Lumina, within the Gold Coast Health and Knowledge Precinct - artist impression
As we prepare to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic and look to the 2032 Olympic & Paralympic Games in Southeast Queensland, a crucial decade of investment in Queensland’s key innovation places is set to deliver a jobs and economic bonanza, focused on retraining and upskilling for the high-productivity jobs of the future and nurturing a flourishing start-up culture.
Our Precinct has been identified, alongside Brisbane’s two major innovation hubs, as a key driver of up to 80,000 new jobs and $11 billion in economic value-add to the Queensland economy per year by the end of the decade.
The release of a discussion paper to guide strategy development is perfectly timed as we finalise our own 5-year Precinct strategic plan, and as the Federal Government focuses on post-COVID recovery through industry transformation, driven by Modern Manufacturing and Sovereign Supply Chain funding initiatives.
Recovery stimulus, based on long-term return-on-investment (ROI) through transformational innovation, will accelerate the Gold Coast’s already strong population, diversification and business growth momentum, and together with the impetus towards the Olympics, will provide a powerful combination for success.
Our foundation, as of 2019, was already strong – almost 15,000 people employed within the Precinct, supporting a total of 21,000 jobs across the Gold Coast and contributing $3.6 billion in economic value-add to the Queensland economy.
Anecdotally, the pandemic has been an impetus for additional growth in the Precinct. Crucially, the jobs are in the high-value health and knowledge sectors, enhancing economic productivity.
This is evidenced by the recent attraction of international and interstate companies in medical and digital technologies and in recent partnerships such as that between Gilmour Space Technologies and Griffith University that will be crucial to developing our skilled workforce.
Company representatives with Griffith University Vice-Chancellor Prof Carolyn Evans and the Precinct Office team at the recent media announcement
Our Precinct looks forward to playing its critical part in a bright economic future for the city, state and nation, driven by innovation that matters.
Professor Mario Pinto, Director, Gold Coast Health and Knowledge Precinct
Queensland Innovation Places Strategy
Queensland Premier, Hon Annastacia Palaszczuk, was joined by Minister for Tourism Industry Development and Innovation and Minister for Sport, Hon Stirling Hinchliffe, in announcing bold predictions for the state’s ROI in innovation, based on a comprehensive study by the University of Queensland.
The UQ research found the jobs and economic dividend could result from ‘simply boosting the growth of the states three most significant innovation precincts to global benchmark standards.’
The Premier said Queensland had established a successful history of investing in innovation and developing game-changing technologies and scientific breakthroughs, beginning with the Smart State initiative of former Premier Peter Beattie.
“The latest UQ study highlights a very bright future indeed for our innovation precincts, hubs and clusters and the exciting growth they will generate.
“New jobs in this sector will be vital as we transition from a short-term economic and health response to a long-term focus on productivity and competitiveness,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
Innovation Minister Stirling Hinchliffe said innovation was the key to rebuilding Queensland for the future faster than the other states and territories.
“Innovation works best when industry and researchers work together to bring new ideas and applications to life and to market,” the Minister said.
In just the past six years, Advance Queensland has invested $755 million, backing more than 7500 innovation projects.
The pivotal Smart State initiative positioned Queensland at the turn of the 21st century to develop a solid biomedical sector, with Griffith University’s Institute of Glycomics a strong case in point. It has grown from a handful of staff to an institute of 250 research scientists, research students and commercialisation experts, as it celebrates its 21st birthday.
Some of the Glycomics team members
The discussion paper sets out a vision for ‘a highly connected, engaged and collaborative system of innovation places’ with a focus on economic strengths and assets, including people. It recommends targetting specialisation with coordination, and better translation and commercialisation of high-quality research.
“Queensland’s priority sectors and technologies, based on our traditional strengths and emerging opportunities, provide significant future economic opportunity and a potential focus for our innovation places. While a focus has been on building specialisation and critical mass within our innovation places, this could be better coordinated,” the discussion paper reads. It also highlights the need to create a strong external innovation brand that attracts investors to Queensland.
