Australia struggles to turn science into startups. Here's how we fix it.
Despite world-class research, Australia’s funding structures and risk-averse capital are choking innovation before it ever reaches market.
Australia prides itself on being a nation of ingenuity, yet our investment in turning bright ideas into breakthrough industries lags the rest of the developed world.
We now spend barely 1.68% of GDP on research and development, while the OECD average is close to 2.7%. Luke Sheehy of Universities Australia recently warned that this underinvestment threatens both national productivity and sovereign capability.
But money is only half the story. The other half is how that money is structured.
Traditional ten-year venture capital partnerships were built for software sprints, not the marathon of drug discovery. Capital calls arrive in predictable two- or three-year windows, yet a breakthrough gene therapy program can extend beyond a single fund cycle.
