Science & Technology Australia’s new research fund to generate $17.6 billion ROI

Science & Technology Australia reveals its new national research commercialisation fund will generate a $17.6 billion return on investment.

This conservative estimate assumes this ROI would be delivered based on only half the $1.6 billion investment pledged by the Australian Government.

A similar research program, which worked with commercialisation experts from the outset, the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Nanoscale BioPhotonics (CNBP), turned its initial investment of $23 million into a combined market cap of $519.1 million, seven years later — a 22.5 fold return.

The new research fund is expected to pay for itself should just five percent of its innovators reach the same scale of success as the CNBP.

According to the report, “Everything above that five percent success rate would be a windfall gain to Australia.”

In a speech at the National Press Club today, Science & Technology Australia Professor March Hutchinson, urged the new national fund to adopt a ‘bench-to-boardroom science’ model from the start.

Hutchinson defines these scientists as those that can take their discoveries to start-ups, venture capitalists and industry partners.

“Too often, Australian researchers have made a world-first discovery that could turn into a job-creating success story — only to hit a wall of disinterest from potential financiers. They just can’t get the finance to take it to ‘proof-of-concept’ and ‘proof-of-market’ stages.

“And so countless promising Australian breakthroughs have been left to languish in the lab, or our IP has been snapped up abroad by researchers and investors in other countries,” said Hutchinson.

“In coming years, we want to identify hundreds of scientists and researchers Australia-wide with the aptitude and passion to become commercialisation stars. And we want to train them for specialist roles to propel the translation of promising discoveries into technologies and become linchpins liaising between industry and university research."

According to Hutchinson, the model is already proven through STA’s Superstars of STEM program.

“If we can nail this opportunity to turn more great Australian science into start-ups, we can shape a new era of opportunity for Australia. A new chapter of scientific and technological progress the likes of which we can barely imagine. One that will secure Australia’s prosperity.”