Murdoch Children’s Research Institute has taken out the top prize for research translation at the InnovationAus 2021 Awards for Excellence.
The InnovationAus 2021 Awards for Excellence were presented at a gala black-tie dinner on Wednesday night at the Overseas Passenger Terminal in Sydney.
The research translation category award, sponsored by national science agency CSIRO, was given to Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Australia’s largest child health research institute.
The institute is in the top three worldwide for child health research in terms of research quality and impact, and has a team of more than 1200 researchers. It is dedicated to making discoveries to prevent and treat childhood conditions.
UNSW’s Centre for Sustainable Materials Research and Technology, which looks at the development of innovative environmental solutions for the world’s biggest waste challenge, and the Advanced Mobility Analytics Group, which has released the world’s first advanced software-as-a-solution tool to significantly reduce fatalities and injuries on transport systems, were both highly commended in the category.
The other finalist for the research translation category was AKQA.
The commercialisation of research into successful companies has long been a challenge for Australia, and these finalists are leading the way to address this.
“It can be a long and lonely road from lab bench to business, but it’s one that more of us need to travel,” CSIRO chief executive Larry Marshall said.
“That’s why it’s so important to celebrate the latest Australian commercialisation success stories in this Research Translation category.
“Australia has a world-class research sector, and I’m looking forward to toasting the winners of this award and many more as CSIRO continues to catalyse, support, and grow Australia’s research translation capability.”
The loss of international students and growing scrutiny of translation by the federal government placed further pressure on Australian universities to translate their world-leading research into commercial outcomes.
The issue is often more complex than it may appear, with deep tech commercialisation taking years and costing significant amounts of money.
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