Research commercialisation funding is critical for Australia to realise the benefits of its substantial research investment. The recent slashing of funds in the Mid-Year Economic and Financial Outlook (MYEFO), with $46.2m cut from Australia’s Economic Accelerator, is a step backwards for the ecosystem.

Australia’s Economic Accelerator was launched to drive research translation and commercialisation, lauded as a $1.6b investment over ten years. If the Government is willing to cut funds from this initiative before it has appointed its Board or released its first full round, what confidence can the research and investment community have in its longevity over the next decade.

This cut also makes no sense considering that the Government has committed to increase investment in national R&D to 3% of GDP – yet pulls committed funding in the next budget cycle.

“It’s disappointing to see a reduction is research commercialisation funding when clearly more is needed to lift economic competitiveness and complexity” said KCA’s Chair, Quin Chang. “This will negatively impact the commercialisation outcomes from Australian research and reduce overall confidence in the support for the commercialisation sector.”

Access to proof-of-concept funding remains a significant barrier to the effective commercialisation of intellectual property developed within universities and other publicly funded research organisations. Some commercialisation offices have small funding pools to progress early stage technical d commercial development of promising inventions. This funding increases their chances of becoming useful in the wider community – by leading to the creation of new products, services, companies, and high value jobs.

Media Contacts:
Quin Chang, KCA Chair, chair@techtransfer.org.au
Erin Rayment, KCA Board Director, e.rayment@qut.edu.au