The free, two-day UniQuest Research Commercialisation Workshop focuses on intellectual property management and industry engagement and is specifically tailored for UQ management and researchers. Over the past decade, UniQuest has hosted more than 3000 UQ researchers at its workshops, encouraging entrepreneurship and guiding UQ researchers in their approach to commercialisation.

Some researchers may hold a suspicious view of industry and commercialisation, believing the private sector could either compromise academic independence and integrity or at best influence research for private gain. Recently, universities have come to see themselves as agents of social, environmental and economic change, seeking to engage with the broader community to lead and influence both public policy and economic development.

Many UQ academics realise industry engagement, collaboration and commercialisation can achieve academic freedom, peer acknowledgement and recognition while maximising local and global impact. With university budgets coming under increasing pressure, these activities can also become a mechanism to fund research programs to new levels, instead of relying solely on public funding programs.