Developing Responsible Innovation Ecosystems: Australia’s Quantum Opportunity

Speaker: Dr Gabi Skoff
Date: Thursday 1pm – 2pm AEST
Zoom: Click here to join the seminar

Abstract:
Responsible innovation is not a framework to be applied after the fact, but a practice that must be built into the conditions of knowledge production itself. This talk examines what that means in the context of Australia’s quantum ecosystem, where responsible innovation is enshrined in our national strategy, yet its translation into practice remains an open and urgent question.
Central to that translation is multidisciplinarity. However, bringing together the diverse actors needed to develop quantum technologies responsibly requires sustained effort, deliberate facilitation, and an honest reckoning with the forces that work against it. Chief among those forces is the discursive landscape shaping quantum innovation globally, which has become dominated by narratives of geopolitical competition and strategic rivalry that can foreclose the reflective space required for responsible innovation. Compounding this are the tensions that emerge at the interface of academia and industry, where different logics of knowledge production and commercialisation can create friction.
Drawing on my doctoral research on Australia’s quantum socio-technical imaginary and propositions for orchestrating responsible innovation in knowledge ecosystems, this talk moves from pain points toward practice by examining concrete efforts to embed responsibility into quantum ecosystem development.

Bio:
Dr Gabi Skoff completed her PhD at the University of Sydney Business School on responsible innovation and the commercialisation of quantum technologies. She was part of a multidisciplinary research team at CSIRO tasked with assessing quantum readiness across Australian industry sectors. Previously, Gabi worked on the DFAT-funded Quantum Meta-Ethics project at the Centre for International Security Studies, collaborated with KPMG and the Sydney Quantum Academy on Australia’s first Responsible Quantum roundtable and discussion paper, and led an interdisciplinary engagement event series with the Sydney Quantum Academy. She has published and presented on responsible innovation, quantum readiness, and the geopolitics of emerging technologies.