Tech Transfer Talk

In this episode, my guest is Shona Faber, Non-Executive Director of ARB Corporation, previously Managing Director CRC Industries, and General Manager of Specialty Gases & Chemicals at BOC. We talk about her experiences in bringing EDN, a novel fumigant chemical, licensed from CSIRO Entomology to market in her role at BOC. In discussing the journey that unfolded in this product coming to market, we touch on risk management and managing constant change as a new chemical is shepherded through various regulatory systems to market. We also reflect on a few key moments as we look at how the relationship between the licensee and licensor unfolded, and the twists and turns associated in any post-license engagements. We also touch on the role Dravlovska has played on the journey to global product launch.

Shona shares her journey into tech transfer from the bench to the boardroom, and how her interest in customers and problem solving took her to solving complex product marketing challenges in a number of heavy industries. What really resonates is that in managing risk there also comes a bravery to act in getting things done in complex environments. We also discuss how assumptions and conditions for success are critical to establishing a shared view between partners on what are typically convoluted journeys.

In this episode we talk with Elena Kelareva, CEO and Founder of GippsTech, about her experiences in establishing innovation systems in regional areas, and her reflections on the behavioural and cultural settings behind successful regional innovation ecosystems. We touch on the definition of tech transfer and tease out a distinction between innovation translating scientific outcomes and entrepreneurship, the latter being more broadly around the establishment of ventures to address new opportunities.

Elena has a diverse background having completed her PhD and having also worked in a number of product development roles including Google Maps. Elena recognised the opportunities associated with regional entrepreneurship and established Gippstech to build new networks and ecosystems to stimulate new venture establishment. Through her efforts she has identified the importance of behaviours and culture in building distributed innovation ecosystems and the key success factors in these ecosystems. We also discuss her observations that 'fly-in, fly-out' advisory services have limited sustained ecosystem impact in regional areas but FIFO does have a role in some specialisations.

Elena also shares her observations in agtech innovation and identifies the need for 'digital agronomists'. She identifies some success criteria for agtech innovation and has seen most success where producers with specific technical skills sets can leverage their production experience to address particular challenges and opportunities. She shares a terrific example around Invest in your Farmer from Northeast Victoria.

In this episode we had the chance to catch up with Cameron Hibbert, a long-standing colleague and friend, who has been in global licensing roles at LyondellBassell Industries and Genomatica. We talk about when I first met Cameron at Montell and his journey to Germany through carrying responsibility for technology transfer at the Geelong polypropylene production plant. We explore his experiences moving from licensee to licensor in his role with LyondellBassell Industries, taking responsibility for polyolefin licensing activities.

Cameron had somewhat of a biobased epiphany around 15 years ago as the early foundations were being poured for the global industrial biobased economy. We discuss what drew him towards Genomatica and the different licensing perspectives, from working with well-established technologies to being present for the first few licenses of the 1,4 BDO technology licensed to Novamont and, more recently, Cargill. We wrap up our chat with some reflections on why transactions don't work out sometimes, and the importance of competencies and relationships.

In this episode, we were pleased to have a wide-ranging discussion with Professor Paul Wood AO. We talk about his start at CSIRO and the pathway to his breakthrough in TB tests for cattle in the Northern Territory, and how it opened a pathway into animal and human health research leadership. We discuss a few 'sliding door' moments with Paul around Qiagen, Cellestis, CSL and Pfizer, and how he ended up with the 'keys to the lolly shop' with Pfizer Animal Health (now Zoetis) in North America.

On Paul's return to Australia, as both mentor and entrepreneur, we discuss external collaborations, coaching and the need to be thinking globally early in terms of markets and financing. We close with Paul's reflections on innovation leadership and management in Australia, and his current commentary and insights into the tech transfer challenges of alt-protein, pointing to the Business 101 failures as much as the scale-up challenges.

In this episode, I have the great privilege of chatting with Alan Finkel. We revisit key formative moments at Monash University and ANU, and the opportunities that emerged from the challenge of accessing and developing the best fit for purpose equipment. We discuss the difference between framing questions and solving problems through a discussion of the Engineering Method, an approach that underpins Alan's career at Axon Instruments and beyond. Through instrument development, Alan recognises that development needs to be orientated towards needs, those spoken and those yet to be identified, and move past 'what a customer wants'.

