productivity
- Queenslanders are better skilled for innovation with an increased uptake of science, technology, engineering and mathematics subjects in schools and universities
- Queensland is better positioned to attract investment, with Advance Queensland building access to capital and angel investor networks set up across the state.
The report acknowledges that changes within the innovation ecosystem are complex and the impact of Advance Queensland will take time to produce and measure. The evaluation therefore focused on outputs and intermediate outcomes, providing lead indicators against Advance Queensland strategies and objectives.
Based on the key findings, the report discusses important implications and key recommendations for the future direction, delivery and evaluation of Advance Queensland.
All recommendations have been implemented.
Report
Read the Macro-level Evaluation 1 of Advance Queensland report (PDF, 2Mb).
