Question Time

Growth Through Innovation

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (14:44): My question is to the Minister for Science and Information Economy. Will the minister inform the chamber about how the government is supporting young entrepreneurs?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills, Minister for Science and Information Economy, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Business Services and Consumers) (14:44): In his economic priorities for South Australia released in August this year, Premier Weatherill focused on priority 6, which is growth through innovation, which goes to this very question. We need to be able to transform innovative ideas and research into products and businesses that the world wants. We need a culture and entrepreneurship that is open and welcoming to young South Australians in particular, as they are, obviously, the ones who are going to be creating our future industries.

Fortunately, the way in which ideas and innovations are brought to market has changed radically in recent years. The phenomenon of the 'start-up' (a kind of business hothouse environment initiated originally by Silicon Valley) and the use of the internet to globally and instantly exchange data has turbo-charged this process. With these trends in mind, the South Australian government has supported a number of initiatives that will create a vibrant culture of young entrepreneurship.

Venture Catalyst is a collaboration between the state government and UniSA to support students with seed funding to start businesses and turn their research knowledge into a commercial product, process or service in any field of research offered by UniSA. The concept was a recommendation of the former thinker in residence Professor Göran Roos in his report Manufacturing into the Future.

Venture Catalyst has a pool of $275,000 a year over three years to invest in student ventures, and $150,000 has been provided by the state government with UniSA contributing the other $125,000. The maximum amount available to each applicant is $50,000, with funds used to develop the product, service or process to enable it to be taken into the market.

The first Venture Catalyst funding round closed on 25 August 2014 and I am pleased to advise that two projects were chosen for funding. The first winner, Mr Tung Tran, pitched a software application called MyEvidence. MyEvidence allows investigators to seamlessly gather digital evidence at crime scenes, for example, and package it for consumption by relevant justice agencies.

MyEvidence uses a secure platform to capture digital forms of evidence and incorporates external hardware to capture 3D environments and panoramic photographs, enabling a new standard of investigative process and allowing investigators to build an immense electronic court brief that can be shared with prosecutors and solicitors and presented to judicial officers with maximum impact. It is envisaged investigations can be streamlined, pen and paper eliminated and court cases will flow quicker through the judiciary.

The second winners are Mr Jordan Green and Ms Emily Rich, and their company Jemsoft pitched a design for a new security module for high-risk retail stores. The system is a small integrated hardware-software unit that can analyse in real time customers approaching the store without storing any data and, as such, abolishing any privacy concerns. The system makes an evaluation on whether or not the individual approaching represents a threat and, if so, the doors are locked until the visual cues that represent a threat are removed. The system provides a manual override of electronic doors for use by staff in case of software error.

FabLab Adelaide has been asked to produce small 3D printed trophies containing the Venture Catalyst logo as a token of recognition for the winners. This will have the added benefit of increasing exposure for FabLab, a very successful community access 3D printing and fabrication workshop based at Adelaide College of the Arts.

Venture Catalyst also complements MEGA (Mobile Enterprise Growth Alliance), a program that assists entrepreneurs to commercialise digital innovations such as new software and iPhone applications. MEGA is delivered by the Majoran Distillery with the help of a $45,000 grant from the state government and is open to all South Australians. Applications for the second round of Venture Catalyst funding will open around March 2015, I am informed.