Collaboration in research commercialisation

The University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) and the Kolling Institute of Medical Research have launched SPARK Sydney - a start-up program to aid the commercialisation of health and medical research. Said to be the first of its kind in Australia, the program will work through the education and mentoring of research staff and the successful advancement of translational research in medical and health devices, therapeutics and diagnostics for the clinical setting.

“SPARK Sydney will deliver a collaborative, interactive model where clinicians and scientists will learn more about what it takes to ensure their innovations lead to new therapeutics, diagnostics and devices,” said SPARK Sydney Co-Director Professor Jonathan Morris, also the director of the Kolling Institute.

Research projects selected by the SPARK Sydney management committee will be pitched to a panel of mentors and industry professionals, with successful projects to be funded by the program at up to $40,000 over two years. This marks a different approach from traditional funding models, which are “highly bureaucratic, lengthy and competitive processes” according to SPARK Sydney Co-Director Professor Michael Wallach, from UTS.

“The difficulty of securing funding for some truly creative ideas and the lack of fundamental understanding of collaboration between academia and industry has led us to try something different,” he continued.

SPARK Sydney will emulate the SPARK program run at Stanford University School of Medicine for the past eight years, while capitalising on the areas of expertise at UTS Science and the Kolling Institute. According to Professor Wallach, “Sydney researchers have the means and the strengths to follow the Stanford model.

“We need new paradigms for how we structure our discovery science so that it results in more research outcomes making it to market,” he concluded.