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Universities encouraged to join AgriFutures growᴬᴳ⋅ as report reveals investment boom in research commercialisation

With a new report showing Australia and New Zealand’s public research organisations are world class at commercialising their innovative ideas, AgriFutures Australia is urging them to join its online platform growAG. to extend their networks in the investment community even further. 

Researcher with laptop and equipment in a grape vineyard
Date 18 November 2022 Share

With a new report showing Australia and New Zealand’s public research organisations are world class at commercialising their innovative ideas, AgriFutures Australia is urging them to join its online platform growAG. to extend their networks in the investment community even further. 

The 2021 Survey of Commercialisation Outcomes from Public Research (SCOPR) report was released in Melbourne at the annual conference of Knowledge Commercialisation Australia (KCA), the peak body for technology transfer professionals. SCOPR Committee Chair John Grace said the results showed an impressive level of commercialisation emerging from Australian public research organisations. 

“This is an exciting finding, given commercialisation is not necessarily a core activity – it is an indirect output from the research conducted,” said John. 

“So, the 69 new companies and 1,333 invention disclosures that occurred in 2021 - resulting in $251 million in commercialisation revenue - is a bonus to the core activity.” 

Related organisations

Logo for Knowledge Commercialisation Australasia (KCA)
Multiple industries

Knowledge Commercialisation Australasia (KCA)

Knowledge Commercialisation Australasia (KCA) is the non-profit, peak body leading best practice in industry engagement, technology transfer and entrepreneurship for research organisations since 1978. KCA is a founding member of the global Alliance of Technology Transfer Professionals.
  • Location

    Australia & New Zealand

  • Organisation type

    Industry body, Other

SCOPR 2021 Highlights - Survey of commercialisation outcomes from public research

RELATED: Innovation hub AgriFutures growᴬᴳ⋅ plans to make Australia the agtech capital of the Southern Hemisphere

The fifth SCOPR report included 49 research organisations from Australia and New Zealand which together oversaw $11.9 billion in research expenditure and employed 38,717 researchers. 

“The report allows individual organisations to assess their own performance and for the sector to demonstrate its overall performance,” John explained. 

“What it also shows is Australia performs comparably with international peers across most metrics and undertakes more transactions than our peers. There is some very unfounded mythology that we are not good at this activity and the numbers from the SCOPR report do not support those myths.” 

AgriFutures growAG. Senior Manager, Arianna Sippel, attended the conference and said one of the broad trends was the increasing interest in agritech. 

“We know there are huge opportunities in agritech – it is a booming industry – so the KCA Conference is a fantastic meeting ground to foster collaboration and develop relationships that make contracting and negotiation easier between research organisations and RDCs like AgriFutures,” Arianna explained. 

“One of the great outcomes has been the formation of the agrifood special interest commercialisation group, which is now giving professionals working in the ag and food space a forum to connect better, share stories, share networks and grow the opportunity flow.” 

RELATED: Series A $12m to help vertical farm prodigy, InvertiGro scale new heights^

How growAG. helps universities drive commercialisation 

AgriFutures growᴬᴳ⋅ Senior Manager, Arianna Sippel

“And then there is growAG., which is an easy-to-use online platform to help increase the exposure of commercial opportunities. 

Arianna said AgriFutures was working with a number of universities to help list their opportunities on growAG. and showcase research capabilities, technologies, innovations, and expertise. 

“Some are seeking licensing partners for intellectual property, others are supporting startups to raise capital or trying to find strategic partners to scale up,” she said. 

“We would love to work with more tertiary institutions to help them make new connections across the investment and innovation ecosystem and keep this momentum going.”  

RELATED: Capital investment to accelerate potential of agtech integration engine^

Launched in April 2021, AgriFutures growAG. has more than 80,000 users, a third of which are based overseas, and has listed more than 180 commercial opportunities and 2,800 research projects. 

To explore the AgriFutures growAG. marketplace, make enquiries, or make a submission, head to growag.com.

KCA’s 2021 SCOPR Report can be viewed here.

 

^This investment opportunity is only for professional and sophisticated investors as defined in the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth). The content of this opportunity is intended for use by persons having professional experience in matters relating to investments and must not be acted or relied upon by any other person including, without limitation, retail clients.

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