KCA has just been awarded a grant from the Department of Industry and Science to support KCA’s Accessing Innovation Series, an initiative championed by the KCA Industry and Investor Engagement Committee. This platform has been created to offer government and industry the opportunity to gain direct access to new technology based products and service opportunities arising from the country’s leading research organisations. It provides a great opportunity for industry and public sector research to come together and explore avenues for collaboration as well as raising the profile of the technologies and capabilities that exist within research organisations.
The concept was recently piloted at the Austmine 2015 Conference in Brisbane which saw representatives from six public research organisations present innovative solutions to mining industry executives from around the globe as part of a specially formatted partnering session integrated within the format of the conference. The session attracted over 65 decision makers from mining services companies around the country, and great interest was shown in the ideas being presented. Lines of communication are now open between KCA and Austmine, and we are actively exploring more opportunities from the KCA member base to access Austmine’s network.
The intention with future partnering events is to target growth sectors identified by the Commonwealth in which Australia already has a competitive advantage. Over the next 12-18 months, KCA will work with industry bodies and conference organisers in key sectors to develop partnering events which will provide focal points for interaction between the Commonwealth, industry and public sector research groups.
KCA would like to thank Rohan McDougall, Director of IP Commercialisation at Curtin University for all of his efforts in bringing this opportunity to KCA, and to the Department of Industry and Science for their support in enabling the business and research sector to come together around areas of national priority and strength.
