Morrison government plans to spend A$2.2 billion on research commercialisation
An “economic accelerator” worth A$1.6 billion has been announced to support the development of Australian research into commercial products and services.
Prime minister Scott Morrison told the National Press Club on 1 February that the nation needed to “shift the [research] focus from citations to commercial success”.
He said: “85 per cent of Australian research is rated, officially, at or above world standard. Yet we continue to underperform, frustratingly, in achieving commercialisation outcomes.”
The accelerator funding will flow to the national manufacturing priority areas: resources and critical minerals, food and beverages, medical products, defence, space, and recycling and clean energy.
Morrison also promised an extra A$150 million for the Main Sequence venture capital fund—an investment subsidiary of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation—and funding for industry PhDs.
The total package set out in an action plan was A$2.2bn.
“This is about funding projects to bridge the ‘valley of death’, where early-stage research is often not progressed due to higher levels of risk and uncertainty,” Morrison said. “Stronger commercialisation of research and ideas will mean a stronger economy and a stronger future for Australia.”
Research response
The announcement was generally welcomed. Cooperative Research Australia chief executive Jane O’Dwyer said in a statement that the umbrella body for the Cooperative Research Centres was “delighted to see a substantial investment in Australia’s research capability, and investment in industry-research collaboration”.
Hugh Bradlow, president of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering, said the academy was “eager to ensure the fund helps increase industry’s appetite to develop new ideas”.
“However, it is also important not to neglect curiosity-driven research, which creates the ideas for new commercial opportunities,” he cautioned.
Universities Australia said in a statement that the announcement recognised the “central role that universities and university research play in Australia’s prosperity and recovery”.
John Dewar, chair of Universities Australia, emphasised the importance of research work in coming up with ideas to be commercialised. “Securing predictable, adequate support for Australia’s basic research capability, as well as commercialisation, will be vital into the future,” he said. “The funding for industry-focused PhDs is a welcome contribution to this capability.”
The Innovative Research Universities group said the six priority areas represented “huge opportunities”. Chair Carolyn Evans said that the “significant announcement from the prime minister today puts Australia’s research universities at the heart of the post-Covid recovery and the strategy for the nation’s economic future”.
Connecting to industry
The accelerator will pick winners by funding an initial round of about 100 projects a year with up to A$500,000. In the next round, 36 projects will receive up to A$5m, with a requirement for 50 per cent co-investment from industry. At stage three, Main Sequence will take over, with up two tranches of funding totalling A$150m.
Main Sequence has already run two rounds of startup funding, backing 39 companies.
Stuart Robert, acting minister for education, said the scheme would fund 1,800 industry PhD positions and 800 “industry fellows”, taking “a lot of the risk and uncertainty for universities out of the equation”. Some A$296m has been set aside for that part of the scheme.
O’Dwyer said the Cooperative Research Centres were “particularly delighted to see significant investment in industry PhDs and fellowships. We have consistently advocated for greater investment in the innovation workforce through industry PhDs.”
Robert said in a radio interview that “unfortunately…we’re seventh in the world when it comes to blue-sky, really exciting research, but only 26th when it comes to commercialisation. So we’ve got this great research but we need to connect it to our great industries. And this is all about doing that connection so we can commercialise and get real value out of the money we put into such wonderful research.”
The government has been taking advice from a research commercialisation taskforce. Taskforce chair Jeff Connolly, chief executive of Siemens Australia, said the group believed that the best outcomes for Australia’s economy and people would come from new approaches from government, within universities and from business and industry.
“This action plan provides a strong basis for building on the excellent foundation that exists in our university sector and will ensure that systemic opportunities are there for every researcher who wants to pursue a commercial opportunity, and every business who wants to work with our universities,” Connolly said.