Recognised as a big, bold idea to improve the productivity, competitiveness and innovative capacity of Australia’s medtech, biotech and pharmaceutical sector
MTPConnect – the Medical Technologies and Pharmaceuticals Industry Growth Centre – today announced it will provide a proposed $100,000 provisional funding to a National MedTech, Pharmaceutical and Digital Health Showcase over one year, with proposed matched funding of $100,000 coming from the sector. The funding will allow the project to catalogue and track the progress of health innovations under development in Australia and make the information accessible to all on a public online platform.
The project consortium is led by Canberra-based start-up Health Horizon, and includes national organisations like Medical Technology Association of Australia (MTAA), Health Informatics Society of Australia (HISA) and Medical Software Industry Association (MSIA). Industry members of the consortium include ANDHealth (Australia’s only national mid-stage digital health integrator and accelerator), hospital and health services intellectual property management company Hospital and Health Services IP Ltd and Novartis Pharmaceuticals Australia. The academic consortium members include the Melbourne Academic Centre for Health and influential health innovation groups from QUT and the University of Newcastle.
The project will identify, catalogue and track in real time health innovations under development in Australia. Open to investors, health practitioners and the public, it will be a place for anyone to make sense of, and support, the diverse and rapidly evolving health innovation ecosystem. This showcase is designed to open up new avenues for private and public stakeholders to connect with and support innovations nation-wide, while improving the coordination, collaboration and transparency of the entire sector.
MTPConnect’s Project Fund Program is a competitive, dollar-for-dollar matched funding program investing in big, bold ideas to improve the productivity, competitiveness and innovative capacity of Australia’s medical technology, biotechnology and pharmaceutical sector. MTPConnect is supported by the Australian Government’s Industry Growth Centres Initiative.
This year, MTPConnect has selected 20 national MTP projects to receive $7.385 million in funding over two years with proposed matched funding of $15.2million coming from the sector. Last year, the launch of the program saw 14 projects receive $7.4 million in funding over two years, with matched funding of c.$15.6 million. Following the success of these projects, this year’s program received significant interest from the sector, with 33 applications from industry, research organisations and universities to share in the funding available, with a proposed $25.8 million of matched funding coming from the sector.
Sue MacLeman, CEO of MTPConnect, said, “MTPConnect is focused on harnessing Australia’s world-class research to seize more commercialisation opportunities and accelerate growth. As part of our mission, we are funding big, bold ideas that will deliver results on a national scale, have sector-wide impact, and are aligned with the Sector Growth Priorities we have identified in our 10-year Sector Competitiveness Plan. By supporting project such as a National MTPD Showcase, we believe we can develop a more vibrant MTP sector ecosystem with more successful companies, and ultimately improve the health and wellbeing of Australia and the world.”
“We often get glimpses about incredible advances in health on the news, but too often never hear about them again.” said Marcus Dawe, CEO of Health Horizon. “This project will make the progress of health innovations under development in Australia easily searchable and trackable, changing how Australians interact with what’s coming in health.”
For more information on MTPConnect’s Project Fund Program and the successful applicants, visit: www.mtpconnect.org.au/2017projects
Read more: MTPConnect Funds an Australian Health Innovation Showcase