We're open for business: CSIRO exec

The new executive director of CSIRO's business development team, Nigel Poole, is on the campaign trail, seeking to convince the business world that the organisation is open for business.

As the largest source of R&D in Australia, CSIRO wants to collaborate, Poole told attendees at last week's Melbourne AVCAL networking lunch. CSIRO, including its Preventative Health flagship, is looking for partners, he said: "If you have R&D, or IP, or cash, we'd like to speak to you."

Poole said CSRIO was conducting research at a scale never done before, and that others could easily collaborate. For example, AUD$90 million of CSIRO's increased government funding has been set aside for collaborative work between universities and CSIRO.

The CSIRO has already made a major input into many biotech companies including GroPep, Ambri, Biota, Starpharma, Clover Corp and Polynovo, said Poole. "We're proud of their achievements," he said. "They are our heritage."

The CSIRO's charter, said Poole, included maximising the benefits to Australia of the technology it developed with taxpayers' money. That meant understanding the needs of the market, and obtaining capital -- and that was, in turn, underlined by the belief that the private sector was often best placed to define market needs and turn innovation into products and services.

Poole said CSIRO would seek to transfer technology at the price set by the market, and that this value would drive resourcing, leaving CSIRO better placed to achieve its goals, to fund future research and grow. However, he added, that were are some areas in biotechnology, such as agribusiness and environmental biotechnology, where there was a compelling need for the CSIRO to conduct research, despite there being no direct market in Australia.

Poole said his 45-member team was involved in various biotechnology transactions, including HRZ wheat, in-licensing technology for enzymatic soil remediation, and gene silencing technology in flowers.

"We know [CSIRO has] to get better at talking to VCs," Poole said. "That's why we're here today."