The Turnbull Government today launched the $200 million CSIRO Innovation Fund which will commercialise early stage innovations from CSIRO, universities and other publicly-funded research bodies.
This joint government–private sector fund will help Australia’s home grown innovations become successful businesses, and in doing so create jobs and boost Australia’s productivity and exports.
The government is investing a total of $70 million into the fund over 10 years alongside $30 million of CSIRO revenue from CSIRO’s WLAN Programme, which has delivered Wi-Fi to the world. The remaining $100 million will be sourced from wholesale private sector investment
The CSIRO Innovation Fund will support co-investment in new spin-out and start-up companies, products and services created by Australian research institutions and their SME partners.
This fund will bridge the gap between science and industry. It will allow our innovators to meet industry half way by developing investable propositions, enabling our scientists to get their product to market more rapidly.
It’s about maximising value from taxpayer funded research and ensuring important discoveries make it beyond the laboratory.
Next week marks once year since the launch of the Turnbull Government’s $1.1 billion National Innovation and Science Agenda – of which the CSIRO Innovation Fund is a key element.
Boosting commercialisation of Australia’s research outcomes will increase productivity and exports and generate jobs, particularly in priority sectors of the Australian economy.
The fund will invest in new ventures, some of which may be generated by Australia’s national innovation accelerator ON. CSIRO’s ON accelerator program focuses on growing scientists’ abilities in value creation by innovation.
Early-stage innovations supported by ON include:
• Cardihab – the world’s only scientifically validated, smartphone enabled cardiac rehabilitation program for delivery by healthcare providers.
• TranspiratiONal – A sprayable, biodegradable polymer membrane that radically improves agricultural water use.
• FutureFeed – a natural livestock additive from seaweed that dramatically reduces livestock methane emissions and increases production.
• Kebari – an ultra-low gluten barley that can be used to make food and beverages suitable for people with coeliac disease and people who are gluten intolerant.
• ePAT – real time pain assessment through facial recognition technology for patients that cannot verbally communicate.
The CSIRO Innovation Fund will be led by world-class innovation and venture-capital expert Mr Bill Bartee, who was appointed following an extensive recruitment process.
Mr Bartee has an impressive track record in the venture capital industry, assisting new, innovative companies to grow.
Prior to joining CSIRO Innovation Fund, Bill Bartee was a co-founder and partner at Blackbird Ventures and an Investment Committee Member of NAB Ventures. Mr Bartee co-founded Southern Cross Venture Partners after helping to build early stage investing at Macquarie Bank.
Bill Bartee was also the start-up CEO of Mantara, a company that makes high performance, content-based message routing systems.
For more information visit: www.csiro.au/innovationfund