Biotech business incubator to be established in NSW

Technology business accelerator ATP Innovations (ATPi) has won the tender to establish and operate a multi-million dollar biotechnology business incubator at Australian Technology Park, in inner-city Sydney.

The incubator, which is expected to host up to 16 biotech start-ups at peak capacity, will be developed over three years. The first stage, comprising wet-lab facilities at the Park's on-site biomedical building, should be completed by December this year.

An initial $2.5 million contribution from the NSW government will be matched by ATPi, said CEO Dr Mark Bradley.

Bradley said the establishment of the incubator was a "significant milestone" for NSW biotechnology. "It will provide essential resources and infrastructure which will drive the commercialisation of biotechnology enterprises in the state," he said.

The area was recently announced as the home of the national ICT Centre of Excellence. Bradley said co-location of ICT and biotech clusters would set the scene for convergence opportunities. "The linkage between these sectors is inseparable," he said.

Bradley left this week for a fact-finding tour of European incubators which may also result in the development of best-practice partnerships. By November, ATPi hopes to have hired the incubator's associate director for biobusiness programs, and according to Bradley is "actively seeking" the first tranche of incubatees.

The technology park is also home to high performance-computing centre AC3 and the CRC for Smart Internet Technology, both of which have the potential to provide convergence and development opportunities for biotech companies entering the incubator, Bradley said.

NSW Health Minister Craig Knowles said the incubator was another plank in the government's $68 million BioFirst strategy, announced last year.

"The incubator will nurture start-up companies, giving them access to research facilities to develop their ideas," he said. "Firms will also get advice on how to develop and market their products.

"The key to growing the biotechnology industry in NSW is to satisfy the significant demand for facilities that will enable small companies to develop and commercialise the first-class research being carried out in this state."

ATPi plans to provide facilities to support a range of biotech companies, from lab-based start-ups to biomedical device developers, and biomaterials and bio-IT companies. ATPi claims the title of the largest technology business accelerator in the southern hemisphere, with 32 technology companies currently in its acceleration program.

Its director of business programs, Charles Lindop, said ATPi planned to extend its business acceleration programs in regional NSW that were seeking help in commercialising life science technologies. "We see the need in the regions and we are very keen to help stimulate biotechnology commercialisation outside of the main centres," he said.