We spoke of time, timing and timeliness in Podcast 13 and we discuss a terrific example of how networks and preparedness catalyse the first key inflection point in the journey of Axon Instruments. That preparedness is founded on the bedrock of 'The Relentless Pursuit of Quality'. We then discuss the growth of Axon, covering subsequent product launches and explore the one year that didn't quite meet expectations, reflecting on market surveys and the internal rigour needed for market intelligence and its interpretation.

Our discussion then moves towards post Axon life, a moment of (failed) retirement and the next journeys undertaken with The Florey Institute, Chancellor of Monash University and Chief Scientist of Australia. We close on reflecting on the role the Chief Scientist plays in Australia and in technology transfer closing with Alan's current writings on the current renewable energy transition.

In this episode, we continue our discussions with Paul Martin exploring the challenges of clean hydrogen scale up, the market forces and Hopium driving current government and industry activity. We discuss distributed production of ammonia and urea and the impact of diseconomies of scale and consequences of parallelisation. We reflect on alternative feedstocks, such as lignocellulose, with a passing nod to our mutual colleague Paul Bryan, and how Wright's Law of the cost benefits arising from increasing scale and experience may not apply as anticipated by many in the race to scale green hydrogen production. We close out our discussions reflecting on the next journey with Spitfire Research, the joy and hazards of providing 'unvarnished advice', maintaining a healthy scepticism as part of the technology transfer journey and making sure the right resources flow into the right opportunities.

In this episode, we are delighted to have Lesley Lightfoot and Jeremy Wurm join us from Brooker Consulting discussing the challenges of building the right teams in the early stages of technology transfer and new ventures. We look at their philosophies and approaches on how to engage candidates for the dynamic roles associated with startups. We discuss the 'Founder's Dilemma' around building teams and the catalytic role that strong HR Due Diligence processes can have in getting the right people at the right time. We also discuss the 'shopping list job description' and how seeking aspirational 'unicorn' candidates often leads to pragmatic 'zebra' hiring outcomes! We conclude, perhaps unsurprisingly, on the importance of culture.

In this episode, we are delighted to have Paul Martin join us to explore the challenges of clean hydrogen scale up, the market forces, and Hopium driving current government and industry activity.

In Part 1 of our discussions with Paul, we reflect on the history of hydrogen as a fuel, which traces it way back to the 1990s, the rise of Hopium and the associated belief systems that don't pay the attention to thermodynamics that they should! We explore the current sources and uses of hydrogen, the 'colours of euphemisms' and why hydrogen is good in its current use cases but generally an inappropriate compound for energy applications.

We close discussing green hydrogen in its current uses has inherent advantages being produced and then converted nearby at scale into advantaged industrial compounds.

In this episode, Dr Katherine Woodthorpe AO joins us to explore the challenges of moving from start-up to scale-up. From addressing foundational tech transfer challenges such as articulating product benefits and identifying market needs, we discuss tech transfer as being the first step on a journey of technology commercialisation and business establishment. Scaling up emerged from the recent National Innovation Policy Forum as a challenge to the Australian innovation ecosystem and we explore the contrasting nature of ICT and bio-physical technology scale up challenges. Katherine reflects on observations from Fishburners and Cicada Innovation, their respective supporting ecosystems and the pathway to the first Minimum Viable Product and ongoing product and market development.

We also explore the strategy of shelving IP, and whether it's a deliberate or emergent strategy and the factors that influence shelving, such as people, timing, market analysis and resources and touching on the ability to say 'no' - the 'sunk cost' fallacy as a countervailing force to saying 'no' and the ability to strategically assess patenting options. We reflect on the nuances Australian system of the need to publish in contrast to the need for secrecy around know-how to create value and the domestic settings around academic career development and the ability or inability to migrate between the university and CSIRO research communities and industry.

An episode for those working at the intersection of start-up and scale-up challenges.

In Part 2 of our discussions with Dr Victor Pantano, co-founder and former CEO of Digitalcore and current Director of Liquid Instruments, we hear about the highs and lows of taking a deep tech start up along the journey from establishment, through market engagement, team building, growth and financing rounds to exit success.

Building upon our last podcast with Victor, the conversation reinforces our earlier discussions around a risk balanced approach to due diligence, the importance of people and role timing has in new ventures (as we explored in our September podcast). The dynamic external environment, the changing needs of investors and the hard yards of building business with customers are all explored in this fascinating discussion. A must listen episode for anyone contemplating or indeed engaged in a tech start-up.