Ecosystem Project Blog

The Hon Gabrielle Upton MP and NSW Chief Scientist Hugh Durrant-Whyte held a forum hosted by Cicada Innovations CEO Sally-ann Williams whoc facilitated the forum which drew over 180 participants. This is part of this initative started last year.

See the video for the full details but in summary:

• Which incentive will have the biggest positive impact on a start-ups growth trajectory?
  • 30% A grants program to support feasibility studies and development
  • 23% Access to capital
  • 20% Procurement opportunities
  • 14% Access to business and networks
  • 6% State-based tax incentives
  • 4% Business or other skills training
  • 3% Access to mentors
• What are the greatest barriers to success experienced by start-up and scale-up founders?
  • 40% Access to capital
  • 38% Customers
  • 16% Availability of the right talent
  • 3% Difficulty sourcing the right infrastructure (e.g. lab equipment, computing)
  • 3% Difficulty finding university collaborators to help solve problems
  • 0% High cost of office space

This video is worth watching. It summarises the challenges to build a viable ventilator. It highlights the difficulties and in particular need for intelligent control of airway pressure and sympathetic response to patient breathing as ventilation is reduced to avoid doing more harm than good.

The economic and social impact of COVID-19 is unprecedented in living memory but a 1930's style depression is not inevitable. It depends on how we choose to respond. Corporate "free market" capitalism simply does not work in a time of crisis. That much is obvious to everyone right now. However, we have never before had the technology, ideas and raw productive capacity to survive this crisis and prosper beyond it than we do right now. This is the opportunity before us. If we're willing to grasp it. Read More…

The NSW Government asked "how do we get the most out of NSW Government's R&D activity and how can NSW Government support and improve the R&D and commercialisation ecosystem more generally?" This is our response based on the initial research and our related report. Please use anything of value you find here if you make your own submissions. Links are in the document. Read More…

Open Source is the dominant paradigm in software development. From the largest multinational corporations to single founder startups, all benefit from and many contribute to open source. The same process increasingly applies to hardware development. This has profound implications for what prosperity looks like for future hardware and advanced manufacture based businesses and the new types of ecosystems needed to nurture them. Watch to learn about open source software:

Economist Rob Larson explains why the free market isn't the force of innovation it's commonly believed to be. One just needs to look back to the Apollo and Viking programs, or the origin of the Internet (DARPA NET), a few billion dollars kick started the global computer revolution. Wall Street and private capital only got involved after it was proven to work, then they hijacked with their own language and pretended it was a triumph of financial engineering which it isn't.

Here we explain the motivation and thinking behind our proposals for development of a viable future facing ecosystem for Australian Hardware & Manufacturing Businesses. We challenge you to engage with these ideas and join us as we debate how to develop a innovative and prosperous Advanced Manufacturing Industry in Australia.