Weak spots exposed by commercialisation survey

A landmark survey of the commercialisation track record by Australia's publicly-funded research bodies shows worrying weak spots in a generally favourable picture.

The national survey found Australian research institutions outperformed their US counterparts in creating start-up companies per $US1 billion research investment and also generated proportionately higher licensing incomes.

However, they lagged well behind both US and Canada in terms of the numbers of US patents granted.

The survey canvassed 34 universities, 15 medical research institutions and all 21 CSIRO research divisions about commercialisation of research in 2000.

It found 47 start-up companies were created in 2000 across a range of industries including medical & health, biotechnology & biological sciences, software & ICT, and engineering.

Of those, 91 per cent had their headquarters in Australia and universities held equity in almost eight of every 10 of their start-up companies.

The survey found 417 licensing arrangements were established in 2000 which yielded adjusted gross income of $99 million in 2000 for survey respondents

Other major findings were:

• Australia is on track to generate 250 start-up companies from its publicly funded research over the five years to 2004 -- the target proposed by a working group of the Prime Minister's Science, Engineering and Innovation Council (PMSEIC) in 2001.
• The ability to grant exclusive licenses is important to company start-up activity by publicly funded research organisations in Australia.
• Inventor involvement is an important element in the strategies employed by Australia's publicly funded research organisations to manage their commercial licensing activities.
• There is a positive relationship between the length of an institution's experience in managing commercial licensing activities and the level of that institution's income from licences.
• There is room for improvement in the management of invention disclosures in Australia's publicly funded research organisations, according to uniform and higher standards of practice.

The report revealed that Australia's share of US patents, calculated relative to GDP, is low compared to other countries, although slowly growing.

Institutions who responded to the survey filed 834 patent applications in Australia and the USA in 2000, of which 469 were in Australia and 102 in the US. A total of 498 patents worldwide were issued, including 143 Australian patents and 115 US patents.

But every $US1 billion in research expenditure translated into just 34.3 US patents for Australian institutes, about one-quarter of the 127.9 per $US1 billion for US bodies and less than half the 86.1 for Canadian entities.

Patent numbers were also low when measured against GDP - about one-third the US figure and half the Canadian number.

On the other hand, for every $US100 million in GDP, Australian gross income from licences was $US10.3 million, nearly level-pegging with the $US12.9 million for US bodies and well above the $US4.7 million Canadian figure.

In terms of forming start-up companies, Australia performed slightly better than the US (5.2 versus 4.0) when measured as a function of GDP and well above when measured in terms of research expenditures (16.2 versus 13.8).

The survey, conducted jointly by the Australian Research Council (ARC), National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and CSIRO, is meant to provide a solid benchmark for measuring Australia's ongoing performance in commercialising research conducted by universities and research institutes.