Jonathan West returned to his home in Tasmania in 2006 after 18 years at Harvard University .  In Tasmania , he founded a new research organization, the Australian Innovation Research Centre, whose aspiration is to contribute rigorous empirical investigation and fresh conceptual approaches to discussion of Australia 's innovation performance and technological capability.

At Harvard University , West was Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Business Administration.  He founded the Harvard Life Sciences Initiative and taught in the fields of innovation, operations, and business strategy.  His research focuses on the roots of comparative performance in national innovation systems.

West has served as an advisor to major corporations and several governments around the world, particularly in the fields of agribusiness and life sciences.  He now lives at his family farm, overlooking the Freycinet Peninsula on the East Coast of Tasmania, with his wife Susan and daughter Eliane.