Annual Report - Swinburne University of Technology

Swinburne University of Technology
High levels of activity continued in the commercialisation
of Intellectual Property (IP) developed at the University,
including:
Annual Report 2002
■ 26 opportunities reviewed at an early stage
■ 6 provisional applications for patents were filed, with 4
more under development
■ 6 business cases developed for projects
■ 3 other companies are actively fundraising.
3DCD Technology Pty Ltd (which was established in 2001,
and had already received a COMET grant), received an
achievement award from AusIndustry. 3DCD, along with
OpalTree Pty Ltd (formerly IPFlex), set about actively
raising funds for further development.
Returns were received from activities in two Co-operative
Research Centres (CRCs), in the form of shares in Plantic
Pty Ltd (Food and Packaging CRC), and a share of royalties
from the CRC for Intelligent Manufacturing. Under the
Swinburne Intellectual Property policy these returns were
shared between the appropriate unit and the originators.
Four spin-off companies were established during the year,
as follows.
■ MiniFAB, a partnership with Wilkore and Caribbean Park,
will provide a prototyping and pilot manufacture facility
■ Genos Pty Ltd was established to commercialise the
Swinburne University Emotional Intelligence Test,
developed by Professor Con Stough, and student Ben
Palmer
■ VROOM Inc will develop Virtual Reality exhibits, in
conjunction with Melbourne Museum, RMIT, Monash
and Melbourne Universities
■ Nanotechnology Victoria Ltd aims to lead the
development of an industry in this field in Victoria, in
conjunction with RMIT, Monash University and CSIRO.
The latter two companies received Victorian Government
Science, Technology and Innovation grants.
Incubation procedures were further developed, and two
companies – 3DCD and I3Media – were incubated.
In addition, in May, the Powercor-Swinburne Hatchery was
established within the Australian Graduate School of
Entrepreneurship. Powercor Australia Ltd, an energy
distribution company, is sponsoring and underwriting the
costs of the hatchery, where concepts are developed and
planned to the stage of launching new ventures. Two teams
have been placed within the hatchery to develop new
businesses. All Swinburne staff and students will be eligible
to use the facility for a maximum period of one year.
The Venture Cup, a business planning competition, attracted
176 students in 51 groups in 2002. The competition aims to:
■ provide further development for entrepreneurial students
■ develop linkages between students across disciplines
■ build upon class and project work towards practice, ‘real
world’ outcomes
■ identify start-up companies that may qualify for ongoing
incubation within Swinburne.
Research
Swinburne continued to make outstanding progress towards
its goal of becoming a research-intensive university of
technology during 2002, as measured by the major
indicators. The most important of these (research income,
number of publications, higher degree by research student
load and research degree completions) drive the block
funding received from the Commonwealth Government via
several schemes.
Research income increased by 6.82% to $8,486,769 in
2001, and publications increased by 12%. This would have
led to an increase in funding from the Institutional Grants
Scheme of 45%, were it not that increases are capped to a
maximum of 5% during a transitional period.
The University’s allocation under the Research Infrastructure
Block Grants scheme increased by 50% from $281,913 in
2001 to $423,999 in 2002. As this scheme is driven by
success in winning National Competitive Grants, it indicates
the rate of growth in Swinburne’s research activity. In 2002
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