Seventeen research staff and PhD’s from Murdoch University competed at the Start Something from Research pitch contest on the 2nd September. Pitch nights like these have many benefits, and are proving a key part of the research commercialisation acceleration funnel.
Murdoch University Vice Chancellor, Professor Eeva Leinonen, introduced the evening highlighting the rich pedigree of Murdoch in translational research, emphasizing the economic and social benefits of research commercialisation and flagging the importance of industry engagement and collaboration. The Start Something cohort then braved a panel of industry leaders plus a room of experts from varying sectors to sell their commercial or social impact potential, unique value proposition and business model impact.
Prizes for Start Something at Murdoch include entrepreneurship program scholarships, mentoring for commercialisation progress were provided by Atomic Sky, CSA Global, CISCO, Studio StartUp, Curtin Ignition, Murdoch University and CERI. The cohort also received startup community membership via the TechHub entrepreneurship program.
In the past twelve months, Start Something programs have engaged with 308 researchers; 86 have completed the full program, 69% of which were STEM disciplines, and 43 industry experts have mentored. It was founded in 2015 by Innovation Cluster as a platform to Engage, Learn, Leverage and Action research commercialisation in Australia. To Engage researchers to step out of the lab and think commercially, to Learn startup methodologies, to Leverage industry and business acceleration mentors and to Action their business model.
The evening closed with a networking session hosted by PwC. Long after close the industry executives and financiers were still locking in follow up meetings with the presenters so there was no doubt that these researchers that had both skilled up then stepped up.