Consultation on a new model for commercialisation of university research
As Australia transitions out of the COVID-19 pandemic we must ensure that
the economy is underwritten by big gains in innovation and technology to
drive increased productivity: achieving this will help to boost our global
competitiveness and attract long-term investment from domestic and offshore
sources. Recent research by the Australian Investment Council shows jobs in
information technology or that are technology driven, account for a large
proportion of job vacancies in venture capital-backed companies.
The
analysis found 1478 job vacancies in the portfolio companies of eight of
Australia’s most active venture capital (VC) firms, which represent
approximately one-third of the domestic VC ecosystem. This could be boosted
further through closer collaboration between industry and universities to
support and accelerate the commercialisation of research in industries
aligned to jobs and businesses of the future. This will help drive
innovation and boost Australia’s sluggish productivity growth. To realise
the economic gains from the scaling-up phase of early-stage businesses, it
is imperative that initiatives are put into place now to support the
ongoing investment needed to sustain and grow our innovation ecosystem. It
is important for the nation’s prosperity that innovation coming out of
universities and Australian businesses attracts local funding, to safeguard
against those ideas being transferred offshore – if that were to occur on a
systemic basis it could lead to a permanent loss of intellectual property
rights and the associated economic output and job creation outcomes in the
domestic market.
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