Feedback is invited by 5pm, Friday, 26 November 2021 via:
A federal focus on economic recovery and transformation
Precinct representatives attended the Reimagine Gold Coast 2.0 event with members of the Southport Chamber of Commerce
Hosted by Member for Moncrief, Angie Bell MP, and her City Heart Taskforce, the event drew key business representatives from across the Gold Coast with a focus on COVID-19 recovery driven by an innovation and transformation agenda. Minister for Home Affairs, Hon Karen Andrews, MP for McPherson and Minister for Employment, Workforce, Skills, Small and Family Business Hon Stuart Robert, MP for Fadden also spoke, representing the full contingent of the city’s Federal representation.
Gilmour Space CEO Adam Gilmour talked up the future of spacetech
A highlight was a presentation by Gilmour Space CEO Adam Gilmour, who shared his vision for an Australian Space Manufacturing Network, including what he pitched would be the world’s third-largest spacetech facility, sited in the Gold Coast/Brisbane area, creating more than 850 local jobs in the next five years. It is envisioned as a hub for collaboration between more than 30 space industry companies across Australia to boost the nation’s share of the $700 billion global space industry. He also spoke of the close collaboration with Griffith University to skill a new generation of high-tech workers for the industry.
Ministers Andrew and Robert and Angie Bell MP (centre) address the media at the event
Presentations by Ministers Stuart Robert and Karen Andrews highlighted the impact of border closures on skilled workforce numbers and the imperative to address this through retraining and via immigration initiatives, once international borders re-open.
Industry 4.0 technologies and future Industry 5.0 transformation were also in focus, with Regional Development Australia (RDA) Gold Coast CEO Estella Rodighiero speaking about local opportunities and highlighting the need for growth in Australia’s digital supply chain, along with the significant opportunity presented by a burgeoning clinical trials sector.
Mayor Tom Tate, with Griffith Vice-Chancellor Prof Carolyn Evans and researchers views the BiVACOR artificial heart
A US-based company behind the world’ first rotary artificial heart (BiVACOR), and another developing a novel surgical laser technology in Silicon Valley (Precise Light Surgical), have been joined by a Netherlands blockchain technology company (TYMLEZ) to base operations in the Gold Coast Health and Knowledge Precinct (GCHKP).
Investment attraction incentives endorsed by City of Gold Coast, together with strong research collaboration opportunities at Griffith University and the opportunity to link with the Precinct’s clinicians, helped attract the companies to join a growing cluster of medical, health and digital technology businesses.
Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate joined Griffith University Vice-Chancellor Professor Carolyn Evans to welcome the companies into the Precinct, touring the university’s world-class mechanobiology lab to view the BiVACOR artificial heart being tested for optimum blood-flow, before visiting Cohort Innovation Space, where two of the businesses will be based.
Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate with a 3D printed anotomical wrist model and biodegradable artificial implant
Mayor Tate, who also viewed Griffith-developed artificial wrist technology being tested on a specialised orthopaedic robot, says the GCHKP provides the perfect place for innovative companies to scale-up and grow knowledge-based jobs for the city.
“These companies are in the growth industries of the future and will build the ecosystem of innovation that is developing in the Precinct alongside Griffith University and the hospitals,” Mayor Tate says.
“Our incentives are aimed at supporting their early growth phases so that they can expand highly-skilled jobs here and undertake collaborative research locally to commercialise these exciting new technologies.”
BiVACOR, founded in Brisbane by biomedical engineer and CEO Daniel Timms and headquartered in Houston Texas, has based its international office and software, electronic hardware, and blood compatibility R&D in the Precinct as it continues collaboration with Griffith University’s world-class Mechanobiology Research Laboratory, and prepares its durable total artificial heart for use in the first patients.
Precise Light Surgical (PLS) will base its CEO, Australian R&D and commercial team in the Precinct and plans to roll-out Australian manufacture of its patented Optical Scalpel (O-Pel™) system that precisely removes selected tissue while sparing surrounding anatomy such as nerves and blood vessels. PLS has approval in Australia, the US, and Europe for more than 80 different surgical indications, across eight specialties.
ASX-listed TYMLEZ, founded in the Netherlands and also operating in Germany, offers enterprise-grade blockchain solutions with a focus on supporting clean energy sustainability, along with other opportunities to develop healthcare products that rely on secure, trackable and traceable data transfer.
Griffith University Vice-Chancellor Prof Carolyn Evans tests the BiVACOR artificial heart
Griffith University Vice Chancellor Professor Carolyn Evans, who joined Mayor Tate on the visit to the university’s mechanobiology lab , said industry co-location was critical to taking research out of the lab and providing jobs for graduates.
