Twenty-three Western Australian inventions, in sectors ranging from drug delivery to communications and minerals processing, will be on show at next month’s Commercialisation Expo 2006 in Melbourne.
The event has attracted more than 200 projects nationally, including 23 from the University of WA and Curtin University.
It is Australia’s biggest commerciali-sation fair and culminates in the awarding of Australia’s most valuable innovation prize, the $100,000 Peter Doherty Prize.
The University of WA’s Office of Industry and Innovation director, Andy Sierakowski, said the aim of the expo was to bring research suppliers and business together in a meaningful way to enhance commercialisation outcomes.
Two WA companies gained valuable backing at the inaugural expo, held in 2003.
Inner Vision Biometrics, now part of listed company Resonance Health, won the WA state prize and the Merck Sharp & Dohme national biotech prize.
IVB’s core technology, the FerriScan diagnostic test, is currently being marketed internationally.
Advanced Nanotechnology also used the event to gain early backing prior to its stock market float in 2005.
The WA projects at this year’s expo in-clude Hepascore, a non-invasive liver test for hepatitis C that has been licensed by UWA to a large US diagnostics company.
Scanalyse Pty Ltd is developing products that use laser scanning technology to improve the efficiency of mineral processing operations.
It recently obtained a Comet grant to help commercialise its Millmapper product.
Two products developed at the WA Telecommunications Research Institute will be at the expo. Sensear has developed industrial hearing systems, and Smart Plant has a monitoring and event detection system for industrial plants.
