Murdoch University will be the major beneficiary of a proposed deal between its early-stage funding venture, Murdoch Westscheme Enterprise Partnership (MWEP), and Hebrew University’s funding counterpart, Yissim Research Development Company.
Murdoch University will be the major beneficiary of a proposed deal between its early-stage funding venture, Murdoch Westscheme Enterprise Partnership (MWEP), and Hebrew University’s funding counterpart, Yissim Research Development Company.
Should the deal get the green light, MWEP is likely to attract $100 million in funding from a London broker.
MWEP, an early-stage funding venture between Murdoch University and superannuation fund Westscheme, is in final stage negotiations with the Israel-based university to develop a $500,000 agri-biotech centre at Murdoch University’s campus.
According to MWEP investment manager Howard Carr, the centre will focus on commercially orientated research.
Dr Carr said Hebrew University’s commercialisation arm, Yissim, was currently operating like most public university research houses, including Murdoch University, but this deal would change that perspective.
“What Yissim does is it gets the bit of research and tidies up the intellectual property and licences it, sells it and exists it at the earliest stage possible,” Dr Carr said.
“That’s the traditional model for IP because the university’s primary role is to disseminate information, and the quicker it gets it out the better they achieve that.
“The difference between them and us [MWEP] is that we have our own super fund that funds research and our objective is to stay in the supply chain for as long as possible to maximise the return.
“We told them that they should back the research, because when you do, the more value you add and the more money you can make.
“It’s not getting rid of it as quickly as possible, but getting as much money out of it as possible. We are funding product development for profits.
“It will be an elite development corporation and if scientists want to join it and have their work funded they have to recognise that we are about commercial outcomes and it drives things in a different way to the public sector.”
Dr Carr said securing the expertise of the scientists at Hebrew University would be a major a coup for MWEP.
“The Hebrew University has a $US450 million research budget, which is about 10 times the size of Murdoch’s,” he said.
“It’s had 32 Nobel laureates, including Einstein, and its one of the world’s most prestigious universities. Its strengths are in medical technology, IT, and agbiotch.”
Dr Carr said the agri-biotech joint venture proposal was attractive because it would offer a safe and secure environment to conduct research, and would create better revenue streams.
Both institutions would be responsible for raising capital to fund the research, he said.
“We will jointly raise money to push the breakthrough technology into the market,” Dr Carr told WA Business News.
“It will work because Hebrew University is a world class institution with great projects and Yissim has a desire to make more money but didn’t have the answer. We do.
“We provide the access to funds and markets through our industry contacts.
“They also think Perth is a place of peace and we have a similar agriculture climate.”
Dr Carr anticipated that a memorandum of understanding would be signed between the two organisations in a few weeks’ time, with the project to be launched next year.
Dr Carr believes the model is the future for research development.
“There’s all this fantastic technology that starts within Murdoch University or Hebrew University that can’t get funds because the investors are not convinced that the scientists are focused on the commercial outcomes.”
