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The Commercialisation team at Curtin works with Curtin staff, students, researchers, investors and industry partners to take innovations, assess their commercial potential and find the best ways of bringing them to market.
Transforming disruptive ideas into commercial reality
At Curtin University, we empower individuals to develop the skills required to solve real-world problems with commercial outcomes. We have a growing cohort of researchers who are engaged and interested in commercialisation opportunities. Our Commercialisation team supports these researchers and their collaborators through a range of mechanisms that enable and foster their ideas from conception to commercial success.
Commercialisation Pathway
As we move from innovation to impact, commercialisation at Curtin follows the pathway depicted below. The Commercialisation team works closely with researchers to assess commercial potential, implement a commercialisation plan, and negotiate deals with commercial partners. If you need clarification on any of the terms used in our process and procedures, visit our Commercialisation Glossary for more details.
The identification of commercial potential can occur at any stage during the research process. It’s worthwhile contacting the Commercialisation team early if you’re working towards innovation that could be commercialised. Once you have some data or evidence supporting your innovation, consider disclosing it to Commercialisation for assessment.
A disclosure of the innovation is the official starting point of our commercialisation process.
If you’re at an earlier stage, the team are always willing to advise on matters such as:
Funding opportunities for ideas with commercial merit
Requirements for confidentiality if you are looking to commercialise in the future
How to approach industry to discuss opportunities around a potentially commercial idea
The patenting process or other IP protection
The Commercialisation team work closely with researchers to perform a broad assessment of the potential for commercialisation. The key factors we look at are:
The problem that the innovation solves
Comparison with competing solutions
The size of the market
The stage of development
The potential for protectable intellectual property, including patents and copyright
The most important aspect to ensure commercial success is to get feedback from industry or customers that the innovation can solve a real-world problem
If the innovation is assessed as having commercial potential, a commercialisation plan will be developed.
A commercialisation plan will be developed, which will cover the following broad points:
Commercial pathway, which could be licensing or formation of a spinout company
IP protection strategy
Potential partners or investors
Technical development required to support commercialisation
Funding and time required
Ideally, the commercialisation plan is driven by feedback from industry or investors and is subject to ongoing review as new information and results emerge.
This phase often involves technical development to prepare the technology to a stage where it is of interest to investors or licensees. There are many funding sources available to researchers at Curtin who are working towards commercialisation outcomes, including:
The Commercialisation team can assist with many of the commercially focused grant applications, and will assist with negotiation of IP terms to protect the university’s commercial position.
The Kickstart fund can commit funding up to $500,000 per project, upon presentation of a business case to the CAB. Any application must be made in consultation with the Commercialisation team and be consistent with the commercialisation plan. Further information on Kickstart is available here.
To bring a product to market, we usually need to get the innovation out of the university and in the hands of a commercially driven organisation. In most cases, this is either by licensing IP to an existing company, or through the formation of a new spinout company.
Licensing
If we can identify an existing company who operates in the same market as our technology, then we may be able to license the technology. A license agreement grants rights to the company to manufacture, use or sell our innovation in return for payments, often as a royalty calculated as a percentage of revenue.
The advantage of licensing is that we are dealing with an existing company with internal processes, sales networks and knowledge of the market. Under the IP Policy, inventors receive a 50% share of the revenue received from the company.
Spinout
Curtin may form a spinout company in situations when we cannot identify an existing company to take a licence, or where the technology shows considerable promise to investors. Upon formation of a company, the inventors and Curtin both become shareholders; further equity is then granted to external investors.
A spinout company offers researchers the chance to get involved in a growing technology company as shareholders and employees. While the returns are often larger than if we license technology, there is often no revenue until an exit event, such as when the company is sold to a larger acquirer or listed on a stock exchange.
The Commercialisation team has experience dealing with all types of commercial deals, and has template agreements to assist with the process.
Once the technology is being developed by an external company, Curtin may engage to undertake further research and development. Often the product or service will not yet be ready for market, and further research and development will be funded at Curtin.
Different technology areas may come to market over vastly different timescales. For example, software is often very quick to market, and medical technologies (particularly pharmaceuticals) must undergo rigorous testing and may take decades before being approved for use.
Once a product is launched onto the market, we will often start to collect royalty payments.
Previous products brought to market from Curtin research include:
Ultimately our commercialisation activities are intended to make global impact through our innovative research. Once a product has been launched, we track its growth closely so that we can measure and report on its societal impact. This provides useful case studies to demonstrate to government, industry and other stakeholders that the research performed at Curtin delivers value, through new products and services as well as economic activity.
We use the following metrics to record and highlight the impact of commercialisation:
Products sold
Revenue
Investment capital raised
Number of employees
At this stage. the research team may also look to develop next-generation products so that the competitive advantage can be maintained.
Staff are encouraged to actively engage in commercialisation activities and are rewarded through a generous revenue sharing scheme whereby 50% of commercial revenue (after costs) is shared with the inventors or originators of the technology or innovation.
Staff: IP created by staff during their duties or on Curtin projects is typically owned by Curtin.
Students: Students own the IP they create, unless otherwise agreed.
Exemptions: Curtin acknowledges individual ownership of scholarly and artistic works. Indigenous cultural and intellectual property is managed in consultation with relevant communities.
Events and Workshops
Kickstart Funding
Kickstart is an internal Curtin funding program that can assist with the costs of proof of concept, prototyping, pilot scale trialling, business planning and other activities that will accelerate the translation of research outcomes towards commercial success.
This event series aims to build capability for Curtin researchers and academic staff to better understand the commercialisation journey and the opportunities available in research commercialisation.
Curtin University has developed a pipeline of support for entrepreneurial individuals who want to transform disruptive ideas into global businesses. Over the past 20 years this pipeline has been the foundation of many new Western Australian products, services and businesses.
The Commercialisation Advisory Board (CAB) provides the Commercialisation team with advice and guidance for all stages of the commercialisation lifecycle.
The board provides strategic guidance and advice on the University’s commercialisation activity including appropriate support programs, pathways, structures and funding for commercialisation.
If you have a technology or research outcome that you feel could be commercialised, the first step is to disclose it to the Commercialisation team. Reach out to a member of our friendly Commercialisation team today to start the process.
