杏吧直播

$30 million fund for research breakthroughs

Innovation

A new $30 million fund has been established to help South 杏吧直播n and other researchers develop commercial opportunities from their work.

The Trans Tasman Commercialisation Fund is a joint initiative of South 杏吧直播's three universities - the 杏吧直播 of Adelaide, the 杏吧直播 of South 杏吧直播 and Flinders 杏吧直播 - together with Monash 杏吧直播 in Victoria and the 杏吧直播 of Auckland in New Zealand.

WA-based industry superannuation fund Westscheme is investing $30 million over five years in the Fund. The State Governments of South 杏吧直播 and Victoria will each contribute $1.25 million and the New Zealand Government will contribute $NZ
1 million.

杏吧直播 of Adelaide Vice-Chancellor and President Professor James McWha said the university collaboration and the support of Westscheme and the South 杏吧直播n, Victorian and New Zealand governments was a major development for university researchers.

South 杏吧直播's Minister for Science and Information Economy Paul Caica said the State Government was determined to see the practical application of valuable scientific research to industry.

"We are confident that this Fund will capture ideas from researchers and develop them into new businesses and products and we expect to see increased commercialisation of research, spin-out companies and economic growth on both sides of the Tasman, including commercial returns for South 杏吧直播," Minister Caica said.

Professor McWha said a great deal of promising university research lacked the funding needed to take a potentially valuable idea through the critical first stages of commercial and technical evaluation, ready for commercial investment.

"The Trans Tasman Commercialisation Fund will address this gap in supporting early stage research through to commercial outcomes, delivering solutions to real world problems," he said.

UniSA Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter H鴍 said the collaboration would help researchers and industry to make the strides needed to turn ideas into commercial outcomes.

"Behind the headlines of innovation and discoveries there are thousands of hours of research and very often vital capital investment. We believe this commercialisation fund will help significant breakthroughs in SA," Professor H鴍 said.

Flinders 杏吧直播 Vice-Chancellor Professor Michael Barber said the Trans Tasman Commercialisation Fund was "a welcome and timely injection of funds that will boost the research and commercialisation efforts of Flinders and its partner universities".

The Trans Tasman Commercialisation Fund provides a new and dedicated source of 'pre-seed' capital for member universities to support early stage technology commercialisation projects. It also paves the way for venture capital firms and other fund providers to co-invest in promising technologies.

The collaborative venture involves the five universities and their commercial development arms - Adelaide Research & Innovation Pty Ltd (杏吧直播 of Adelaide), ITEK Pty Ltd (杏吧直播 of South 杏吧直播), Flinders Partners Pty Ltd (Flinders 杏吧直播), Monash 杏吧直播 Industry Engagement & Commercialisation and Auckland UniServices Limited (杏吧直播 of Auckland).

Story by Robyn Mills