The final report says the commercialisation program supported 80 innovations, six spin-outs and more than 5000 research participants over six years.
A $47 million Medical Research Future Fund-backed accelerator program has claimed it helped generate more than $220 million in investment for Australian diabetes and cardiovascular innovations by combining research funding with hands-on commercialisation support.
The final evaluation report for AUScelerate said the program invested $36.8 million directly into research projects and centres, leveraging a further $46.2 million in matched funding and attracting $137.2 million in grants and capital investment, for a total of $220.2 million in funding secured during the life of the program.
The program, which ran from 2020 to April 2026, was established by MTPConnect under the Medical Research Future Fund’s Targeted Translation Research Accelerator initiative to help move promising medical research beyond the laboratory and into clinical practice and commercial markets.
According to the report, AUScelerate supported 80 innovations across diabetes and cardiovascular disease, resulting in six spin-out companies, 151 jobs, and 47 clinical trials or participant studies.
The program also reported that 5022 people participated in trials or studies, including 1812 people from regional, rural, and remote Australia and 2423 participants from under-represented groups.
Rather than providing research grants alone, AUScelerate combined funding with tailored commercialisation support, including regulatory advice, market access expertise, implementation planning, and investor engagement.
The report said the approach aimed to address long-standing barriers that prevent Australian medical discoveries from reaching patients.
“AUScelerate has developed an integrated accelerator model that combines funding, tailored commercialisation support, implementation expertise, and strategic partnerships to accelerate translation and maximise impact,” the report said.
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It said the program demonstrated that active portfolio management and tailored support could help de-risk promising technologies and improve their chances of attracting follow-on investment.
Among the examples cited in the report are projects developing digital health tools, medical devices, diagnostics, and therapeutics, with several progressing to clinical trials, commercial partnerships, or regulatory milestones.
Not every project succeeded.
The report said three funded projects were terminated before completion after one required a change in drug development strategy beyond the program timeframe.
Another experienced clinical trial delays that made completion impossible within the available funding period.
A third was discontinued after the participating health service concluded the intervention was not viable or beneficial.
Unspent funding from those projects was reallocated elsewhere in the program.
The report concluded that Australia’s medical research system would benefit from continuing to invest in commercialisation capability alongside research funding, arguing that translation support is critical if publicly funded discoveries are to deliver patient and economic benefits.
The findings are drawn from AUScelerate’s final program evaluation and represent the program’s own assessment of its outcomes rather than an independent economic evaluation.
Read the full report here.