InnovationXchange event

  • Speech, check against delivery

Ladies and gentlemen there are more prizes.

As I said earlier during the panel discussion the Australian Government set up an innovation hub, the innovationXchange within the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the idea was to come up with new and creative ways of solving some intractable development problems in our part of the world, the Indian Ocean and the Asia-Pacific.

We have done things like looking at the health systems of Pacific nations. We appreciate that they don't have some of the basic data like cause of death or other issues that would help them build a sustainable health system.

So we partnered with Bloomberg Philanthropies. They put in 80 million dollars, we put in $20 million, and using Bloomberg's technologies we are undertaking a health census in 20 nations so that we can have far more effective and efficient health systems, based on data.

We are very excited at the MIT Solve concept and we have partnered with Atlassian, an Australian technology company, and with MIT, and their world-leading research and innovative ideas. The Australian Government put in AU$1.4 million. We have been part of Solve and some of the recipients of our prize will be those who have already received a prize but others will be new, and they are all focusing their efforts on the Indian Ocean and Asia-Pacific.

The recipients of the DFAT innovationXchange prize can earn up to $70,000 AUD in prize money. They will be mentored at MIT and then from this group we will choose one, maybe two, whose ideas will then be scaled up and rolled out in the Indian Ocean and Asia-Pacific on this specific issues of Youth Skills and the Future Work Force.

The winners of the innovationXchange Australian Government prize are:

  • 40K+;
  • Books versus Bites;
  • Kolorob Jobs;
  • The Digital Super Heroes Academy;
  • Pacific Flying Labs;
  • Ruangguru Digital Bootcamp;
  • TULA Learning Centres; and
  • Wanji Games.

The wonderful winners here will be heading to MIT and will all be mentored there, get to pitch again and then from this group there will be one, maybe two, maybe more – it depends how the budget expands – who will have their fabulous solutions, their ideas, scaled up. Could you congratulate again these magnificent innovators.

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