THE Western Australian component of the Australian Innovation Festival will be launched next week.
The two-week event, which will run between May 3 and 16, is designed to raise the profile of innovation and entrepreneurship in the State and encourage new business opportunities.
More than 100 events will be held throughout WA, including the outer metropolitan and regional areas.
The program includes opportunities to profile the State’s intellectual property and high-light the value of research, development, commercialisation and the entrepreneurial process.
This year’s theme of ‘Learning, Living, Creating’ was chosen to reflect the diversity of innovation and to acknowledge the fact that anyone can be an innovator in their field.
Now in its third year, the Australian Innovation Festival is a national initiative of the Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources.
The WA component of the festival is coordinated through the Department of Industry and Resources in conjunction with local stakeholders and the private sector. It is being run against a backdrop of State Government initiatives including a new industry policy called ‘Building Future Prosperity: Creating Jobs and Wealth Through Industry Development’, which is intended to set the framework for economic developing in WA over the next decade.
The State Government earlier this year committed $750,000 to establish an Innovation Centre at Technology Park to encourage innovation and serve as an incubator.
Earlier this month, Premier Geoff Gallop pledged $50 million to attract new science and technology developments to the State as part of the InnovateWA2 policy, which is expected to generate $1 billion worth of investment in WA by 2015.
WA scientist Dr Bruce Hobbs will launch the Australian Innovation Festival at Burswood Convention Centre on April 30.
Burns specialist and Clinical Cell Culture director Professor Fiona Wood is the keynote speaker at the event. Dr Wood made headlines in October 2002 when she and her team treated Bali victims at Royal Perth Hospital with a revolutionary burns treatment developed through Clinical Cell Culture.
