Regions Rising: Health and AgTech Startups as Drivers of Regional Innovation

Abstract

<p>If the pulse of the Australian regional economy could be felt we might conclude that the heartbeat is slowing, it’s been damaged by drought, farm consolidation and the movement of processing and manufacturing offshore. High rates of unemployment and depression characterize many communities. The New England North West region of Australia is one of a number of regional communities investing to revitalize, through an Incubator for startups. Innovation ecosystems can nurture, connect and multiply opportunities by creating an intentional community of founders to build scalable startups and new economy jobs. The SMART Region Incubator (SRI) is a leading regional incubator, supported by The University of New England, and the Federal and State Governments. The SRI has attracted expert mentors, corporate sponsors and investors to its operations to support early stage companies. A key strategy for this two-year old Incubator is to work with health and agtech startups across the region to help them scale up and grow and achieve success with their regional, national and international customers. The SRI continues to experiment with new ways of engaging talent, facilitating connections across sectors and attempting to fast-track innovation and job growth. This paper highlights what has been achieved to-date including the number of startups supported, investment attracted, revenues, and new jobs created in these sectors. The paper also captures the impacts of an incubator that are more complex to measure: shifting mindsets, increasing collaboration across sectors, inclusion and the capacity to think differently, and enact new and innovative health and agricultural practices to benefit regional communities.</p>