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With Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey warning on Monday that the price of iron ore could drop as low as $35 per tonne, the launch of the UWA Energy and Minerals Institute’s (EMI) State of Mind report at the Singapore In The Zone event couldn’t be more timely.

State of Mind , commissioned by EMI and authored by The Knowledge Society, is a data-journalism report that recasts the narrative of Western Australia, moving from a ‘state of mining’ to a ‘state of mind’.

UWA Forward got in touch with EMI’s new Director, Mark Stickells, to discuss the State of Mind report and Western Australia’s economic future, post-mining boom.

What is the significance of the report’s title, State of Mind?

State of Mind started off as a play on the words ‘State of mining’, which reflects some of the commonly held views that WA is predominately a mining state/economy and characterised by iron ore and other commodity production, including LNG.

The report argues that a resources-led economy is also a knowledge-based economy. WA is a world class mining and energy province and as such there’s a lot of advanced technology and ingenuity in WA. State of Mind suggests that this technology and ingenuity is enabling an economic and cultural transformation in WA. The scale of our long term minerals and energy production has underpinned an expansion of WA’s science and engineering community which puts WA and Perth on the global map.

What are the implications of the report for the WA economy going forward?

That there is a need to look differently at the WA resources industry and the legacy of recent investment and expansion. We’re hoping the report will shift the economic and civic conversation from a focus on commodity prices, cycles and volumes to longer term changes and benefits in knowledge-led work – in design thinking, remote operations, complex engineering, data science.

In a nutshell, the report is asking us (universities, business leaders, governments) to think differently about the knowledge-based economy that we’re building and pivot away from its primary focus on minerals and energy production, and thereby unlock a new wave of business creation, encouraging start-up ventures and investment in data science, automation and other industries where we have the seeds of a genuine comparative advantage.

We hope the report will give the State’s leaders (across industries) more confidence – more ammunition – to talk about our ‘smarts’ and not just our advantages of our geology and proximity to markets.

What’s been your favourite UWA moment in your career?

Too many to mention! I’ve studied at UWA (in the late 80’s), lived here (at St George’s College), married here (also at St George’s College), had my children stay at the best child care facilities in the State (clearly also at UWA) and worked at UWA or for its research partners in several very interesting and rewarding roles.

UWA’s a diverse organisation full of clever people doing interesting and important things.  The best part of my job is that I have the privilege of representing them to the wider community, to industry, government and other stakeholders.  Almost every week, I meet a new colleague, or learn about a researcher’s progress, and promote their talent and achievements.

Mark Stickells was appointed the director of the Energy and Minerals Institute in April this year. He joined EMI as deputy director in 2011, following three years as Chief Executive Officer at the Western Australian Energy Research Alliance.

In the Zone is WA’s premier forum on questions of regional significance and is an initiative of EMI. The event is presented by UWA in partnership with Rio Tinto, the Perth USAsia Centre and the Government of Western Australia.