INVESTORS in one of the State’s largest superannuation funds will be offered the chance to commercialise some promising Western Australian research projects.
INVESTORS in one of the State’s largest superannuation funds will be offered the chance to commercialise some promising Western Australian research projects.
Westscheme plans to place $10 million over 10 years in a trust fund to support very early stage agricultural and veterinary biotech, environmental technology and hydrometallurgy projects at Murdoch University.
An additional $2.5 million in administration costs for the 10-year fund will also be covered by Westscheme.
The Murdoch trust fund will be managed by a five-member investment committee, which will be selected from a 20-strong local and national selection pool.
Murdoch University director of research development Paul D’Sylva said the initiative acknowledged the view that Australia’s economy was moving from an industrial base towards a knowledge base. He said the university was approached by Westscheme late last year to identify investment opportunities.
Round table meetings commenced this year, and with the acknowledgment that Australia had an excellent reputation for its research but less so for translating this into commercial reality, the decision was made to target pre-proof-of-concept stage research.
“Murdoch is being as innovative in the commercialisation of its research as it is in the actual research,” Dr D’Sylva said.
Westscheme CEO Howard Rosario said the Murdoch opportunity was a very good way of introducing further diversification and vintage into its private equity investment program.
He said Westscheme had previously committed to two incentive pre-seed stage funds set up under the Federal Government’s plan to promote the commercialisation of Australian research.
“Now we are going one step further,” Mr Rosario said.
Access Economics consultant Paul Cheever described the Federal Government’s push for commercialisation as a carrot-and-stick approach.
Support funding was being encouraged from the private sector, but if universities did not move to commercialise the outcomes, they were likely to find it increasingly difficult to attract research funding, he said.
Access Economics was an adviser to Westscheme, and Murdoch offered the right mix of research and culture at the right time, Mr Cheever said.
Access was hoping to extend this type of arrangement for technology research which had a global market, he said.
The Westscheme and Murdoch joint venture is at the memorandum of understanding stage, but both parties are confident the fund will be operational by the end of the year.
Murdoch’s senate was quite excited at the prospect, Dr D’Sylva said, and all that remained was formal due diligence.
Westscheme is the largest non-government superannuation fund based in WA, with $800 million under management.
