industry & reseArch
campusreview.com.au
Light
up for
bright
ideas
T
Torch project
links UnSW to
China to nurture
and expand
the culture of
innovation and
entrepreneurship.
Ian Jacobs
interviewed
by James Wells
he University of New South Wales has secured
a significant windfall out of Prime Minister
Malcolm Turnbull’s recent courting of Chinese
investment. Now, $30 million is earmarked for a
new science and technology incubator at UNSW’s
Kensington campus. This figure is expected to grow to
$100 million through local industry investment.
The Torch Innovation Precinct at UNSW, announced
in partnership with China’s Premier Li Keqiang, will
expand and support the institution’s cohort of student
entrepreneurs, inchoate start-ups, would-be moguls
and STEM stars of tomorrow.
Torch has been up and running in China since the late
’80s. Its patronage of business, thought leadership and
research has accompanied the country’s rise for general
insularity to a global force of industry, development and
influence. UNSW’s hub is the program’s first centre to be
based outside the land of 1.3 billion people.
UNSW vice-chancellor Ian Jacobs sits down with
Campus Review to discuss the partnership and how
this investment stream sits within the broader debate
around university funding.
CR: What does it say about Australia’s research sector
that China has invested this money here, rather than
at home?
IJ: Australia has a powerful research story and great
expertise that is the match for most parts of the world.
We have a wonderful university system. China also has
a strong university system and massive investment in
research and development. Within two or three years,
China will be the nation with the largest investment
of R&D worldwide. It is looking to access great ideas
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and opportunities wherever it can – both internally
and externally. UNSW has a long history of links with
China, primarily through its students coming to study
at UNSW. Through those links and connections,
we were able to start a dialogue about R&D and
the innovation agenda, which led to this exciting
investment by Chinese companies, which the Chinese
government and Torch group have facilitated.
It’s important to understand that they are investing
in their own universities to a large extent; the reason
they’re also investing at UNSW is that they can see we
have great expertise and they have companies that
want to access that expertise and turn great ideas into
products, which can then be manufactured and used
to improve people’s lives.
To give an example, one of the companies we’ve
signed an agreement with manufactures power
cables. That’s an important product and it will be no
less important – perhaps even more important – as
we move into a world free of fossil fuels, hopefully,
over the coming years. A challenge with cables is
efficiency and heat loss during the transmission of
power. Our scientists have a technology for decreasing
the heat loss from power cables using graphene. [The
technique] is at quite an advanced stage. The company
that manufactures these cables in China saw an
opportunity and is working in partnership with us.
This is a great example of a venture that will lead to a
product that improves energy efficiency, which is one
of the things the world badly needs. At the same time,
it’s harnessing UNSW research expertise along with
Chinese manufacturing and commercialising knowhow. It’s a great partnership.