- A comprehensive update on the budget and the Government White Paper on the National Innovation System Powering ideas, an innovation agenda for the 21st century.

- Professor Rod Boswell, head of the Space Plasma, Power $ Propulsion Group at the Australian National University, takes a personal view on past neglect and new committments by the Australian Government to support Australian space science.

To download the ARDR opinion click here.

One focus of the ARDR June edition is on international research collaboration as an important part of Australia's drive towards innovation.

- Dr Mark Matthews, executive director of the Forum for European-Australian Science and Technology Cooperation (FEAST), proposes that new mission-based compacts, which in future will determine funding arrangements between Government and Australian universities, be taken as a template for Global Research Compacts. These could then intersect with the more nationally focused Compacts. Formed via inter-governmental agreements, Global Compacts could benefit from the existence of standard legal templates defining how the financial and intellectual property arrangements would be executed.

To download the ARDR opinion click here.

- Dr Michael Witter, the German Ambassador in Australia, explains why the German Government has launched a Research and Academic Relations Initiative as part of the foreign policy portfolio. He also explores the various initiatives by which Germany aims to support the "already vibrant and diverse scientific links between Germany and Australia."

To download the ARDR opinion click here.