Evolving the CRC with flexibility for the future
At the Hearing Cooperative Research Centre (Hearing CRC), we conduct research into technology that can be commercialised to help deliver better health service outcomes. The CRC is a consortium of 25 organisations, including universities, major commercial organisations and government, as well as professional associations.
I’ve worked with FAL since the early 90’s, when the CRC program was established to create linkages between industry and universities. We’ve been through three incarnations, all structured slightly differently as the program changed direction.
On each occasion, FAL has provided advice on how to structure ourselves. The last was the most complex, as we needed to find a way to retain health related charity status while still maintaining our ability to distribute revenue to our commercial partners.
This was a difficult transition involving an unincorporated joint venture and an associated commercialisation company which was a trustee. We moved to a company limited by guarantee, going from 12 to 25 consortium partners. Not all the original 12 continued onto the next phase of the CRC, so there were also termination / wind up agreements and various transition arrangements.
FAL developed agreements to establish three related entities and the related transfers. They kept on top of the various comments from the different entities, and advised us how to respond. If we hadn’t have had someone with Jenni Lightowlers’ experience and calm, as well as the commercial nous as to how to set this up, it could have been insurmountable.
We are four years into the latest agreement and the structure is working really well. While not everyone agreed with the advice FAL gave us at the time, it’s proven to be absolutely the right structure. When Jenni was doing the structure, it wasn’t just for the present; it also gave us flexibility for the future, depending on how successful we are. Without them I don’t know if we would have got to such an advantageous position.
We also rely on FAL’s advice for our day to day operations, such as negotiating a new license agreement with a major company to use our technology. On one occasion, FAL’s advice was instrumental in returning several million dollars to the CRC for the licensing of IP. That enabled us to operate for a couple of years without CRC grants which gave us a lot more flexibility in terms of what research we conducted.
We have very strong personal relationships with the FAL senior partners and they are extremely responsive. They are flexible enough to adapt to client needs. They listen to what you say but they will be firm when they think you’re wrong, which I think is a positive. And if they don’t know, they tell you that and then they go find out. They are to the point, discreet where needed and they have good commercial sense. And you get good quality advice at a reasonable price.
I recommend them to anyone in the innovation field.
Robert Cowan
CEO, Hearing CRC
To find out how FAL Lawyers could help your CRC, download our Capability Statement.
