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The $5 million project to build the Eastern Innovation Business Centre (EIBC) is finally complete and the organisation is now accepting expressions of interest from innovative startups, specifically in the areas of technology, medical and science.
The EIBC is located near Monash University's Clayton campus, and has been designed with state-of-the-art features in the hope that is becomes an environment where innovative ideas can be turned into highly scalable commercial entities.
The core focus of the EIBC will be on accelerating the commercial side of the startups within the centre, creating an environment that is collaborative, inspiring and supportive through its network of expert mentors.
There has been no formal mention as of yet about who these expert mentors are, however in order to pull off similar success to that of other university-centred programs like Flinders University's Venture Dorm, Innovation NSW at UNSW or INCUBATE at Sydney Uni, the EIBC will need to attract top tier active entrepreneurs, not just academics for the startup community to be drawn to base themselves out of Clayton as opposed to Melbourne city.
Right now, the facilities seem to be the EIBC's major selling point; the organisation boasts cutting edge environmental assets - the building itself is surrounded by green walls and features the latest in built form sustainability in terms of natural light and heat, air flow, and energy conservation - as well as high speed fibre internet, cloud collaboration, video conferencing facilities and both wet and dry lab spaces.
In a statement prior to commencement of the project, former Monash Mayor Geoff Lake said the businesses that base themselves out of the EIBC would benefit from being in Melbourne's 'hi-tech scientific zone'.
"These businesses will benefit from being in the heart of Melbourne's hi-tech scientific zone, near CSIRO, Monash University and the National Synchrotron, to name a few local organisations," he said.
The Monash Council built the centre using $4.75 million of Federal Government funding from the Regional Development Australia Fund. The State Government then provided $245,000 towards the project from its $50 million Living Victoria Fund.
The space is designed around a flexible platform of active and progressive zones that accommodate a changing world and workplace. Tenants' ‘office spaces’ can expand and contract according to your needs, keeping in theme with the scalability of high-growth technology businesses.
