National Survey of Research Commercialisation - Australian ...

NATIONAL SURVEY OF RESEARCH COMMERCIALISATION
START-UP COMPANIES
As used in this survey, the term ‘start-up companies’ refers to companies engaged in
businesses that were dependent, for their formation, upon licensing or assignment of
technology by the institutions that were the subject of this survey.
A) COMPANIES FORMED
The survey sought information from institutions about:
the numbers of start-up companies that were formed during Year 2000; and
how many of these start-up companies had their headquarters in Australia.
In Year 2000, 47 start-up companies were formed as the result of licensing of technology by universities,
medical research institutes and CSIRO. Of these, 43 had their headquarters in Australia.
Table 15: Start-up companies formed in Year 2000
Universities Medical Research Institutes CSIRO Total
Number of Companies Formed 32 2 13 47
Headquartered in Australia 30 2 11 43
Universities
In Year 2000, 32 start-up companies were formed as the result of licensing of technology
by universities. The highest number of start-up companies formed by a single university
was six, which represents 19% of all start-up companies formed by universities. Fifteen
universities each reported that at least one start-up company was formed as the result
of licensing of their technology. Nineteen universities reported no start-up companies
formed.
Medical Research Institutes
In Year 2000, two start-up companies were formed as the result of licensing of technology
by medical research institutes. Two institutes each reported that one start-up company
was formed as the result of licensing of their technology. Twelve institutes reported no
start-up companies formed. Information was not available from one institute.
CSIRO
In Year 2000, 13 start-up companies were formed as the result of licensing of technology
by CSIRO. Nine CSIRO divisions were involved in generating these start-up companies.
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