TCI Oceania Secretariat Dr Nicola Watts recently caught up with David Hicks, Founding Director of Circular Ecosystems, to discuss their pioneering work in industrial symbiosis and ecosystem intelligence, including the internationally recognised work being undertaken in Western Australia's Kwinana Industrial Precinct.

Kwinana has emerged as one of the world's leading examples of industrial symbiosis, with the precinct recently featured by the World Economic Forum as a global example of digitisation bringing to life the collaboration within industrial clusters. Through sophisticated mapping and modelling of resource flows, infrastructure and interdependencies, Circular Ecosystems has helped make visible the complex relationships that underpin the precinct's performance and resilience.

But as David reflected, an important question is now emerging for clusters and innovation ecosystems everywhere:

What happens after the map is complete?

A map can reveal connections, opportunities and vulnerabilities. It can help ecosystem participants better understand how a system functions. Yet understanding a system is not the same as changing it.

In a recent paper, From Visibility to Decision in Industrial Clusters, David argues that effective ecosystem practice progresses through four stages:

1. Understanding the system – making connections visible.

2. Assessing implications – understanding risks, opportunities and potential ripple effects.

3. Prioritising action – identifying where intervention is most needed and who needs to act.

4. Mobilising investment – aligning resources behind agreed priorities.

Many clusters and ecosystems have become increasingly sophisticated in the first stage. We are getting better at mapping networks, visualising relationships and understanding the dynamics of complex systems.

The greater challenge lies in the stages that follow.

How do we understand the implications of change before it occurs? How do we identify the decisions that matter most? How do we ensure that evidence informs investment and policy choices? And how do we align resources behind shared priorities?

For David, the next frontier is not simply ecosystem mapping, but ecosystem intelligence — understanding how decisions made by one organisation, investor, regulator or policy maker may ripple across the broader system.

For cluster and ecosystem leaders, this raises important questions about how we support more informed and coordinated decision-making. As innovation ecosystems become increasingly important in addressing economic, social and environmental challenges, the capability to generate insight is no longer enough. We also need the capability to translate that insight into collective intelligence, informed decisions and meaningful action.

Perhaps the next frontier for cluster and ecosystem practice is not simply understanding systems better but helping systems make better decisions.