{"id":43386,"date":"2023-10-20T15:28:11","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/innovation-centre-opens-in-melbournes-east-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:28:11","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:28:11","slug":"innovation-centre-opens-in-melbournes-east-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/innovation-centre-opens-in-melbournes-east-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Innovation centre opens in Melbourne\u2019s east – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A new $5 million co-working space in Melbourne\u2019s eastern suburbs will soon be opening, with the aim of turning innovative ideas in technology, medicine and science into commercial successes.<\/p>\n

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The Eastern Innovation Business Centre (EIBC) in Mulgrave will be opening next week, and is still accepting applications for potential tenants.<\/p>\n

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The high-tech facility, located right next door to Monash University, boasts high-speed fibre, cloud collaboration, video conferencing, and advanced security.<\/p>\n

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EIBC board chair Dianne Taylor says she wants the site to be a hothouse for innovation and early-stage startups.<\/p>\n

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\u201cOur vision is to have it as a community of innovators, in part servicing the south-eastern suburbs but not necessarily limited to that,\u201d Taylor says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cFor people who have just an idea and are in the early stage, we\u2019ll be providing a virtual community with meet-ups, mentoring and access to the facility for hot-desking,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAs businesses progress, there are permanent desks for rent at a reasonable price.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The EIBC will be welcoming in a handful of entrepreneurs next week, and hope for the space to becoming a \u201cthriving community\u201d within the next two months.<\/p>\n

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With a little help from the government<\/b><\/h2>\n

The space has been developed by the City of Monash, with $4.75 million in federal government funding, and $245,000 from the Living Victoria Fund provided by the state government.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt was a long process in securing the funding. Our application was initially refused, so we tweaked it and were successful in the second round,\u201d Taylor says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe focus on innovation played a big part in getting the grant.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The EIBC won\u2019t be offering equity deals, instead focusing on flat fees for using the facilities. It\u2019ll cost about $400 per month for a permanent desk, or $75 a day for a hot desk.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe want to provide an environment where businesses can flourish, so it needs to be at a reasonable price,\u201d Taylor says.<\/p>\n

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Turning ideas into startups<\/b><\/h2>\n

The EIBC will focus on supporting entrepreneurs in turning innovative ideas into viable commercial businesses.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s not done as well as it could, so that\u2019s the core purpose of this centre, to foster that in startups and existing businesses,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe want to build a community where people get together, and there\u2019s an opportunity for cross-pollination.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The space is also environmentally-friendly, sitting above a bio-filtration system for locally collected stormwater, and having a general focus on sustainability.<\/p>\n

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The EIBC is in Clayton, about 19km south-east of the Melbourne CBD, and Taylor says this presents a range of opportunities, including the close proximity to Monash University, the CSIRO, and the National Synchrotron.<\/p>\n

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\u201cEntrepreneurs and great ideas aren\u2019t limited to the CBD,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

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Raising your<\/i> first round of capital<\/i><\/a>? Starting a<\/i> crowdfunding campaign<\/i><\/a>? Want to grow your business<\/i> with Instagram?<\/i><\/a> StartupSmart School can help.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new $5 million co-working space in Melbourne\u2019s eastern suburbs will soon be opening, with the aim of turning innovative<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59830,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43386"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}