The Broken Bridge Between Research and Real-World Change

The Innovation Bottleneck… and How the CoLabs Impact Program is Building a New Path

👉 Apply to the CoLabs Impact Program →

Across Australia, thousands of promising life sciences and bio-innovation projects never make it past the lab bench. These ideas could transform industries, regenerate ecosystems, and solve planetary-scale challenges – but they get stuck in the infamous valley of death between research and commercialisation.

For science-led startups, the bottleneck is especially acute. Simulations can validate materials, therapies, and processes to a point – but to move forward, founders need properly equipped labs to advance to Technology Readiness Level 3 (TRL3) and beyond. That step requires more than a laptop and good intentions. It requires infrastructure.

The Barriers Founders Face

Even in innovation hotspots like Melbourne, early-stage founders run into roadblocks that slow their path to impact:

• Infrastructure Costs – Lab access is critical, but specialised equipment has long lead times and comes with hefty price tags, often beyond the reach of startups.

• Misaligned Incubator Models – Plenty of incubators offer business support and even capital, but without guaranteed lab access, founders burn precious funding just covering the basics.

• Funding Gaps – Impact innovation often demands longer R&D timelines and higher upfront costs, which can clash with investor expectations for fast returns.

• Limited Cross-Pollination – Founders outside structured programs often miss out on the collaboration and serendipity that sparks new breakthroughs.

As one of our Impact Member alumni, David Stapleton, put it:

‘It’s difficult to get to that early feasibility stage without lab space. Outside of CoLabs, you’re too scared to share, but here it’s completely different – there’s trust, collaboration, and no competition.’

For us, this perfectly captures both the challenge and the opportunity.

Our Vision: A Better Path for Bio-Innovation

At CoLabs, we believe an incubator should be more than hot desks and coffee machines. For science-led ventures (sometimes called deep tech or fronteir tech) it must be a bridge – connecting research with real-world change.

That’s why we’ve built something different: not an incubator, not an accelerator, but a purpose-designed program that goes beyond both – bringing lab space, prototyping, and community together in one accessible venture platform.

The CoLabs Impact Program: Building That Bridge

The CoLabs Impact Program is a six-month intensive incubator designed for early-stage startups tackling human and planetary challenges.

While program participants receive free lab and office space plus structured incubation, CoLabs is also a hybrid platform: our workshops, events, and community gatherings are open to the broader ecosystem. This means researchers, designers, and entrepreneurs can still plug in, learn, collaborate and cross-pollinate, even if they’re not in the program.

Why? We know firsthand how beneficial it is to be open and accessible to everyone at every stage of the innovation journey.

👉 Apply to the CoLabs Impact Program →

What program participants receive:

🔬 Free Lab + Office Space for 6 Months – Fully equipped labs for TRL3–4 validation and prototyping, plus the flexibility to scale into subsidised rental as you grow.

⚙️ Engineering & Prototyping Facilities – Dedicated spaces for building, testing, and iterating.

💻 Desk Space & Collaboration Zones – Hybrid-ready, cross-disciplinary workspaces.

🎯 Tailored Business Support – Company structure, IP, regulatory pathways, pitching, and more.

🤝 Immersive Community – Mentors, peers, and changemakers who understand the science-led journey.

📈 Pathway to Scale – Transition smoothly into affordable, purpose-built labs and offices onsite.

📣 Pitch to Investors – Showcase your venture to a curated audience of investors and partners.

What’s open to everyone:

🎟️ Workshops and Events – From deep-dive biotech sessions to founder mixers and demo days.

🌱 Community Connections – A place to collaborate, share, and cross-pollinate ideas across disciplines.

Why It Works: The Power of Serendipity

Infrastructure gets you started. Community keeps you going.

At CoLabs, collisions happen by design. A chat in the kitchen might lead to a new government contact. A quick whiteboard sketch with another founder could spark your next iteration. Mentorship, introductions, peer learning, it’s all woven into the daily experience. This particle accelerator for ideas is what we call ‘engineered serendipity’.

Our first Impact Member, David, is in his element at our Notting Hill Facility.

As Stapleton recalls:

‘I talked to another member once, just walking past. He mentioned he knew someone in government, and that led to an ongoing relationship. That never would have happened without that casual chat.’

These chance encounters are what transform a rented lab into a thriving ecosystem for cultivating transdisciplinary innovation.

An Invitation to Changemakers

If you’re a founder with a breakthrough idea, whether in biotech, materials, food systems, health, or climate, and you’re ready to move from research to real-world impact, CoLabs is prepared for you.

If you’re not ready to embark on the complete Impact Program journey, you can still join us for parts of the hike. Our workshops, events, and community offerings are open to anyone who wants to connect, learn, and collaborate in an innovation ecosystem.

EOIs are now open. Take the first step toward joining Melbourne’s leading bio-innovation incubator and help us build the regenerative future we all need.

👉 Apply to the CoLabs Impact Program →

After some bio-inspired inspiration? Below is a list of some examples of cool things we’d love to see emerge in Australia.

Biology as Technology: What We’d Love to See in Australia

At CoLabs, we see biology itself as one of the most potent forms of technology. Here are just a few of the frontier applications we’d love to support more of in Australia:

🧬 Yeast as a Factory – Brewing not just beer, but medicines, fuels, and new materials.

🍄 Mushrooms as Material Makers – Growing packaging, leather alternatives, and building materials.

🕸️ Spider Silk as Supermaterial – Stronger than steel, made microbially without spiders.

🌊 Algae as Carbon Machines – Turning CO₂ into fuels, food, pigments, and fertilisers.

⚡ Electric Bacteria – Microbes that literally breathe electricity, powering new fuel cells.

🧑‍⚕️ Engineered Probiotics – Living medicines that deliver drugs or balance gut health.

🌿 Self-Healing Materials – Concrete and textiles that repair themselves, inspired by biology.

🪸 Coral as Architects – Growing reef-inspired infrastructure for coastal protection.

👃 Biosensors – Plants or microbes engineered to detect pollutants, disease, or toxins.

📀 DNA as Data Storage – Storing the world’s information in biology’s densest format.

This is the frontier we’re building toward: a future where biology and technology weave together to regenerate our planet and reshape entire industries.

👉 Apply to the CoLabs Impact Program →