University Research Commercialisation Consultation submission by gemaker

gemaker is pleased to provide the following comments and recommendations on the University Research Commercialisation Consultation Paper.

 Existing research commercialisation initiatives

The Australian Government already has multiple active initiatives with varying degrees of focus on maximising beneficial research commercialisation outcomes, including:

 INITIATIVE

• R&D Tax Incentive - Broad-based incentive for industry to undertake research in Australia; no link to successful outcomes or priority sectors
• ARC Discovery Grants - Support broad early-stage research by acknowledged research leaders
• ARC Linkage Grants - Supports early-stage research linked with industry partners
• NHMRC Grants - Support early-stage research in the Health and Medical sectors
• CRC Programme - Supports industry-led collaborations of multiple industry partners with universities across priority areas nominated for each round
• CRC-P - Supports smaller joint industry-university collaborative projects over several years across priority areas nominated for each round
• Growth Centres - Established to identify roadmap for future priority areas of capability building in Australia. Include small funding for projects between industry and universities.
• Entrepreneur Programme - Broad-based grant scheme for businesses to support planning for research commercialisation through to early-stage commercialisation of innovative products and services.
• Challenge-based programs - Modelled on the US SBIR program; run ad hoc by Federal and State government departments to encourage innovative solutions for their identified problems.

The University Research Commercialisation Scheme will be most effective if it builds on these existing initiatives with matched priorities, complementary funding opportunities and long-term (10 years +) commitment to address the following barriers.

BARRIERS TO RESEARCH COMMERCIALISATION

There are many barriers which impact Australia’s ability to commercialise which need to be considered in addition to what has been outlined in the Consultation Paper including;

• Research focus vs industry focus - The focus on research publications within universities and lack of engagement with industry in the past has meant new IP is created that is not of interest or use to industry. ie Research solutions are not linked to demand problems.
• Commercialisation staffing - Chronic lack of funding for Technology Transfer Offices (TTO staff work with researchers to commercialise their innovations) within the universities makes it difficult for them to service the breadth of sectors and technologies within commercially acceptable timeframes.
• Gap funding for development - The lack of access to small amounts of easily available funding at universities slows down the rate and decreases the chances of successful commercialisation. 
• Too many hats - Researchers are often expected to conduct their research and commercialisation activities whilst also managing a heavy teaching load which slows down their ability to commercialise.

 RECOMMENDATIONS

We believe the following initiatives will improve Australia’s research commercialisation outcomes and keep Australia at the forefront of research excellence:

Overcoming Barrier - Research focus vs industry focus

• Encourage more SBIR type challenges as a mechanism for developing new research-based technologies with an end customer.
• Incentivise researchers to commercialise by formally recognising their commercialisation success on par with publication success for university promotions (career progression) and in grant selection criteria.
• Introducing wider industry engagement and commercialisation training to fill the skills gap for PhD students and researchers. This training will help them to better understand problems from an industry perspective and develop solutions which can be more easily commercialised as well as increase the levels of knowledge transfer.

Overcoming Barrier – Commercialisation staffing

• Better funding for Technology Transfer Offices (TTO’s) in universities would enable them to provide the professional commercial support required for getting innovation out in a timely manner.
• Funding to support outsourced commercialisation as required for technologies or market sectors outside of the TTO team’s expertise would enable greater research commercialisation outcomes.

Overcoming Barrier – Gap funding for development

• Establish a Commercialisation Fund to support the small scale and larger scale funding for market assessment, technical viability and SBIR type challenges.
• Providing small scale funding for research innovations of $25k to $100k to prepare market assessments and further develop technologies is important for determining the commercial potential and technical viability of innovations. This should be a simple informal process for innovations that meet the National Priorities in areas where the research is also world class.
• Stage gate access to larger scale funding of up to $250k would then allow technologies to be further developed to de-risk it for industry uptake/investment.

Overcoming Barrier - Too many hats

• Lead researchers could be incentivised by allowing part of their teaching commitment to be released in return for working with industry partners and supervising a small cohort of PhD students to facilitate the translation of the research ideas into commercial realities.

About gemaker

• Founded in 2011, over the past nine years we’ve collaborated on commercialisation projects with 27 research organisations in Australia, including 15 universities.
• Our senior team members each have 20+ years’ research commercialisation experience across diverse sectors, including: advanced materials and manufacturing, ICT and education, medicine and medical devices, space, mining, nuclear technology, environmental sustainability and renewable energy.
• We’ve provided strategic guidance to universities including their tech transfer teams and filled their short- or long-term resource gaps.
• We’ve also delivered award-winning training and mentoring in industry engagement to more than 400 Australian researchers, helping them find the right partners to translate their research into real-world impact with high social and commercial value.