February 26, 2016

Innovation and commercialisation director joins CSIRO

A leader in innovation and commercial research at UOW will help guide national research body CSIRO in its push for global markets.

Dr Elizabeth Eastland, who has led UOW startup incubator iAccelerate for the past five years, as well as overseen UOW’s push to develop stronger ties between research and industry through her role as Director of Innovation & Commercial Research, will in May take up a role at CSIRO as General Manager, Strategy, Market Vision & Innovation.

In that role Dr Eastland will guide CSIRO’s strategic direction in understanding and defining CSIRO’s national and global market roadmaps.

She will also lead CSIRO’s Innovation and Entrepreneurial Program, which is aimed at developing a pipeline of new investable ventures.

“It has been a privilege to work on the iAccelerate project for the past five years and serve both UOW and the Illawarra community in its joint effort to diversify the economy as we build on our steelmaking roots,” she said.

“My passion is to work with people and organisations that are invested in solving problems to make an impact on the lives of us all. I’m immensely proud of how the local community has embraced iAccelerate and engaged with UOW to fulfil the vision.”

Dr Eastland’s tenure will capped with the opening of the near-complete iAccelerate Centre at the Innovation Campus.

The three-storey, 4,000 square metre iAccelerate Centre, that attracted $16.5 Million in NSW Government funding as part of the Restart NSW Illawarra Infrastructure Fund, will provide a permanent home for 280 entrepreneurs to support the Illawarra’s rapidly growing number of startup companies.

“The building is symbolic of the commitment in government, at the university as well as in local business and industry to shape the future of the region,” she said.

During the past five years, Dr Eastland transformed the idea of innovation into a thriving set of support and mentoring programs at iAccelerate that has helped create 119 startup jobs and 57 new companies.

She has also led efforts to promote female participation in entrepreneurship and the technology sector, with the goal of gender equity underpinning iAccelerate activities.

 Last year iAccelerate celebrated a near fifty-fifty gender split among its startup founders. 

“Female representation on founding teams provides diversity and increased ability to succeed, it also very often brings deep customer understanding, which is the critical aspect of startup company success,” she said.

Acting Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation) Professor Judy Raper said Dr Eastland had been instrumental in assisting researchers achieve the broader vision of building deeper relationships with business and industry.

“Elizabeth will be sorely missed. Without her vision, passion and commitment we couldn't have achieved what we have with iAccelerate and she's leaving us in a good place to produce really transformative outcomes for the region.

"We are immensely proud then that a person who has been at the forefront of innovation here is now going to play a key role at the heart of the national innovation agenda.”