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Commercialisation

Tammin grower Colin Hutchinson. Photo: Brad Collis

The GRDC’s primary aim is to make new technology available to grain growers as quickly and as costeffectively as possible. In some cases, the benefits of GRDC research investments can be most efficiently delivered to growers through the commercial production of the research outputs. Commercialisation is a means of delivering technology to Australian grain growers so that they can effectively compete in global grain markets, and securing technology adoption.

Commercialisation strategy

The GRDC achieves its objective in commercialising research outputs through:

ensuring commercialisation activities are aligned with the GRDC’s four core strategies and are relevant to the strategies of the four output groups (Varieties, Practices, New Products, and Communication & Capacity Building)
leveraging capital and expertise from co-investors, to maximise opportunities to bring technology to the marketplace and give grain growers access to technology
developing comprehensive business plans for delivering satisfactory returns to grain growers and investors.

As part of the overall commercialisation strategy, the GRDC recognises that the following are necessary for commercialisation: a sustainable market size, expertise, funds, and distribution channels. Usually the GRDC is only one of a number of organisations investing in the development of new technologies by public and/or private organisations. Investment partnerships are desirable and necessary because they reduce the risk to the GRDC in the funding of new technologies, and because partner organisations can bring benefits, apart from financial resources and research capability, such as market knowledge and access to complementary technologies.

Where the GRDC is a member of a consortium using public and private sector funds, it has influence over the terms of commercialisation, and determines these in collaboration with the other investors to ensure that a proper balance is struck among the needs of all members of the research consortium.

While the most usual path to market for commercial research products from GRDC research investment will be through licensing to suitable partners, investments in joint ventures and companies to deliver the products will be considered based on the merits of business cases that demonstrate that this will deliver the best outcome for the industry.

In selecting investment structures, the GRDC follows its internal guidelines and identifies and implements the most appropriate structure for holding its equity in each business arrangement. The GRDC position is that all commercial entities with which it is involved should have appropriate Boards that possess the broad range of skills required to provide oversight forthe business.

The GRDC continues to seek new business opportunities that arise from its research portfolio, with the aim of providing benefit firstly to growers and secondly to the GRDC and its research partners. For each commercial business opportunity, the GRDC seeks investment of resources from partners that will profit from the development and widespread uptake of the new technology. This is an important part of using GRDC investment funds to leverage funds from other sources—including, in this area, commercial investment funds—for the benefit of growers.

Go Grains provides a voice for the grains industry on health and nutrition issues.

Go Grains

Go Grains Health and Nutrition Ltd (Go Grains) implemented a marketing communication plan for a targeted program to raise consumer awareness of the importance of grains in a healthy diet, based on the message of ‘4+ Serves a Day’. In support of this marketing communication initiative, Go Grains is developing a commercialisation plan for a ‘4+ Program’.

The commercialisation plan will set out the overall business strategy to bring the program to commercialisation and will address:

business opportunity
market profile, potential and monitoring
route to market
pricing strategies
validated research supporting the claims made by the program
strategy to realise the value of the intellectual property inherent in the program logo, and a process for protecting it
challenges and barriers to taking the program to market, and the strategies to overcome them
processes for measuring and reporting on the national benefits of the program.

Objective grain quality testing

The first outcome from the objective grain quality testing program, from a GRDC investment in a joint BRI Ltd–CSIRO research program, is a replacement for the falling number test for rain-affected grain. The new test is undergoing international validation and it is expected that production of a prototype will begin in 2008–09.

The advantage of the new method is that it greatly reduces the testing time for and increases the accuracy of tests on rain-affected grain at harvest, speeding up the delivery process and reducing the cost of delays to farmers. It also provides more reliable measurement of milling quality grain, reducing unnecessary downgrades of grain from milling to feed.

Soil biology

In 2007–08, Philom Bios (Australia) Pty Ltd, the joint venture between the GRDC and the Canadian company Philom Bios Incorporated, progressed the field testing of a range of growth promotion and disease control microbes sourced from both Australian and North American research programs.

In spite of the effects of the second year of drought on the testing program, the joint venture was able to obtain sufficient trial data to support an expansion of the work in the 2008 season. This work will be supported by an AusIndustry Commercial Ready grant of $880,000, payable over the next three years. The company’s first sales of rhizobium inoculants occurred in winter 2008.

High-amylose wheat

In 2007–08, Arista Cereal Technologies Pty Ltd, the incorporated joint venture between the GRDC, CSIRO and Groupe Limagrain, progressed the development of high-amylose wheat.

A genetically modified (GM) version of the product is ready to be taken to the next stage of development, subject to it being acceptable to the market, the GM event being deregulated, and there being sufficient economic return to the investors.

