Major $15M investment boosts research translation at RMIT

Major $15M investment boosts research translation at RMIT

Government-backed investment company Breakthrough Victoria will match RMIT’s $7.5million investment in research translation to create new partnerships, companies and products out of our research.

The announcement of Breakthrough Victoria’s new investment partnerships with RMIT and Deakin, La Trobe, Monash and Swinburne universities represents a major boost for research translation across the state worth $87million. 

The money will typically support startup companies spun out of each university via pre-seed investments of around $500,000 each. 

Minister for Industry and Innovation Ben Carroll made the announcement at today’s opening of the Global Entrepreneurship Conference in Melbourne, with more than 4,000 investors and entrepreneurs from around the world. 

Breakthrough Victoria CEO Grant Dooley, Breakthrough Victoria Executive Director Pre-Seed Olga Hogan, Minister for Industry and Innovation Ben Carroll and Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Innovation and Vice-President Professor Calum Drummond (AO) standing in front of Breakthrough Victoria's pull up bannersL-R: Breakthrough Victoria CEO Grant Dooley, Breakthrough Victoria Executive Director Pre-Seed Olga Hogan, Minister for Industry and Innovation Ben Carroll and Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Innovation and Vice-President Professor Calum Drummond (AO).

Breakthrough Victoria CEO Grant Dooley said the vital support for product concepts, prototypes and trials will help ensure local research with strong commercial potential does not succumb to the ‘valley of death’ – a gap between research funding and private investment where many promising ideas fail.

“By setting up dedicated partnerships to invest in startups coming out of Victorian universities, we can help move life-changing research out of the lab and into the market right here in Victoria instead of seeing it being commercialised overseas,” he said. 

The agreements have been co-designed with each university to respond to the specific needs and stage of their research commercialisation journey. 

RMIT Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Innovation and Vice-President, Professor Calum Drummond AO, said the support bolstered the university’s existing focus on achieving impact outside of academia.      

“RMIT is excited to be part of this initiative that will enable researchers to take their projects and innovations to the next stage by advancing market readiness, creating intellectual property and progressing social innovation opportunities. We're excited to see the possibilities that will unfold,” he said.   

Just last month an RMIT offshoot company, IND Technology, was finalist in the AFR Higher Education Awards for research commercialisation.  

The company’s early fault detection technology for powerlines, developed at RMIT, is now being rolled out globally to support powerline safety and performance. 

Drummond said it was projects like this that showed the potential impacts of research translation and industry engagement.

Alt Text is not present for this image, Taking dc:title 'IND Tech system'IND Technology CEO Dr Alan Wong (RMIT) and COO Andrew Walsh inspect a version of their powerlines fault detection system.

The partnerships announced today are being established under the $100 million Breakthrough Victoria – University Innovation Platform, which aims to increase commercialisation of critical research with real-world benefits.  

There are now six university partnerships established as part of this platform, with the University of Melbourne’s investment fund announced last year.

RMIT staff seeking information on Breakthrough Victoria collaborations should contact BV@rmit.edu.au

 

Story: Michael Quin  

19 September 2023

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