The Minns Labor Government will launch a science and innovation fund to coordinate strategic investments, deliver on government priorities and turn the state's research strengths into new businesses.
Announced by Treasurer Daniel Mookhey at today's Sydney Investment Summit, the fund will bring together government, universities, researchers and investors as part of a coordinated growth agenda.
The $150 million fund will co-invest with NSW public universities before expanding to support other organisations across the innovation ecosystem, helping promising programs make the leap from the laboratory to the market. It will begin operating on 1 July 2027.
A new research innovation framework will also:
- coordinate NSW Government equity holdings to ensure investments are managed strategically.
- strengthen capability within NSW Health, to develop innovative practices to support an effective
and efficient health system.
- bring together the wider health and medical research ecosystem, including independent, privately and charitably funded institutes, to share expertise and infrastructure and better coordinate research effort.
NSW already has world-class universities, hospitals and medical research institutes.
It has also built significant government-backed capabilities in areas including quantum computing, advanced manufacturing and RNA technology.
Today's announcement creates a coordinated framework to take advantage of these strengths.
Four years of budget discipline and restraint mean the state is ready to deploy more capital in sectors capable of driving future growth, giving NSW innovators the backing they need to attract private investment, scale locally and build globally competitive businesses.
The establishment of the framework responds to the independent Pounder Review of the state's technology and innovation ecosystem.
The Review found:
- NSW generates more technology unicorn companies than any other Australian state.
- NSW is Australia's clear innovation leader, securing 57 per cent of all venture capital investment in Australia between 2000 and 2024, despite accounting for 31 per cent of national GDP.
- Between 2000 and 2024, NSW attracted US$15 billion (57%) of all VC investment in Australia - twice as much as Victoria, the next nearest state.
- Innovative companies in NSW generate $39 billion in Gross Value Add (GVA) per annum, despite being just 1.8% of companies in the economy.
- Innovative businesses already employ 136,000 people across NSW, more than mining and agriculture combined, and pay between 9 and 30 per cent more than comparable businesses in the same industries.
The Review found NSW has an opportunity to improve the commercialisation pipeline of research strengths, particularly in deep tech, bio medical science and environmental science.
In response to the Review, the Government developed the NSW Innovation Blueprint 2035 - a ten year plan to help cement NSW's position as Australia's innovation powerhouse. A key action of the Blueprint was a new strategic approach to funding, exploring ways to support innovators at all stages of growth, including through co-investment opportunities.
The fund and framework will help close that gap by creating stronger connections between researchers, government, industry and investors.
NSW Treasury, Investment NSW and the NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer will together work with NSW public universities to develop the fund and governance settings before launching an initial investment round in 2027.
Treasurer Daniel Mookhey said:
"Four years of budget discipline have strengthened the state's capacity to make strategic investments in the industries that will drive our future economy.
"For generations, people have come to NSW with an idea, an ambition and the determination to build something better.
"Today, those people are working in our universities, hospitals, laboratories and startups. They are developing new treatments, new technologies and new solutions to challenges faced around the world.
"The research innovation framework will bring those strengths together so more NSW ideas become growing businesses, better services and well-paid jobs."
Minister for Innovation, Science and Technology Anoulack Chanthivong said:
"The Pounder Review confirmed that NSW punches well above its economic weight in innovation, research and venture capital.
"The NSW Innovation Blueprint set out our long-term vision to make NSW the best place to innovate, and the Research Innovation Framework is a key step in delivering that vision by helping more research move from the laboratory to the marketplace.
"Innovation policy is growth policy. Every discovery commercialised here means more investment, more jobs and more of the economic value created in NSW, staying in NSW."
Minister for Skills, TAFE and Tertiary Education Steve Whan said:
"The innovation fund will help researchers bridge the difficult gap between a breakthrough in the laboratory and a product ready for the market.
"When NSW researchers change the world, we want the resulting companies, jobs and manufacturing opportunities to be created here, enabling new opportunities for people to upskill and build rewarding careers in emerging industries.
"This will make it easier for universities to work with government, partner with industry and connect promising ideas with the investment they need."
Professor Andrew Parfitt, Vice-Chancellor and President, University of Technology Sydney, and Convener, NSW Vice-Chancellors' Committee said:
"This investment recognises the vital role universities play in driving innovation and will help strengthen pathways for translating research into new industries, jobs and opportunities for NSW."
Professor S. Bruce Dowton, Vice-Chancellor and President, Macquarie University said:
"Macquarie University welcomes the NSW Government's commitment to strengthening the state's innovation ecosystem through the proposed innovation investment fund."
Warwick Negus AM, Chancellor, University of New South Wales:
"Universities are engines of discovery, economic growth and innovation.
"As Australia's leading entrepreneurial university, UNSW welcomes strategic investment that will create new opportunities for research commercialisation and support new enterprise across the state."
Mark Scott, Vice Chancellor of the University of Sydney said:
"At the University of Sydney, leadership for good means ensuring great ideas do not stop at the laboratory door. This fund will help turn NSW research into better treatments, new technologies, growing companies and skilled jobs.
"This is an opportunity to build more than a new fund, it is an opportunity to build a more connected and ambitious innovation system for NSW."
Professor G.Q Max Lu AO, Vice-Chancellor and President, University of Wollongong:
"NSW has outstanding universities, researchers, entrepreneurs and companies.
"This Fund recognises that when government, universities and industry work together, more great ideas can become new products, globally competitive businesses and highly skilled jobs."
Distinguished Professor George Williams AO, Vice-Chancellor and President, Western Sydney
University:
"As pioneers in innovation support in Western Sydney, we welcome this commitment.
"Through Launchpad, our tech start-up incubator, we connect students, researchers and
entrepreneurs to turn ideas into businesses and growth industries.''
