Hub and spoke spins success

Dr Harvey (back) and Dr Meredith

Grass roots involvement in research by commercialisation facilitators is already producing impressive results.

As the projects it is helping reach full potential, a strategy to promote commercialisation at UQ is proving to be just as successful.

UQ’s main commercialisation company, UniQuest, has applied a decentralised “hub and spoke” management structure to maximise opportunities between University researchers and business.  Vital to this structure are the Managers of Innovation and Commercial Development (MICD), jointly funded by UniQuest, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), and faculties.

The MICDs are based in the faculties and work alongside researchers to identify, protect and package innovations for commercialisation through licensing or the formation of start-up companies. The achievements of MICDs in the past year are significant.

MICD-driven projects include:

• Helping attract funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (see story page 25);
  
• Launching the start-up company Xerocoat to develop and market a coating technology project by UQ physicists Dr Paul Meredith and Dr Michael Harvey that prevents fogging and could improve the function of greenhouses and the performance of solar cells.  
  
• Coordinating a project by Dr Bill Clarke of UQ’s School of Engineering to assess the potential of bananas as an alternative energy source for North Queensland;
  
• Establishing VasCam Pty Ltd to commercialise a technology that could allow patients to grow their own replacement blood vessels.  The company secured a Queensland Government Innovation Start-up Scheme (ISUS) grant. The technology was developed by Professors Julie and Gordon Campbell from UQ’s Centre for Research in Vascular Biology;
  
• Helping UQ spin-off company HerdVac Pty Ltd to raise funds for developing a salmonella vaccine project by Dr Tetsuo Mizuno to improve productivity in cattle;
  
• Promoting the text-mining software Leximancer created by Dr Andrew Smith of the UQ Key Centre for Human Factors and Applied Cognitive Psychology, which allows single desktop users to analyse large amounts of unstructured text at a glance and at a fraction of the price of large enterprise solutions;
  
• Supporting the world’s first device allowing physiotherapists to both accurately assess and rehabilitate the specific neck muscles affecting people with neck pain and headaches.  PhD student Shaun O’Leary, Professor Gwen Jull and
  Dr Bill Vicenzino from the UQ Faculty of Health Sciences developed the device; and
  
• Marketing the Communicator technology that utilises the capabilities of 3G mobile telephony to teach English in real-life situations.  The project is the first patent applied for from the Faculty of Arts and was developed by Masters student Mike Proctor.

Email: enquiries@uniquest.com.au
Website: www.uniquest.com.au

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