We fund the discovery

We fund the discovery. We abandon the journey.

Australia's latest R&D review runs to 136 pages. The core problem fits in those six words.

The Ambitious Australia report is blunt: our startup ecosystem is worth just 5.7% of GDP, against a G20 average of 8%.

Canada is the clearest mirror for Australia. World-class fundamental research. A persistent gap between discovery and commercialisation. Startups forced to seek foreign capital because domestic scaling finance is thin.

Other countries are trying different approaches, none proven yet, all worth watching. The US mandates a fixed percentage of federal budgets to translational funding before companies exist. Germany's SPRIND absorbs early commercial risk to make room for private capital later. The UK is experimenting with requiring proof-of-concept funding to flow only to teams already receiving external commercial advice.

Different bets on the same problem.

The common thread is deliberate investment in the stage before capital arrives: pre-incorporation validation, commercial expertise embedded upstream, and public risk absorption for the work private investors will not touch yet.

Australia's report calls for National Strategic Initiatives to manage proof-of-concept schemes and pre-accelerators. That is the right instinct. But instinct is not architecture.

We have had the right instincts for years. The pipeline keeps leaking because we keep funding the ends and assuming the middle will sort itself out.

Where Apex Science helps

Translational Strategy and Investment Framing designs that middle stretch for a single program: the sequencing, milestones and decision gates that funders and investors recognise. See services and pricing, or book a 30-minute call.

First published on LinkedIn as part of the #TheCompleteTranslationPipeline series.