The joint venture is also working on a non-GM version, to be commercialised if the GM version is not acceptable to the market or the deregulation costs prove prohibitive. A number of technical and economic risks associated with the non-GM version need to be overcome before it can be considered a successful product.

Commercialisation outcomes

Every commercialisation task is unique, and the process of bringing products and technology to market must be undertaken on a project-by-project basis. A cross-section of commercialisation work undertaken in 2007–08 is described below. In addition to participating directly in the commercialisation of new wheat varieties where it has co-ownership of the cultivars, the GRDC monitors the total number of new wheat varieties released, including private breeding company releases. The GRDC reports on the total releases so that breeding activity, regardless of whether it is publicly funded or a private enterprise, can be monitored over time.

New crop varieties

In 2007–08, the GRDC was actively involved in the release and commercialisation of several new crop varieties. The GRDC’s primary objective was to encourage rapid adoption of the new, superior varieties by growers, while protecting the interests of the intellectual property owners.

In selecting commercial partners, the GRDC and its research partners take into consideration capabilities such as the ability to produce quality seed, the ability to market seed successfully, and the targets for seed production and variety uptake. The management and collection of End Point Royalties (EPRs), including the terms and conditions imposed on growers, are also taken into consideration.

The new varieties commercialised in 2007–08 included³:

sixteen wheat varieties. Through its investment in Enterprise Grains Australia the GRDC owns a share in five of these new cultivars: Bounty, Eaglehawk, Kidman, Stampede and Wills. The remaining varieties were released by AGT, InterGrain, Nugrain and LongReach Plant Breeders: Axe, Espada, Frelon, Crusader, Dakota, Lincoln, Peake, Yandanooka, Beaufort, Zulu and Zebu
two barley varieties: Lockyer and Roe
four triticale varieties: Tobruk, Endeavour, Hawkeye and Jaywick
one oat variety: Yallara
three peanut cultivars: Sutherland, Ashton and Walter
one lupin variety: Jenabillup
three chickpea varieties: Genesis509, Genesis510 and Genesis425
three lentil varieties: Boomer, Nipper and Tiara
two soybean varieties: Fraser and Bunya
two maize varieties: AT2 and KX1
fourteen canola varieties: ATR Cobbler, ATR Marlin, ATR409, AV Garnet, Dune, GT61, Hurricane TT, Hyola 50, Hyola 76, M8032, M8265, Monola 75TT, Storm TT and Tarcoola.

Coeliac-friendly beer

Export hay being baled near Calingiri, WA. Photo: Evan Collis

A barley suitable for gluten-intolerant people has the potential to expand the grain market by creating additional consumers and to provide a new exclusive variety and world market for Australian growers and the barley-producing industry.

In 2007–08, a prototype beer from the first coeliacfriendly barley line was produced as part of the ‘ultra low gluten’ barley project. A business case outlining the potential of this product was also developed.

It is intended that Australian partners to produce and market Australian ‘ultra low gluten’ beer will be identified in 2008–09. The final stage of the commercialisation process, scheduled for 2011, will result in the development of a large-seeded variety, suitable for large-scale brewing operations and capable of producing premium low-gluten beer with substantiated suitability for people with coeliac disease.

³ The GRDC defines ‘commercialised’ as meaning ‘when there is a significant amount of seed available commercially to growers’.

C A S E S T U D Y : Adding value to feed grain through near-infrared testing

The Premium Grains for Livestock Program (PGLP) was established as a jointly funded grains industry and animal industries project. The project arose because of the rapidly increasing demand for feed grain from the intensive livestock and dairy industries, and their need for a reliable supply of grain that met their quality specifications.

The grains and animal industries recognised the opportunity to identify the characteristics of grains that made the grains most suitable for different forms of animal production and the advantages to grain growers and livestock producers in developing a process, based on the rapid measurement of grain quality, for trading grains for livestock within Australia.

In 2006–07, commercial case studies were undertaken to validate the near-infrared (NIR) calibration technology developed by the PGLP within the feed grain supply chain. The case studies demonstrated that this technology adds value by better utilising available energy supplied for livestock feeding.

In 2007–08, the GRDC was in the final stages of negotiating a commercialisation licence for the NIR technology with the Pork Cooperative Research Centre (CRC). The licence will allow the Pork CRC to build a business around further validating the calibrations to ensure their robustness when the grain is traded commercially and when securing third-party interest in sub-licence agreements. A detailed commercialisation plan was developed for the Pork CRC and the GRDC to ensure maximum value and uptake for this business.

It is expected that this work will lead to the commercialisation of a tool developed specifically to determine quality attributes, such as digestible energy, that can be used as a negotiation point between a grain grower and a livestock producer when determining price.

