Boosting commercial returns from research

AusBiotech has made a submission to the federal government’s consultation regarding ‘Boosting commercial returns from research’, as part of the Industry Innovation and Competitiveness Agenda.

AusBiotech said the discussion paper has appropriately acknowledged and described well the key issues and agreed that “better translation of research into commercial outcomes will help drive innovation in Australia, grow successful Australian businesses and research capacity, and boost productivity and exports”.

In particular, AusBiotech said it supports the comments in the discussion paper that interactions between research and industry are complicated and that the underlying incentives and system settings will determine any shifts in outcomes.

AusBiotech recommended that to boost the commercial returns of research, the government:

• Establish a translational research fund, as has been proposed by many, to direct resources to an area currently devoid of support.
• Preserve the R&D Tax Incentive in its current form and consider reversing the recent 1.5% reduction for companies operating in loss, which have been hardest hit. This action seems to be inconsistent with the policy intent.
• Continue the tax reform process by looking to retain domestic IP and gain the substantial economic benefits of manufacture and export, as outline in the Australian Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Incentive.
• Address the system of disincentives for academics to spend time in industry and be able to move back to public research without detriment.
• Encourage better skills in university business offices - the best Australian models at present being UniQuest at The University of Queensland and the Medical Research Commercialisation Fund (MRCF) based in Victoria.
• Recognise that balance is the goal and that some public researchers will always thrive undertaking discovery research while others do have an interest in taking work further along the commercial path.
• Address the longstanding cultural issues that can thwart quality research and industry interaction.
• Consider improvements to the ERA that better reflect the efforts of public sector researchers working to commercialise great discovery.
• Consider encouragement of early-stage speculative investment by private investors, by requiring two to three years of investment, and if benefits eventuate, provide capital gains tax relief.
• Encourage universities to actively consider industry involvement in curricular and student/researcher mentoring.

With the right policy settings for innovation, Australia’s biotechnology industry has the capacity to be a major contributor to our knowledge economy as well as our lives and financial wellbeing.

The full submission can be found here