“There is an increasing focus on linking university research with industry for commercial outcomes and social impact,” Professor Evans said.
“Working with these co-located companies, our researchers will be able to directly contribute to translating improved healthcare and initiatives for a sustainable future, while our students will have access to internship and training opportunities, and our graduates will have great local job opportunities.”
BiVACOR CEO Daniel Timms
BiVACOR CEO Daniel Timms said the company, which has recently raised a further $22milion to develop its device as a viable alternative to transplantation for end-stage heart failure, was confident in the opportunity on the Gold Coast for successful research translation, and a smooth pathway to bringing the technology to the first Australian patients, as part of a consortium of universities and hospitals.
“After coming back from the US where we work very closely with the world-renowned Texas Heart Institute, to see the expansion of this area was really attractive for us to bring our technology back to work with a world-leading laboratory at Griffith, which didn’t exist when we started almost 20 years ago,” Mr Timms said.
“Central to our device is one spinning disk that pumps the blood, and we use magnetic levitation technology so that it is suspended in the blood and there is no mechanical wear, which has been the limitation of artificial hearts to date, with pulsing sacs that will eventually wear out and break.
We’re going to be able to have a situation where the heart device is unlikely to fail, and the patient is able to rely on their implanted artificial heart to pump the blood they need for the rest of their life.”
Prof Carolyn Evans with Precise Light Surgical CEO Richard Nash and Mayor Tate
Precise Light Surgical CEO Richard Nash, an experienced medical technology executive with more than 10 years in management with industry giant Medtronic, said support from City of Gold Coast added to the attractiveness of the Medtech ecosystem in Southeast Queensland as an Asia Pacific base, working alongside their global headquarters in Silicon Valley.
“The Gold Coast has much more to offer than just lifestyle. We see it as the icing on the cake,” Mr Nash says.
“The GCHKP offers a unique opportunity for medical device companies, in having major hospitals and a reputable university. Combined with all resources within Southeast Queensland, the region provides everything required to establish and commercially scale a technology company.
There is significant opportunity for future market validation clinical trials, with an initial company focus on robotic urology procedures in Australia. PLS has also entered discussions with Gold Coast Health and Gold Coast Private Hospital about undertaking local real-world Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) clinical registries.
In 5 years, we hope to have built a successful international HQ on the Gold Coast, with local APAC manufacture and significant employment.”
TYMLEZ CEO Daniel O’Holloran speaks to media at the announcement
TYMLEZ CEO Daniel O’Halloran, said local connections and support, together with its growing Australian investment base, were key factors in the decision to shift the Rotterdam-based company’s global headquarters down-under, where they can combine their European expertise with local talent.
“Our software is designed to create enterprise-grade solutions that can build and manage blockchain-based ecosystems as quickly and as cost-effectively as possible, replacing traditional databases with decentralised records that can’t be disputed,” Mr O’Halloran said.
We are focusing our product development on disruptive applications to enhance sustainable green energy through smart buildings and smart cities, while also enabling exploration of major healthcare opportunities for our platform software.”
The three new companies join Belgian-based global 3D printing pioneer Materialise, who located key Australian staff onto the Griffith campus in 2018 to work alongside experts at the university’s Advanced Design and Prototyping Technologies facility and grow opportunities for medical additive manufacturing.
Kyle Shapland from Materialise with Griffith Researchers and the 3D printed artifical wrist model and implant being tested on an orthopaedic robot
The Health and Knowledge Precinct, with Griffith University on the Gold Coast is the place we chose to be, and we believe that for medical device companies in Australia and globally it is the place to be for the future
Kyle Shapland, Materialise Australia Business Manager
Left - BiVACOR artifical heart, Top - PLS Optical Scalpel, Bottom middle - Materialise 3D printed heart models, Bottom Right - Griffith 3D printed artificial wrist and implant
The COVID-19 pandemic has also seen increasing interstate interest in the GCHKP, with Melbourne-based artificial intelligence (AI) company Silverpond recently locating a Queensland team to service its energy and utilities clients, and to collaborate with an emerging cluster of AI in healthcare businesses, led by local data-driven technology company Datarwe, which has developed an acute care medical research data platform.
