Commercialisation Australia is investing over $13 million in new Australian inventions — including an influenza test kit for pandemics, a bioherbicide to counter an invasive weed and a livestock pest control system — to help turn them into the commercial success stories of the future.
Twenty-nine companies, entrepreneurs and inventors will share in government grants, being provided through the Government’s Commercialisation Australia program.
Announcing the government grants at the 2011 AusBiotech CEO Forum, Innovation Minister Senator Kim Carr said turning good ideas into successful products in the market place was essential if Australia was to get full value from its scientific and research capabilities.
“This Government support of Commercialisation Australia gives firms the opportunity to capitalise on their good ideas, create opportunities for business and generate jobs that benefit Australians,” Senator Carr said.
“Getting a product into the marketplace requires a complex mix of technical understanding, market insight and financial resources. Through Commercialisation Australia, the Government helps companies, entrepreneurs and inventors navigate these processes and take-up opportunities.
“Last week, the Gillard Labor Government renewed its commitment for Commercialisation Australia, allocating $278 million over five years to the program. Commercialisation Australia will receive $82 million annually thereafter. Since it opened for business, Commercialisation Australia has invested $45 million in 115 projects.
Senator Carr said Australia’s biotech industry was a big winner through Commercialisation Australia, with more than 30 successful biotech-related applicants receiving grants totalling more than $13.1 million – almost 30 per cent of funding allocated so far.
“I congratulate government grant recipients and look forward to more companies, researchers and inventors joining the program,” Senator Carr said.
| Recipients | Grant | Project |
| Accentu8 Novotecnica | $300,000 | Accentu8 Novotecnica has developed a paradigm shift in the denture process. Standard dental arches, pre-assembled with artificial teeth, may be custom-fitted & precisely aligned using the patient’s natural physiology, with significant cost & time savings |
| Advanced Braking | $2,000,000 | Advanced Braking has developed an innovative approach to vehicle braking in order to improve safety and reliability, reduce brake wear, extend service intervals and reduce maintenance costs. |
| Aerogenesis Australia | $234,780 | Finalise the Aerogenesis small wind turbine ready for market entry. The key components are: (1) scale-up of the turbine’s computer control system to 5kWs; and (2) design refinements to simplify manufacture and assembly of turbine components. |
| AiMedics | $1,938,000 | AiMedics will conduct regulatory approval clinical studies of a monitoring system that reduces the risk of nocturnal hypoglycaemia. |
| Aussie Colours | $235,000 | Funding will be used to scale up production of novel native plants and test and establish the “Aussie Cottage Collection” concept in Australian and international ornamental value chains. |
| Australian Phytofuel Company | $249,851 | Australian PhytoFuel is establishing large plantations of Kalpa® trees on marginal land in collaboration with beef producers, local authorities, mining companies and indigenous land holders |
| BioHerbicides Australia | $50,000 | BioHerbicides Australia will engage consulting services to assist it in registering a bioherbicide product with the Australian Pesticide and Veterinary Medicines Authority for the control of Parkinsonia |
| Capture Plan | $250,000 | CapturePlan has developed an indoor positioning system that tracks smart phones and customized tags for indoor locations in which GPS cannot operate. |
| Catchlog Trading | $324,599 | With funding from Commercialisation Australia, CatchLog Trading will develop an add-on software module called “Company Analysis” for their existing software. The software is used by the international commercial fishing industry. |
| CSIRO – Cameron Begley | $215,000 | With assistance from Commercialisation Australia CSIRO aims to validate a slow release delivery technology of enzyme bioremediation products to be used in moving water bodies to break down pesticide contamination. At the moment this technology has only been used in still water. This improved approach will open up new markets in irrigated agriculture from early-mid 2012. |
| Global Tech Corporation | $235,561 | Undertaking a PoC project to successfully commercialise Globaltech’s ePLOD will introduce ‘real-time’ knowledge of running costs and ore targeting information relating to environmentally friendly, cheaper and more successful drilling programs. |
| Grassads | $177,989 | GrassAds is developing robotic technology for marking out small to large surface graphic areas in a range of markets including sports and advertising, agriculture, manufacturing and construction. |
| Indice | $250,000 | Indice’s project will provide established lighting manufacturers a control chip and reference design that offers dimming with energy efficient mains voltage (120 & 240V) lamps such as LED (Light emitting Diode). |
| MetalloTek | $210,000 | MetalloTek’s soil remediation technology, developed at the University of Queensland, has the potential to be a low cost and effective tool for helping to rehabilitate metal-contaminated mine sites. |
| Nitero | $1,431,467 | Nitero is developing an ultra-low power 60GHz chipset, based upon more than five years of research and development for next generation Wi-Fi solutions by National ICT Australia (NICTA). |
| OzStar Therapeutics | $49,772 | OzStar Therapeutics is developing a new combination therapy for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus. CA funding will be used to develop IP and commercialisation strategies, conduct market review and analysis and develop a business plan. |
| Polyactiva | $250,000 | PolyActiva has developed a unique drug-polymer technology that can be used to produce new biomedical products and device components that enable delivery of drugs directly to the affected organ or treatment site. |
