In Perth to attend the 12th Cooperative Research Centres Association annual conference, they have been invited to speak on the latest science and technology challenges facing countries such as the United States, China and Korea.

Anil Gupta, Kasturbhai Lalbhai chair in entrepreneurship at the elite Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, said discovering and tapping into the creativity of others and having it used and recognised on a national and global scale was worth the investment.

Professor Gupta has helped in the development of thousands of inventions, including a bicycle than runs over water, a car which uses a hand-operated clutch, brake and accelerator, a pomegranate peeler and a pedal-operated washing machine invented by a young girl from Kerala.

He said the needs of specific communities, particularly in remote rural areas, often were overlooked because many could not articulate their ideas or compete with established communities in urban areas.

Professor Gupta said innovation lessons had to be learned in cultural, organisational, institutional and technological terms.

"You will find many innovations have direct applications for small farmers and local communities ... for Aboriginal people and urban communities and the poor among these. Herbal pesticides and herbal veterinary medicines can make agriculture more sustainable and cost effective due to their low cost. A similar search can start among local communities in Australia," he said.

Professor Gupta, 54, spreads the message of innovation wherever he goes (he has covered nearly 3000km on foot so far), writes one poem a day as part of his desire to be "authentic", and goes on walkabout to the Himalayas each year with students who have to bid for a place.

His desire to develop a platform to identify and reward grassroots innovators was the stimulus behind the creation of the Honey Bee network which builds on a resource in which poor people are rich in - their knowledge.

Marine biologist Leo Tan, president of the Singapore National Academy of Science, said he was hooked on science after French underwater explorer Jacques Costeau invented the aqualung, now SCUBA.

By the time Professor Tan was in school and later university, he was convinced science held the solution to many of the problems facing society.

Professor Tan said Singapore thrived on accepting obstacles as challenges then turning to innovation to overcome them.

One innovative solution was "aeroponics", in which a plant's roots are suspended in mid-air and sprayed with a fine mist of nutrients - a method conceived in Israel, but never developed beyond the concept stage.

The aeroponics technology was successfully commercialised in 1997, just five years after the start of the baseline project which has contributed to the understanding of root zone physiology and plant microbe interactions.

"This method requires very little water, which is ideal for water-scarce countries or those subject to constant drought and water shortages,” he said.

"Australia may possibly find this interesting if drought becomes a persistent feature of climate change."

Australian National University dean of science Tim Brown said another persistent feature was China.

Professor Brown said by 2012, the size of the Chinese economy will match that of the United States and by 2020, China's investment in science and technology will match every other country.

The implications of Chinese investment in innovation for countries including Australia were significant, he said.

Professor Brown is Australia's representative on a new study into China's innovation system by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and Chinese Ministry of Science.

"What amazes me is the single-minded concentration by the Chinese Government to ramp up its readiness in innovation by investing heavily and strategically in education and research, and combining these," he said.

He said Australia's successful CRC program was a good example of how countries could forge the kind of science and technology base China is striving for as one of the world's fastest growing economies.

"They are showing us we need to be more single minded about our investment in innovation," he said. "We have a very good public sector in research, but what we have achieved until now is nowhere good enough in the face of China's investment. Our task is to add value to sectors we are strong in such as mining and mineral processing."

Details about the CRCA Conference and keynote speakers can be found at http://www.crca.asn.au/conference.