PLS is setting up an office and lab space at Griffith University, while BiVACOR and Tymlez are based at the Cohort Innovation hub, within the Queensland Government’s Lumina commercial cluster in the Precinct.
Technologies to open up Space and drive Precision Medicine
With the Australian Government officially launching its $1.3 billion Modern Manufacturing Initiative and roadmaps for priority industries, the Precinct is well-positioned to play its role in industry transformation, particularly in the first two priority industries – Space and Medical Products, which are also key focus areas for the Queensland Government.
Using data from the first regional-level study into Industry 4.0 capability, skills and supply chains, and drawing on case studies of projects already underway, we unpack how the Precinct can play a key role in the Gold Coast’s future in advanced manufacturing – accelerating the Australian space industry; driving new precision medicine products, procedures and rehabilitation approaches; supporting defence; and helping local manufacturers transform and digitize in marine, automotive, construction and more.
The first regional-level study in Australia into Industry 4.0 opportunities
Industry 4.0 describes the ongoing automation and digitisation of supply chains with reduced need for human intervention and includes technologies such as big data, robotics, computer-assisted manufacturing, cloud computing, the Internet of Things (IoT), additive manufacturing (3d printing), artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality, digital twins (virtual modelling), machine to machine communications, nanotechnology, blockchain, and sensor technologies.
Initially applied to the manufacturing sector, the core technologies have application in many other sectors of the economy and were already gathering speed, with COVID-19 fast-tracking their adoption.
Pre-covid, the GCHKP partnered with Regional Development Australia (RDA) Gold Coast, the State Government and City of Gold Coast, to commission a capability and gap analysis, with companies participating in the study in the second half of last year, and a website developed by RDA launched in December 2020 to promote the results, and profile businesses.
RDA Gold Coast Director of Regional Development Estella Rodighiero said companies have co-located in clusters, with a large cluster of Industry 4.0 knowledge centred on the GCHKP.
“We have an AI health cluster at Southport, an aerospace cluster on the northern Gold Coast, a textiles cluster at Yatala, medtech and bionics at Southport, film visual effects at Oxenford, a brewing cluster at Burleigh and additive manufacturing at Southport, just to name a few,” she says.
RDA Gold Coast Chair Nick Scott said that while the pandemic had forged new partnerships and prompted technology adoption out of necessity, as well as highlighting the need for resilient and sovereign supply chains, there was room for more collaboration, and the skills lag would need to be addressed.
“We’ll be identifying digital supply chain opportunities, helping to attract complementary supply chain businesses, encouraging collaboration and partnerships between industry and the education and training sectors, and reviewing current and future workforce skill requirements,” Mr Scott says.
Professor Nam-Trung Nguyen, Queensland Micro and Nanotechnology Centre - nanotechnology for new materials and electronics is a high growth area
The Gold Coast study engaged peak industry bodies such as Bionics Queensland, Life Sciences Queensland, and Australian Beverages, as well as conducting an online survey and one-on-one interviews – most survey respondents were in manufacturing, with other industries including professional and scientific, and healthcare.
22% of businesses/respondents were located in Southport (primarily GCHKP)
13% were located in nearby Arundel, primarily in high-tech light industrial estates
Yatala (17%) and Ormeau (11%) represent the city’s northern advanced manufacturing cluster
Gold Coast Industry 4.0 clusters, highlight areas of GCHKP focus and capability*
Cloud computing, automation, and advanced/computer-assisted manufacturing were the most common technologies currently being taken-up. Increased adoption of all technologies was anticipated, with nanotechnology, blockchain, digital twinning and augmented/virtual reality platforms growing from a smaller base.
Productivity and new product and market opportunities were identified as key drivers, with businesses also motivated to better manage supply chains and increase workplace safety, while the main barriers to adoption were the return on investment (ROI) timeline and availability of a skilled workforce. Software engineering and industrial design skills were identified as specialist areas of highest demand.
The report (compiled by the Better Cities Group and Giles Consulting) also found a significant opportunity for Gold Coast businesses to establish ‘digital’ supply chains, with the city boasting a strong digital infrastructure platform, and Griffith University’s ADaPT (advanced design and prototyping technologies) capabilities a key enabler.
