Collaboration

Collaboration supports the exchange of good ideas and useful technologies.

Innovation collaboration, top 6 partners

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Consultants, clients and suppliers are consistently the top collaboration partners for innovation. Source: ABS 2018c, 2022c, 2024d

This chart shows the collaboration partner for innovation-active firms who collaborated for innovation purposes across the 2016–17, 2020–21 and 2022–23 years. Collaborating firms are increasingly collaborating with consultants, 44.1% in 2022–23 from 32.2% in 2016–17.

Other common collaboration partners for firms include suppliers, customers or clients and other businesses owned by the same company. See the full chart value of the data.

Australian international co-authorship publications, by research field

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International co-authorship publications are an indicator of international collaboration on innovation. Data updated in August 2025, see Recent AIS data updates page for details. Source: Clarivate 2025

This metric shows the proportion of Australian international co-authored research publications by research field from 2000 to 2024. The chart reveals a steady increase in Australian papers with international co-authors across all research fields over the past 23 years. Engineering and Technology lead in international collaborations, followed by Natural Sciences, and Medical and Health Sciences. International co-authorship in Engineering and Technology has seen a threefold increase during this period. The proportion of Australian international co-authored research publications in all other research fields has at least doubled over the same timeframe. See the full chart value of the data.

Australian co-invention patents

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Foreign co-invention patents are an indicator of international innovation collaboration. Source: OECD 2024

This chart shows the number of patent applications, submitted by Australian inventors that also had at least on co-inventor located abroad from 1978 to 2020.

The number of foreign co-invention patent applications has increased from 45 in 1978 to 1273 in 2020. See the full chart value of the data.

Chart values

Share of firms who collaborated for innovation purposes (%)
Partner 2016–17 2020–21 2022–23
Within enterprise group 28 23.7 26.6

Suppliers

 

 39.8 46.4 40.9
Customers or clients 37 46.6 42.2

Consultants

 

 32.3 42.1 44.1
Competitors, other businesses 24.4 23.7 22.7
Higher education institutions 5 8 9.1

Number of patent applications submitted per year, by Australian inventors
Year Applications Year Applications
1978 45 2000 935
1979 27 2001 989
1980 37 2002 1134
1981 46 2003 1140
1982 62 2004 1245
1983 50 2005 1255
1984 52 2006 1416
1985 65 2007 1315
1986 67 2008 1294
1987 119 2009 1360
1988 113 2010 1405
1989 166 2011 1482
1990 153 2012 1383
1991 167 2013 1468
1992 240 2014 1419
1993 251 2015 1582
1994 311 2016 1367
1995 355 2017 1416
1996 375 2018 1482
1997 528 2019 1501
1998 600 2020 1273
1999 763    

Share of all citations per research field (%)
Year Natural Science Medical, Health Engineering, Technology Social Science Agricultural, Veterinary Humanities, the Arts
2000 35.61 29.09 23.06 20.49 25.74 6.32
2001 37.78 30.05 24.58 22.93 27.47 6.54
2002 40.21 32.54 28.37 24.57 31.53 7.24
2003 38.42 33.2 27.21 24.22 29.63 6.4
2004 40.13 35.85 30.03 23.25 31.09 5.81
2005 39.98 35.2 28.08 20.47 34.61 10.72
2006 44.24 36.22 37.46 21.8 36.02 10.91
2007 46.26 36.6 37.99 22.15 36.29 8.06
2008 49.02 38.08 40.44 23.08 40.39 10.14
2009 48.23 40.97 42.75 24.68 40.97 8.65
2010 51.67 41.69 43.83 25.62 42.41 13.17
2011 52.89 42.86 46.42 27.29 44.51 11.92
2012 55.85 43.2 46.48 27.62 48.01 11.64
2013 55.71 45.34 48.15 28.99 47.97 12.09
2014 57.61 46.71 52.4 31.41 50.58 14.96
2015 59.97 48.81 55.08 32.32 50.85 13.76
2016 63.5 51.26 58.62 35.15 54.89 17.08
2017 65.55 53.3 62.61 37.1 58.43 19.02
2018 68.12 54.22 65.81 38.33 60.17 20.75
2019 69.82 55.71 67.59 41.4 63.26 20.61
2020 70.84 57.45 70.63 44.53 65.41 22.8
2021 71.41 58.64 71.25 46.87 65.12 23.02
2022 72.24 57.79 72.88 48.03 68.37 25.19
2023 72.33 58.68 73.22 48.4 66.22 26.34
2024 72.94 58.86 74.25 49.43 66.34 26.25