ARDR STORY

New innovation catalyst

December 2016 - CSIRO has launched its new $200 million Innovation Fund, and has selected ten new innovations to be fast-tracked in its ON sci-tech accelerator program.

Supporting early-stage innovation is a major objective of the 2016 National Innovation and Science Agenda, which assigned CSIRO a central part as an 'Innovation catalyst'.

CSIRO's new role took shape in 2015 in the organisation's Strategy 2020, and recently was reiterated in a new Statement of Expectations the Government released in December last year.

By establishing the Innovation Fund, NISA has enhanced CSIRO's capacity as a facilitator of public research commercialisation. It also broadened the scope of CSIRO's ON accelerator to include projects across the publicly funded research sector.

$200 million Innovation Fund

Set up with $70 million from the Government, the fund is supported with a further $30 million from revenue CSIRO earns with its WLAN program.

The remainder of the fund's target value of $200 million will have to be generated through private sector investment, which will be the challenging job of veteran venture capitalist Bill Bartee as head of the initiative.

Kebari, an innovation supported through the ON accelerator, is used in the world's first gluten-free barley beer. Images: CSIRO

Mr Bartee is co-founder and partner of venture capital firm Blackbird Ventures. The firm made headlines in 2012 when it announced a $200 million start-up venture capital fund - until very recently the largest of its kind in Australia - backed by two superannuation funds.

CSIRO ON sci-tech accelerator

The Innovation Fund complements another key initiative of CSIRO's Strategy 2020 - the ON sci-tech accelerator.

Established in July 2015, the accelerator has already been instrumental in getting early-stage innovations off the ground, such as CSIRO's ultra-low gluten Kebari barley, which is now used in the first commercially brewed barley-based gluten-free beer.

The successful applicants announced in December will take part in a 12 week course in which they will be guided by expert mentors, and will be exposed to the business and entrepreneurial skills required for a successful commercialisation process.

They will then also have the opportunity to secure further funds and partners in a 'pitch event' to industry.

The successful projects are:

  • Australian Silicon Photonics from RMIT is a low-cost, low-energy solution for datacentre operators to help them manage increased data volumes while reducing energy consumption and environmental impact;
  • Going for Gold from the CSIRO is a safe and cost effective replacement for cyanide in the mining for gold;
  • DentalAR from the University of Western Australia delivers an augmented reality for dentists to improve patient treatment and reduce time spent in ‘the chair’;
  • NutriThick developed by Flinders University is an easy to drink, non-dairy and non-animal supplement for highly bioavailable calcium based on Australian seaweed;
  • RadVet from the University of Newcastle is a standardised and effective treatment for skin cancer in animals;
  • Passive Radar is a new passive radar technology from the Defence Science and Technology Group;
  • DetectORE is CSIRO's simple, cost-effective solution for detecting gold in the field;
  • D-tech IT from the CSIRO is a new rapid video analysis technology that will allow species identification of fish at the ‘point-of-catch’;
  • Green and Gold from the CSIRO aims to increase capacity for production of renewable oils from plants to meet growing global demand for food oils, industrial chemicals and renewable fuels; and
  • LuciGem developed at Macquarie University uses nano-sized particles of ruby and diamond for a range of applications - including to ‘light-up’ human systems that could help improve patient diagnosis and treatment.
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