501.   Australia would like to sincerely thank Switzerland for leading this discussion on IP commercialization. We were glad to join the discussion paper as a co-sponsor. 502.   The Australian Government recognizes the value of encouraging linkages between companies and universities on the one hand, and investors on the other. The Department of Industry, Innovation and Science supports collaboration between universities and industry through a number of initiatives, including the Cooperative Research Centres Program, the Entrepreneurs Program, and the IC Global platform recently developed by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation , or CSIRO. 503.   The Cooperative Research Centres Programme supports collaboration by providing competitive grants for industry-research partnerships aimed at solving industry-identified problems. It is a proven model for linking researchers with industry to support the transition from research and development to commercialization. 504.   The Programme comprises two elements:  Cooperative Research Centre Grants, which offer cofounding for up to ten years for industryled collaborative research, to resolve challenges facing industry, and improve the competitiveness, productivity and sustainability of Australian firms; and  Cooperative Research Centre Project Grants, which offer cofounding for up to three years for industry-led collaborative research, to develop new technologies, products and services. 505.   The Entrepreneurs Programme is the Australian Government's flagship initiative for boosting business competitiveness and productivity. The Innovation Connections element of the Programme encourages and assists small-and-medium-sized businesses to access knowledge, engage with researchers and foster innovation. 506.   Innovation Facilitators help businesses to assess gaps in their corporate knowledge and provide specialist support, which may include assisting businesses to:  Identify critical and strategic research needs and opportunities;  Find and access expertise, technology and advice; and  Work with the research sector. 507.   Businesses may also be eligible to apply for a matched funding grant that provides direct access to research capabilities. 508.   IC Global is an integrated suite of platforms developed by CSIRO in collaboration with over 70 partners from across industry, the research sector and government. It is designed to catalyse innovation by facilitating capability discovery, problem solving and data visualization. 509.   The Expert Connect element of IC Global is a publicly searchable database of Australia's research expertise, containing more than 70,000 expert profiles from over 220 research organisations. 510.   Expert Connect has been designed to boost industry-researcher collaboration. Anyone can search for a topic of interest using simple, non-scientific language, and find the most relevant researcher to connect with. 511.   The platform considers both academic and business nous, presenting users with a list of relevant experts that are most likely to understand the business context. 512.   Turning to the forms of public private collaboration that successfully supported IP commercialization, federal government programmes such as Cooperative Research Centres and Innovation Connections both stand out. The Government is also investing in the Challenge Based Innovation program, which fosters opportunities for business, research institutes and Government to work together to solve real-world problems. 513.   Australia's IP Office, IP Australia, has developed several initiatives to help individuals, companies and public institutions to commercialise their IP. 514.   Source IP , for example, connects businesses with those Australian public sector research organisations that have patented technology available to license. Launched in November 2015, Source IP is focused on making it easier for businesses to access innovation and technology generated by the publicly funded research sector. 515.   The platform allows Australian patent holders to include additional information about their patents, such as their potential industrial applications and commercial advantages, to promote the technology and encourage collaborative partnerships. 516.   With the assistance of the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science, the "IP Toolkit" was developed to simplify the administrative management of IP in collaborations between researchers and businesses. 517.   The toolkit can help researchers and businesses to:  Develop and build effective commercial partnerships;  Identify the important issues in developing collaborations;  Deal with key issues before launching collaborative relationships; and  Reduce the need for legal advice, freeing up resources to focus on partnership building. 518.   The toolkit includes resources such as:  A checklist covering the key issues that need to be considered before initiating collaboration;  Contract, confidentiality agreement and term sheet templates; and  Guidance and information to help collaborating parties manage their IP. 519.   The Australian Government offers various forms of training and educational resources to help innovators commercialise their IP. For example, the Australian Copyright Council (ACC) provides accessible and affordable legal advice and education on copyright law for Australian content creators and consumers. It also organises customised in-house training for creators through online webinars and in-person seminars. 520.   The Australian Government's Department of Communications and the Arts contributes to the educational campaigns and awareness raising efforts of WIPO. For example, the Department's Copyright Section has hosted student visits under the WIPOQueensland University of Technology's Master of Laws in Intellectual Property Programme and presented on issues relating to copyright law in Australia. 521.   Finally, experimental facilities such as science parks have largely been the responsibility of Australia's state governments . In recent years the States have developed a range of tech precincts, science parks and business parks, which appear to have been successful in boosting the volume of patent applications.