Innovatia

• ‘Silicon Sunshine’ : Queensland is home to the Gold Coast Health and Knowledge Precinct, which reflects the emergence of a new knowledge cluster (coined here as ‘Silicon Sunshine’). It is a 10 to 15-year

21st century – in Queensland, early leaders in- clude Wotif, Next DC, Technology One, Mincom, and Superloop. Todaytherearehundredsofexamplesacrossmul- tiple industry sectors, including an emerging class of entrepreneurial businesses called “unicorns” – start-ups with turnover exceeding $1 billion. Queensland unicorns include Logan tech start- up Go1, which provides an online marketplace that connects training organisations and busi- nesses; and SafetyCulture, initially founded to provide safety compliance documents to the Australian market. Vaxxas, Clipchamp, Gilmour Space Technologies, and QBiotics are also note- worthy players, making Brisbane one of the top 100 start-up ecosystems worldwide. With many significant businesses – including Golden Circle, Theiss and Mincom, to name a few – included in the Queensland Business Leaders list and now owned by national or global entities, Brisbane is now a ‘branch office’ at best. Great aspirations In a state with 11 universities and 280 research institutes, there is much intellectual property to develop commercially. So what needs to be in place to create, scale, and retain businesses in Queensland? 2050 aspirations for the state include: • Renewable projects : Queensland wants half of its energy to be supplied from renewable energy generated in the state, avoiding nearly 14 million tonnes of CO2 emissions. Fifty large- scale renewable projects are operating, under construction or financially committed across the state, and an investment of more than $10 billion will create nearly 8,000 jobs for Queenslanders.

project that will result in a 200-hectare hub for high-tech development and research col- laboration in the health and biomedical sec- tor. It has already created 9,200 jobs and will contribute 11,000 more and $1.4 billion to

the Queensland economy once completed. • BioPark Australia : BioPark in Springfield will be a shared growth hub for multiple bio- logic industries (therapeutics, vaccines, Med- Tech, diagnostics and wellbeing), providing the complete suite of necessary components Ian Frazer, one of Australia’s preeminent scien- tists, struggled (and failed) to commercialise a cer- vical cancer vaccine in Queensland or Australia. In his book, Frazer laments that if we’d been able to take that next step, the vaccine might have been on the market sooner, increasing annual revenue by an estimated $300 million and creating many more jobs. The conversation about innovation in Queens- land and Australia, and the commercialisation of Australian R&D, raises some big questions – ques- tions that prompted the establishment of the Transitional Research Institute in Queensland, led by Frazer. and reagents in one place. The 21st century challenge There are positive signs in Queensland with re- newable energy and biotechnology, and around a dozen priority industries, including advanced manufacturing, biotechnology, defence and avia- tion, the digital economy, and renewable energy. However, the question remains: does Queens- land have the ‘mongrel’ required to be a genuine technology hub for South-East Asia, and become a scale-up hub in Australia? Or will it remain a ‘branch office’ state in a ‘branch office’ country? Ben Kehoe is a thought leader, business strategist, coach and mentor, and the author of Innovation in Australia: Creating Prosperity for Future Generations.

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