Impact

Evolution of Exciton Science Connect Program

Over 2022, the “Exciton Science Connect” internal funding program has been streamlined and adapted to meet the aims of delivering impact, building a Centre legacy, and providing industry-relevant skills to students.

Delivering Impact

To deliver impact a large “Entrepreneurship Funding” option was developed for medium TRL projects with a clearly identified customer or market and a suitable spin-out team, as well as a “Major Project / Industry Postdoc Funding” for any major project/idea with a committed industry partner requiring at least 1 FTE of R&D work over at least one year.

Entrepreneurship Funding is to be used as leverage funding, to rapidly develop a project to the point where external investment is achieved. This will typically involve identification, development and validation of a “minimum viable product” and devising a business plan. The successful applicants are set up with mentors and required to enrol in relevant start-up accelerator programs.

A team led by Dr. Kalim Kashif (Monash University) was awarded the first tranche of Entrepreneurship Funding for their environmentally friendly conductive paint “GreenShield”. The funds were used to support Kalim’s salary while he and his colleagues finalised the IP filing, worked with Defence and other stakeholders to validate the “GreenShield” for use as an electromagnetic/antistatic shielding coating, and developed initial business plans.

The team was successful in securing a spot in the CSIRO “ON Accelerate” program in 2023, through which $20,000 of external investment is already secured, an interim CEO has been employed, and several VC firms have expressed interest in seed investment during or after the ON Accelerate program, pending the creation of a company with IP license options from Monash.

Two Centre Investigators have been awarded Major Project / Industry Postdoc funding. Prof. Tim Schmidt (UNSW) is using this fund to work with Young Henry’s and UTS on agriphotovoltaic fluorescent light harvesting systems, and has employed an engineer to conduct this R&D work. Prof. Jacek Jasieniak (Monash) has used the fund to hire a researcher to help develop improved protective coatings for flexible silicon PV in collaboration with Woodside Energy.

Building a Centre Legacy

In order to build a Centre legacy, the Connect Program has also been adjusted to offer several smaller funding options that aim to boost the number of “pipeline” projects with a much higher level of customer- or market-focused problem-solving than typical University research, and therefore have good prospects of future commercialisation.

The “Prototype Development Fund” of up to $15,000 is available to any researcher or PhD student who wishes to develop a commercially promising idea which requires internal R&D beyond the scope of what the host lab normally funds, and has had one successful application in 2022 and several EOIs for future applications.

An industry collaboration “Seed Fund” of up to $30,000 is also available to CIs and ECRs setting up an industry collaboration. This fund aims to fund initial proof-of-principle type work and build mutual confidence/trust.

Providing industry-relevant skills to students

Throughout 2022 Exciton Science has worked with local University teams as well as APR.Intern to offer a straightforward process by which PhD students can undertake a 3-6 month internship with an industry partner. Discussions are underway with at least two local companies to offer relevant internship projects to our cohort. We are also working on a defined process by which an ECR can undertake a similar placement/secondment at an industry partner.

Industry Engagement overview

Throughout 2022 Exciton Science has reached out and engaged with industry in several ways.

In May 2022 the Science and Industry Liaison Manager presented the Centre’s research activities and capabilities to the “Australian Coatings Show”, a large industry conference run by the Surface Coatings Association of Australia. This led to engagement with representatives from several companies including Dulux, Laminex, IXOM, BASF, and DSTG.

In September 2022 a delegation from Exciton Science (CIs Paul Mulvaney, Jacek Jasieniak, Wallace Wong, COO Kate McGeoch and Science and Industry Liaison Manager Nick Kirkwood) visited the Dulux Innovation Centre in Clayton to showcase the Centre’s work to Dulux and to discuss opportunities for collaborations or student internships. A follow-up discussion is planned in Q1 2023.

In November, CI Paul Mulvaney engaged with Beckers Group, a German international coatings company, and both parties agreed Exciton Science should conduct preliminary R&D into a light-harvesting coating on a building façade substrate provided by Beckers.

Throughout 2022, CI Girish Lakhwani, COO Kate McGeoch and Science and Industry Liaison Manager Nick Kirkwood have been regularly engaging with the CSIRO team responsible for business development and the delivery of the ON Prime program. Through this, we have agreed to send teams of Exciton Science researchers into the 2023 ON Prime program as well as to continue discussing the possibility of student/ECR placements in CSIRO teams working on SME-led problems.