UniQuest Pty Limited, The University of Queensland’s main commercialisation company, will celebrate 25 years of taking Australian research innovations and expertise to the world, at gala cocktail event tomorrow August 26.
Incorporated as a UQ company in 1984, UniQuest is widely recognised as one of Australia’s largest and most successful university commercialisation groups. The company’s charter is to identify, package and commercialise research-based technologies, expertise and facilities for the benefit of the community, industry, business and government.
UniQuest now also provides commercialisation services to the University of Wollongong, University of Technology Sydney, James Cook University, University of Tasmania, two ARC Centres of Excellence and the Mater Medical Research Institute. With 80+ staff and group revenues over $100M in 2008, UniQuest’s capabilities benchmark it in the top 10 percent globally for university-based technology transfer.
Projects as diverse as the world’s first cervical cancer vaccine (Gardasil), the Triple P parenting program, a surge protector for communications systems, and MRI optimisation are among the innovations that have had a significant impact on lives all around the world, thanks to the commercialisation pathways UniQuest forged for them.
Many of the inventors will be attending the celebration, along with Professor Brian Wilson, the former UQ Vice-Chancellor whose vision in the 1980s was to see a critical mass of entrepreneurial academic brainpower stimulating the engines of industry, equal to university technology transfer organisations emerging from Silicon Valley and Cambridge.
Managing Director David Henderson said the company’s achievements over the past quarter of a century had drawn attention to Australia’s propensity towards invention and capacity for innovation.
“Based on research outcomes from UQ and our partners, UniQuest has built, commercialised and now manages an extensive intellectual property and asset portfolio, including more than 1,500 patents, 60 start-up companies and 250 licences,” Mr Henderson said.
“But most importantly, our commercialisation strategies have made it possible for Australian researchers to realise their goals of making a difference to people’s lives, whilst generating additional income for continuing their research.
“Sales of products using UQ technology and licensed by UniQuest are now running at $5.2 billion per year, and have impacted positively on communities on every continent, including more than 70 developing nations,” he said.
UniQuest is Australia’s leading university-based provider of international aid project management. Working with agencies such as AusAID, NZAID, the Asian Development Bank, and the World Bank, UniQuest develops solutions and implements projects in countries throughout the Pacific, Southeast Asia, the Indian sub-continent and Africa.
The knowledge, skills and expert opinion of some 1200 UQ researchers is commercialised through UniQuest, providing industry and government clients in Australia and overseas with access to world-class university expertise and facilities.
UQ Vice-Chancellor Professor Paul Greenfield congratulated UniQuest on 25 years of delivering benefits to the UQ community and the national and global communities.
“UniQuest has fostered a dynamic entrepreneurial culture within the University,” Professor Greenfield said.
“Over the past 25 years, and especially this decade, UniQuest has introduced a range of successful initiatives to engage academics, students and graduates in commercialisation - including education programs, ideas competitions, collaborations with other research institutions, and industry networking opportunities.
“These and other UniQuest innovations give an advantage to UQ researchers, and help translate many powerful discoveries into products and services that benefit people and corporations throughout Australia and globally. UniQuest’s international successes also raise the profile of Queensland and Australian research, and yield rewards for the state and national economies.”
To be held in UQ’s John Hay Building Auditorium at the St Lucia campus from 5.00 pm on 26 August, the 25th anniversary cocktail celebration will feature:
• opportunities for past and present staff and industry stakeholders to renew contacts;
• speeches by Prof Brian Wilson, Prof Paul Greenfield AO, UniQuest chairman Dr Norbury Rogers AO, and David Henderson;
• displays of technologies UniQuest has commercialised, including a wall-sized map of places UniQuest technologies have a presence and a timeline of UniQuest’s key initiatives and achievements.
Media enquiries: Leanne Wyvill (+61 7 3365 4037, 0409 767 199, l.wyvill@uniquest.com.au )
For more information about UniQuest, please visit www.uniquest.com.au.