| RemarksPDF | $240,088 | The ReMarks feedback management system is designed to improve the quality, quantity and timeliness of student assessment feedback whilst decreasing the workload of academics in marking student assessment. The project will plan and implement the commercialisation of the product from standalone trials to enterprise level deployments nationally and internationally. |
| Resis Australia | $164,325 | Funding from Commercialisation Australia will enable Resis Australia to establish a pilot plant near Nambour, Queensland to produce commercial samples of shelf-stable food-grade functional natural cane juice. Scientific research has demonstrated the functional capability of this unique natural juice which is produced from innovative technology, that splits each part of the sugar cane plant into cleanly separated components of wax, external rind fibre, internal pith fibre and high purity natural juice. The value chain for target markets will be assessed to determine the final form, size and location of a full scale processing plant. |
| Respiro | $270,093 | Respirio is developing a novel method for identifying people with Influenza infection, such as ‘Swine Flu’. The grant for which Respirio is applying is to prove the clinical accuracy of the test in a general practice setting. |
| Saron Education | $200,000 | Traditional methods of parent-teacher-student communications are based on face-to-face communication styles. Saron Education Ltd (Saron) is developing the SEQTA product suite comprising Teachers Assistant and Coneqt, which once finalised, will enhance communication between parents, students and teachers by providing an interactive web-based mode of communication. SEQTA Coneqt will provide transportability of school work between home and school by enabling students to access information such as their timetable, lesson information, and assessment progress as well as view student notices and receive messages and much more. Saron will engage a Business Development Executive to assist in developing and delivering market strategies that will enable the company to capitalise on the value that has been created through the development of its unique intellectual property assets, being the company’s core software products: Teachers’ Assistant and Coneqt. |
| Sequencex | $48,480 | The Organic Response project represents a revolution in smart lighting systems. By fundamentally changing the internal communication system used by lights, Organic Response is able to provide an energy efficient lighting system. |
| Softchill | $200,000 | Softchill’s Life Cycle Plan Optimiser (LCP) optimises capital and maintenance expenditure in asset intensive industries. Softchill is forging new channels to market in partnership with IBM and resellers to launch the LCP |
| Veterinary Encapsulation Biosciences | $695,250 | Smartvet has developed the VetCap® cattle pest control system. VetCap® combines the latest pour on treatment, paintball and soft capsule technologies to enable farmers to treat cattle for flies, lice and worms out in the field. VetCap® propels a large 10ml paintball capsule accurately up to 60m breaking open on contact and simultaneously releasing a measured dose of medication. The capsule does not rupture the skin and the medication is systemically absorbed into the animal and distributed without injury or undue stress. The estimated market opportunity for the technology is 80,000,000 doses per annum. By the end of the project, SmartVet expect to have complete product EPA registration with intent to formalise agreements to supply, manufacture, and market and distribute the VetCap® fly control product enabling early commercialisation of the delivery system. |
| Taggle Systems | $808,257 | Water management and conservation is a growing issue in Australia and globally. Taggle Systems has developed a unique remote monitoring technology capable of providing cost effective Automated Meter Reading (AMR) for domestic water meters |
| Uniquest Pty Limited | $46,800 | Research scientists at the University of Wollongong working collaboratively with a team at Monash in Melbourne (partners in the ARC Centre for Electromaterials Science) have developed a solar water splitting device that mimics photosynthesis. |
| University of Technology, Sydney | $50,000 | Lachesis is a new platform technology capable of converting heart rate into accurate blood pressure and other vital signs, non-invasively and in real time. It can be delivered to a wide range of device configurations to suit different customers’ needs. |
| Urban Ecological Systems Australia | $1,910,000 | UESA has negotiated three potential joint venture partnership opportunities pending the successful demonstration of a commercial-scale prototype of their already technically proven integrated vegetable and aquaculture production glasshouse. The project will show that the significant savings in cost of production, energy and water use of the system can be achieved at commercial scale, while maintaining a high level of environmental performance. The key steps are to build the commercial-scale prototype, fine tune the technology and trial processes in order to demonstrate commercial viability, and consolidate current expressions of interest from other potential |
| Curtin University of Technology (Professor Chun-Zhu Li) | $50,000 | There is increasing interest in transitioning from traditional fossil fuel based systems to cleaner, more renewable options in today’s carbon constrained economy. Curtin University researcher Professor Chun-Zhu Li has developed a low-rank fuel gasification technology which can efficiently deliver sustainable, baseload power and help energy generators meet renewable energy targets in both direct and distributed power generation. This Skills and Knowledge project will involve building a strong business case comprising a product development plan, market analysis, intellectual property strategy, cost and pricing modelling and sales forecasts in order to help secure commercialisation partners. |
| TOTAL | $13,085,312 |
