Among the initiatives seeking to accelerate cooperation between universities and business is the Australian Technology Network of Universities (ATN). Consisting of five institutions – Queensland University of Technology, Sydney University of Technology, RMIT University, South Australia University and Curtin University – the network was founded in 1975 as the Directors of Central Institutes of Technology, and renamed the ATN in 1999.
The ATN, which put in place a standardised approach to intellectual property in April 2016, aims to boost Australia’s current ranking by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development of 29th out of 30 for university-industry collaboration.
Another noteworthy initiative is Uniseed, the venture fund backed by four Australian universities and research institute CSIRO, which announced a A$20m ($15m) fund in March 2017, just over a year after unveiling a A$50m fund in December 2015.
Melbourne, Sydney, New South Wales (UNSW) and Queensland universities are each set to provide A$5m to the fund, which will make follow-on investments in existing portfolio companies, over the next 10 years. The new follow-on fund will enable Uniseed to double-down on promising spinouts and avoid a dilution of its shares.
The vehicle follows the establishment of Uniseed’s third fund, a A$50m commercialisation initiative that has invested A$4m so far. Four additional spinouts received cash from that pool of money, though only one has been named so far – Exonate, a UK-based biotech developer spun out of Nottingham University that is also exploiting research conducted at UNSW.
A further example of university-corporate collaboration is EduGrowth, a non-profit platform founded by Deakin University, La Trobe University, Monash University, Charles Sturt University and Griffith University as well as education company Navitas. In February, EduGrowth launched an edtech accelerator and welcomed its first cohort of five edtech businesses, which will each receive A$50,000 in funding in return for a 6% equity stake. The money comes from a dedicated fund, backed by EduGrowth’s founders, which currently stands at more than A$1m and has a target size of A$3m.
The five businesses include Become, which hopes to develop an app to teach primary school pupils how to explore career options, and Life is Yellow, a mobile game for the iPad that uses fantastic creatures to teach children arithmetic.
Craftsposure offers an online platform to help users turn their hobbies into a professional career, while Jifox is aimed at senior school students, and will offer access to past exam questions and provide the solutions through video content. Finally, Prevyou is developing online tools for students to learn soft skills for the workplace.
There is also the M2 Venture Catalyst fund, a biomedical research enterprise launched by Monash and Melbourne universities in June 2016 with A$80m in financial firepower. M2 is jointly owned by the two universities, but run by an independent board chaired by John Brumby, former premier of Victoria and a fellow at both universities.
Funding for the venture came from the universities, which provided a combined A$50. The state of Victoria contributed A$10m, while further capital is being sought from trusts and charities. The enterprise will support companies, increase investment and exports and create specialised jobs. In total it is expected to generate about A$360m.
In terms of exits, Curtin University realised its investment in spinout ePat Technologies, which uses facial recognition software to detect pain, when the company floated on the Australian Stock Exchange through a backdoor listing with exploration company MinQuest last October.
But Australia still has plenty of catching up to do in the government venturing space. In 2014, the availability of venture capital had been deteriorating steadily since 2006, and research institutes and universities were almost entirely lacking VC investments.
The funds mentioned above should boost spinout activity in the country, but universities are concerned that the funds might be a smokescreen for deeper cuts elsewhere.
Vicki Thomson, chief executive of Group of Eight – a coalition of research-intensive higher education institutions that includes Western Australia, Monash, New South Wales, Melbourne, Queensland, Adelaide, Sydney and Australian National universities – wrote in April 2016: “In Australia, universities deal with two major parties who have cut our funding. Since 2012 almost A$1bn has been removed by both major parties from research funding programs. A further A$262m over three years was removed from the Sustainable Research Excellence fund in last year’s federal budget. A further 20% cut to university funding remains in the government’s forward estimates and it will be extremely challenging to equitably fund these cuts from changes to student fees and payment terms alone.”
With Australia currently ranking 27th out of 32 countries for public investment in tertiary education, the only way to go is up.