PWR, world-leaders in advanced cooling systems for the automotive industry, including Formula One racing, have partnered with Precinct researchers to continue to develop additive manufacturing capabilities at their northern Gold Coast facility
AI, Nanotechnology, Robotics, Industrial Design and Additive Manufacturing drive a new Space era
Dr Kelvin Ross and Dr Brent Richards, from Datarwe and the Queensland AI Hub (healthcare) have developed a Precision Medicine Data Platform.
AI is considered a key Industry 4.0 enabling technology with applications across sectors. Griffith University has been ranked 17th in the world for its AI expertise, while the Queensland AI Hub for healthcare, based out of a speciality data lab in the Precinct’s Cohort Innovation Space, is helping to rapidly cluster related SME’s.
AI and machine learning also underpin the development of remote sensors for Space, with expertise in new materials science and industrial design for advanced additive manufacturing converging in the design and prototyping of smart and robust sensor technologies, and lighter and stronger satellites and space transport systems.
Head of Information Communication Technology, Professor Paulo de Souza, a former CSIRO Chief Research Scientist whose PhD research contributed to the design, production, deployment, and operation of sensors used by NASA aboard two Mars rovers, says the project to launch a low-earth-orbit satellite with Gold-Coast-based Gilmour Space in 2022, is “big and audacious”.
“Aerospace capability is in deep need right here in Australia, for defence, disaster management and environmental observations,” Professor de Souza says.
Gilmour Space CEO Adam Gilmour says the company is excited to partner with the university as the collaboration would build the skills required for significant expansion of its workforce.
“This project is about demonstrating to Australia that we can build and launch a significant-sized satellite with significant capability,” he says.
“It’s also about working with local partners like Griffith to educate the next generation of space engineers who take us to orbit.”
Gilmour Space – One Vision suborbital test program, far north Queensland.
Space projects include:
Satellite design/prototyping to reduce weight/increase strength, including testing new alloys
Integration of embedded smart sensors and flexible electronics in structures
Design of composite fuel tanks for low-cost space transport
Small cube-sats for collection of satellite imagery with multiple applications including bushfire detection
Precision Medicine driven by digital twins and technology integration
We’re a place that you come to develop cutting-edge biomedical technologies to manage health conditions. You don’t often get this really tight location and the passion to work together as a group of very different disciplines. It is really a step-change – it’s disruption for the health industry.
The Industry 4.0 technologies of digital twin modelling, new materials science, AI, robotics, additive manufacturing and more, are brought together in a range of applications to design and personalise medical and assistive devices, diagnostics, implants, surgeries, wearable technologies, and rehabilitation and sports training.
The creation of digital twins – personal neuromusculoskeletal models, or Personalised Digital Humans – underpins many new medical technology applications, enabling clinical outcomes to be optimised over the use of more generic treatment and training approaches.
The BioSpine project – which is revolutionising rehabilitation for spinal cord injury by intelligently integrating a range of new technologies and personalising the approach, is one exciting example, while the Spinal Injury Project is also utilising 3D bioprinting technologies to create a biological scaffold, or nerve bridge, to guide new neuron growth.
Dr David Bade, surgeon, Queensland Children’s Hospital (left) with Dr Martina Barzan, Research Fellow, Griffith University and A/Prof Chris Carty, Queensland Advancing Clinical Research Fellow, Griffith University
ADaPT researchers, together with surgeons at the Queensland Children’s Hospital, have just completed a medical device trial of a new personalised approach to long and complex paediatric surgeries, with 13 children undergoing successful procedures for severe hip deformities.
Engineers work with orthopaedic surgeons on precise surgery pre-planning – generating a digital twin of each patient; producing exact anatomical bone models; selecting optimised implants; 3D printing personalised cutting guides; and digitally simulating the whole procedure.
Surgery times have been slashed almost in half, with procedures more accurate, complications reduced and patient outcomes already improved.
Wearables – development of ‘smart’ sports pants with miniaturised biosensors and electronics for real-time monitoring of biosignals for training and rehab
As we prepare to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic and look to the 2032 Olympic & Paralympic Games in Southeast Queensland, a crucial decade of investment in Queensland’s key innovation places is set to deliver a jobs and economic bonanza, focused on retraining and upskilling for the high-productivity jobs of the future and nurturing a flourishing start-up culture.
