Boosting Clinician-Led Entrepreneurism - Provider Opportunity Opens : MTPConnect

19 November 2021

A new round of the REDI Contestable Program has opened today, aiming to develop the innovation and commercialisation skills of Australia’s clinicians and healthcare professionals.

The Request for Proposal calls for suitably qualified organisations to submit programs to deliver a pilot Clinical Entrepreneur Program (CEP) in Australia.

Based on the successful UK Clinical Entrepreneur Programme, the pilot Australian CEP will help:

equip healthcare professionals with the skills to translate and commercialise their ideas and innovations into impactful solutions
drive the development of solutions that will be used by patients and healthcare providers both in Australia and around the world to address key challenges
effect cultural change within the healthcare system by encouraging entrepreneurialism
retain talented clinical staff who might otherwise leave to pursue entrepreneurial ambitions.

The skills underpinning clinician-led entrepreneurism are detailed in the second skills gap report published by MTPConnect earlier this year. The report found that successfully harnessing the potential of clinician entrepreneurs is pivotal to enabling the medical technology and pharmaceutical (MTP) sector’s growth vision to be realised.

MTPConnect Managing Director and CEO, Dr Dan Grant, says nurturing the skills underpinning clinician-led entrepreneurism highlighted in the report will help set Australia apart in the medical products innovation stakes.

“Our Driving skills development and workforce training for the future MTP workforce report found that successfully harnessing the potential of clinician entrepreneurs could make a real difference to the growth of Australia’s medical products sector,” Dr Grant said.

“Relative to comparable OECD countries, Australia can struggle in commercialising its research, yet our world-class clinicians and healthcare professionals have a unique perspective on medical product development which could boost these outcomes.

“Through our REDI program, we’re looking to support the establishment of a pilot Clinical Entrepreneur Program in Australia to deliver bespoke training to clinicians to develop their innovative ideas into products and enterprises/businesses that benefit patients.”

The call for proposals closes on 31 January 2022, 3:00pm AEDT. To find out more about this opportunity and how organisations can submit a proposal, view the CEP guidelines at the website.

This opportunity is made possible by the Researcher Exchange and Development within Industry (REDI) initiative, supported by the Australian Government’s Medical Research Future Fund. REDI is delivering an integrated, three-pillar plan that involves working with partners from research, training and industry to influence skills development, workforce training and integration between research, industry and the entrepreneurial ecosystem.