Now with Beer Garden for our smoking patrons.
From the BRW:
The South Australian model that would make the Medical Research Future Fund 1000 per cent better
Imagine an Australian researcher makes a groundbreaking discovery that may potentially one day rid us of a horrible and intractable disease. We celebrate it as a national achievement…and then watch as a US multinational licenses the research, taking the glory and potential economic spinoff with it.
This is not an uncommon occurrence in Australia.
We have a strong reputation and solid output in terms of research but if we are to realise the economic benefit of this, we need to place much more focus on commercialisation – converting research to new products and services, cures and technology.
The government’s promised $20 billion Medical Research Future Fund – whether it’s realised at its promised level of investment or becomes “smaller” – must be commended.
However, while the fund represents a massive and welcome investment, it still leaves the system in imbalance and does not address the hard fact that there also needs to be commensurate effort and investment in commercialisation in order to capitalise on the resulting research findings.
There are many in the industry, including BioSA, wondering how Australia plans to leverage this surge in research spending in the wake of the government’s decision to reduce the investment in commercialisation by axing the Innovation Investment Fund, Commercialisation Australia and assorted enterprise programs, and replacing them with an Entrepreneurs Infrastructure Program.
This broad new program is primarily aimed at business growth; it offers all businesses access to market advice, matched grants and connections for collaboration opportunities.
But what we need is to effectively provide a bridge to take research from the lab to the marketplace, by supporting the development of spinoff companies that might arise and helping them achieve success, otherwise we risk allowing our research achievements to be sent offshore for development. The Treasurer’s aspiration of supporting medical research that “may well save your life, or that of your parents, or your child” will still be realised, but it won’t be Australians pocketing the economic rewards for their sizeable investment.
BioSA model proven
It is not just about providing information and networking opportunities. To avoid having Australian research licensed to the highest bidder, Australia needs to bed it in by actively supporting the formation of companies, and thus jobs, around this research, by seeding and “incubating” them until they can take their research from concept stage to market-ready.
South Australia operates a successful model that serves to make it a national leader in this area. For the past 15 years, the state has been achieving notable success in advanced manufacturing – particularly in the biotech area – through an innovative model driven by BioSA.
Why is this important? High-tech start-ups have a strong multiplier effect. International studies indicate that one high-tech job creates five others, and business incubators create 20 times more jobs than other government investment - in infrastructure projects, for example.
The agency has facilitated the establishment of 75 of the state’s 100 bioscience companies since 2001. These “quiet achievers” are contributing to national wellbeing in the fields of reproductive health, joint replacements, environmental remediation, vision lasers, wound care, novel materials and more. A handful of these companies have been housed at BioSA’s business incubation facilities, and have doubled their fulltime equivalent positions in the past five years. The business incubators in Thebarton are co-located with 90 advanced technology companies, which together make up the Thebarton Technology Precinct, one of the largest commercial clusters of technology companies in Australia.
The successful business innovation and incubation model that has enabled the rapid growth of these startups can be emulated by any state wanting to nurture the job- creating industries of tomorrow.
The model is simple: provision of lab and office facilities (business incubation) that allow start-ups to plough their scarce resources into research and growth rather than photocopiers and microscopes; clustering start-ups to encourage networking and knowledge sharing; employing experts to provide business advice to these young companies and linking them with potential investors and venture capital; provision of repayable grants to commercially viable projects.
Tenfold return on investment
For every $1 of public funds BioSA has invested, these companies on average have achieved $10 in further investment or revenue from sales. Even the economically dry would acknowledge that a tenfold return is a good investment. Especially if the long-term outcome is jobs growth and higher standards of living.
Bringing research and business together and hoping sparks will fly will not get us where we need to be. We need to build supporting infrastructure around the research we want to keep onshore and properly invest in commercialisation if we are to become a true high-tech knowledge economy.
