Our Sponsors
Epicorp Limited
Epicorp’s ICT Commercialisation Incubator provided focussed support for start up technology based businesses; particularly those based in the ACT.
Epicorp was established in response to a market failure affecting the commercialisation of Australian innovation both from the IT and Communications industry and also from the nation’s centres of research. Specifically, a funding gap at the ‘seed’ or ‘early-stage’ level existed where opportunities that had already leveraged grant funding along with sweat equity, but that were not yet on the radar of traditional venture finance were falling through the cracks.
This gap was further compounded by limited access to international capital and partnership opportunities, an immature Angel finance network and difficulties in creating the necessary industry linkages needed for successful institutional commercialisation. Epicorp responded to that challenge by focussing its attention in the high-risk ‘gap’ area with much-needed finance and also by serving as a gateway between the nation’s premier research institutions and the target market of their innovation.
In the process, Epicorp amassed a significant amount of intellectual property, corporate knowledge, networks and best practise that it now makes available to Lighthouse.
ACT Government
"Governments have a major interest in ensuring that businesses that fall within their jurisdictions are innovative--as business success is reflected in overall economic success as indicated by new business formation, business growth and longer term business sustainability" — Innovation, Creativity and Leadership, a Report on a Study of the ACT Innovation System, March 2008.
Canberra is a knowledge intensive city and is distinctive among Australian and global cities for the depth and breadth of its knowledge-based talent and creativity.
From a business and industry perspective Canberra has many advantages over other regions in Australia — through the concentration of education and research institutions across the city, the highest concentration of public sector workers in the country - providing significant business opportunities; and investments that have been made in the city by the Australian and ACT Governments over many years.
The ACT Government plays a role in supporting business development by:
- Assisting the formation of new firms by providing support for extensive end-to-end business information, mentoring and advisory services;
- Providing an environment that is supportive of business growth and development; and
- Supporting strategically important industry sectors.
A Focus on Innovation
The ACT is home to some of the nation’s leaders in public sector research and development. Around 10% of the nation’s public sector research and development (R&D) is conducted in the Territory – comprising some 4% of Gross State Product (compared with around 2% nationally). This is impressive given that the ACT constitutes less than 1.7% of the nation’s population and around 2% of the national economy.
The Australian National University (ANU) is Australia’s leading research university and conducts significant internationally recognised R&D at its City campus. The CSIRO, headquartered in Canberra, also conducts significant amounts of R&D within its ACT facilities. Other organisations, like NICTA, DSTO and the University of Canberra also contribute significantly to the local innovation and knowledge environment.
Whilst significant amounts of R&D are conducted at these and other public sector institutions, the continuing challenge is to maximise local benefit. The basis of the ACT Government’s innovation support initiatives is to increase commercial and economic benefit from local public sector R&D activity.