Two years ago CSIRO opened its ON sci-tech accelerator to universities and publicly funded organisations. It has since graduated around 200 teams of researchers, and in December another ten projects were selected.
They include a detection system to keep prawns safe from pests, a smarter smaller wind turbine and wearable tech that can screen for gut disorders:
Selected projects:
HORUS: A state of the art solar forecasting system – CSIRO Energy;
CareGivr: a virtual reality technology that allows carers to learn by doing, safely – The University of Newcastle;
ECE Curtin: A tool for preventing faults in power network assets before energy catastrophes hit – Curtin University;
Noisy Guts Project: An acoustic belt that uses the natural noises of the gut for health screening – The University of Western Australia;
eDNA Field Pump: An on-the-go field tool for reliable and transportable water monitoring – James Cook University;
All in one prawn pathogen system: A new pest detection system that cuts costs and time delays for Aussie prawn farmers – CSIRO Agriculture and Food;
Gut Health Co: An alternative to the expensive and cumbersome ‘leaky gut’ test for suspected sufferers – CSIRO Health and Biosecurity;
Hyperdrive: A new way to beat the current costs and delays in new drug development – Macquarie University;
Inflamark: On the spot testing for elite athletes and their sport scientists – The University of Western Australia;
Diffuse Wind Energy: A small wind turbine that can produce nearly twice the power than existing wind turbines of the same size – The University of Newcastle;
The successful teams will take part in ON Accelerate4, a 12 week course that includes a face-to-face workshop where they can test their ideas, and design business models.
It concludes with a public 'Demo Night' in which projects are showcased to an audience that includes multinational corporations, large Australian enterprises, SMEs, government, investors and universities.
According to CSIRO's chief executive Dr Larry Marshall, ON is bridging the gap between science and business in a similar way to the US I-Corps program, which he says is probably the most successful accelerator in the world.
"The key advantage of ON is that it is backed by the national science agency, and almost every university has jumped in with us to support ON."
