Biomedical innovation to benefit from new funding

Thursday, 26 October 2017

The University of Adelaide will take a leadership role in the State to boost entrepreneurship in the biomedical sector and help translate medical research to real-world outcomes, thanks to new funding announced today at the AusBiotech conference in Adelaide.

MTPConnect – the Medical Technologies and Pharmaceuticals Industry Growth Centre – today announced it will provide a proposed $1 million provisional funding to Accelerating Australia over two years, with proposed matched funding of $1 million coming from the sector. MTPConnect’s Project Fund Program is a competitive, dollar-for-dollar matched funding program investing in big, bold ideas to improve the productivity, competitiveness and innovative capacity of Australia’s medical technology, biotechnology and pharmaceutical sector. MTPConnect is supported by the Australian Government’s Industry Growth Centres Initiative.

The national project is led by Accelerating Australia, which is a consortium of Australian research institutes, universities, companies and health care providers.

With the MTPConnect funding, the University of Adelaide will offer a Bioinnovation Accelerator Program for South Australia.

Accelerating Australia aims to create a culture of entrepreneurship and collaboration across the medical technologies and pharmaceuticals (MTP) sector by providing access to best practice biomedical entrepreneurship training programs, shared commercialisation resources and a "connected early-stage translational ecosystem".

"This funding announcement is welcome news for South Australia's biomedical, research and commercialisation sector," says Professor Paul Rolan, Director of Innovation with the University of Adelaide’s Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences.

"Thanks to our involvement in the national consortium, the University of Adelaide will continue to build a cohesive and collaborative environment for the early-stage translation of biomedical research. This will bring together academics, industry and healthcare providers across the country.

"The University's Bioinnovation Accelerator Program will empower staff and students across all Faculties to be actively involved in translation and commercialisation of cross disciplinary research. In many ways, this new program will be complementary to the University's long-established and highly successful Australian eChallenge program, which has been fostering a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in South Australia for decades."

This year, MTPConnect has selected 20 national MTP projects to receive $7.385 million in funding over two years.

For more information on the Bioinnovation Accelerator Program at Adelaide and similar programs at other locations across Australia, visit: www.acceleratingaustralia.com

About MTPConnect
MTPConnect was formed as an industry-led independent not-for-profit organisation in November 2015 as part of the federal government’s Industry Growth Centres Initiative to accelerate the rate of growth of the MTP sector to achieve greater commercialisation and establish Australia as an Asia-Pacific hub for MTP companies.

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