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UOW open innovation hub

  • August 03, 2016

UOW open innovation hub

With support from the NSW Government, the University of Wollongong have built and officially opened a new building for their iAccelerate facility, which is a new type of centre supporting start-ups and advanced businesses while providing entrepreneurs with the benefits of working with a research-intensive university. Standing three storeys high over a space of 4,000 square metres and costing $18.5m, the building was officially opened in Wollongong on 18 July.

The UOW’s vice chancellor, Paul Wellings stated at the opening that “It’s the first of these incubators in Australia so it’s very special, and there are few other examples around the world.”

One of the main objectives of iAccelerate is to strengthen ties between researchers, start-ups, service providers and investors, which have been shown to be the building blocks for new drivers of economic growth and job creation.

This centre sits alongside many other corporate engagement activities and is a flexible structure providing ongoing operational support to about 280 entrepreneurs. Since its launch in 2011, 65 companies have been created and already six have an international presence.

There is a tech start up by two software experts who spent four years living and working in San Francisco, who since moved their families to the Illawarra as they were keen to raise their kids in regional Australia and saw potential in running a tech business in a university town. They now serve a customer base in the US and Europe and have plans for growth.

iAccelerate has shown a high proportion of gender diversity, with 47 per cent of these companies with a female chief executive. This compares the global benchmark of around 10 per cent. The challenge for the Illawarra is to help these companies mature, to link them with sources of capital and to retain them in NSW.