Case Study Photo

A joint project between the Pork CRC and the GRDC has demonstrated that NIR calibration technology will greatly assist in determining the quality attributes of feed grains. Photo: Australian Pork Limited

The GRDC (together with research partners) registers intellectual property where to do so will achieve the above objectives, and maintains a register of its registered intellectual property.

Patents

The GRDC continued to file and prosecute a number of patent applications and to maintain a number of patents, each time in conjunction with research partners.

Plant breeder’s rights

In 2007–08 the GRDC and its research partners:

lodged fifteen new PBR applications
withdrew one new PBR application
surrendered eight Certificates of Plant Breeder’s Rights.

Trademarks

The corporation lodged one trademark application in 2007–08, and maintained all of its existing trademarks.

Subsidiaries

During 2007–08 the GRDC had one subsidiary: Single Vision Grains Australia.

Business relationships

Most of the GRDC’s business relationships are governed by contracts, such as research agreements and the licensing of the resulting intellectual property. However, in several cases the most effective way to encourage adoption of innovation in the grains industry is to establish a company or unincorporated joint venture. Key reasons for deciding to set up a company or joint venture include more effective management of intellectual property; more focused governance; ease of interaction with the private sector; and, in the case of CRCs, government policy.

Table 15 describes the companies in which the GRDC had shares or membership in 2007–08. In most cases the GRDC also nominated one or more directors to the company’s Board.

Intellectual property management

The GRDC usually owns a share of all intellectual property generated by research projects it funds. This consists of registrable intellectual property (plant breeder’s rights (PBR), patents and trademarks) and non-registrable intellectual property (copyright and trade secrets).

The corporation actively manages its intellectual property, to:

ensure that research outcomes are adopted as quickly and effectively as possible, by either dissemination or commercialisation
provide access to GRDC intellectual property and gain access to third-party intellectual property where it will facilitate the delivery of research outcomes.

Table 15 Companies in which the GRDC has shares or membership
Companies limited by guarantee
Name	Activity	GRDC role
ACAS Ltd	Provides cereal variety details online for farmers, manages the National Variety Trials	Is a member of the company and provides a research contract Nominates a director
Agrifood Awareness Ltd	Provides information about gene technology to enable informed debate	Is a member of the company and provides research funding Nominates a director
CRC NPB Ltd	Serves as the management company for the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for National Plant Biosecurity	Is a member of the company and provides a research contract
Export Grains Centre Ltd	Invested in plant breeding; is now being wound up	Is a member of the company Nominates two directors
Grain Foods CRC Ltd	Develops innovative grain products	Is a member of the company and provides a research contract Nominates a director
Go Grains Health and Nutrition Ltd	Develops innovative grain products	Is a member of the company and provides a research contract Nominates a director
Go Grains Health and Nutrition Ltd	Identifies and communicates the health benefits of grain food products	Is a member of the company and provides research funding Nominates a director
Pulse Australia Ltd	Provides leadership for the development of the pulse industry in Australia	Is a member of the company Nominates a director
Value Added Wheat CRC Ltd	Serves as the management company for the Value Added Wheat CRC	Is a member of the company Nominates a director
Arista Cereal Technologies Pty Ltd	Undertakes development of high-amylose wheat	Is a 14 percent shareholder and nominates one director
Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics Pty Ltd	Conducts functional genomics research into abiotic stress	Is a 20 percent shareholder in the company, in return for providing funding of $10 million over five years
Australian Grain Technologies Pty Ltd	Undertakes commercial wheat breeding	Is a 46 percent shareholder and provides research contracts and nominates three of the seven directors
Australian Weed Management Pty Ltd	Serves as the management company for the CRC for Australian Weed Management	Has a beneficial interest in one share of the company
Canola Breeders Western Australia Pty Ltd	Develops high-performing commercial canola varieties focused on Western Australian low-rainfall areas with some adaption to other regions of Australia	Is a 31.59 percent shareholder and nominates one director
HRZ Wheats Pty Ltd	Develops high-yielding milling wheat varieties for Australia’s high-rainfall zone	Is a 62 percent shareholder (49.5 percent voting rights) and nominates one director
InterGrain Pty Ltd	Responsible for the future breeding and selection of superior WA wheat varieties	Is a 23 percent shareholder and nominates one director
Philom Bios (Australia) Pty Ltd	Develops and markets inoculant products to benefit growers	Is a 50 percent shareholder and provides research contracts and nominates two of the four directors

Paul and Andrew Nagorcka, brothers from the Hamilton district in Victoria are looking at hay storage to provide them with more marketing options. Photo: Jacqueline Wilson, Southern Farming Systems