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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