Canberra Innovation Network (CBRIN) serves as a backbone organisation, not for profit, curating a sector- and stage-agnostic environment that accelerates regional innovation. Led by a coalition of Canberra-based higher education institutions with support of the territory government and businesses, CBRIN creates a neutral, inclusive platform that connects, promotes and grows the shared ecosystem that supports entrepreneurs and innovative companies. In doing so CBRIN focuses on promoting a culture of entrepreneurship across members and the community, coordinating and aligning the programs, resources, support and services that encourage and accelerate innovative entrepreneurship.
Co-investment for Impact
In Canberra, the higher educational institutions including CBRIN’s Foundation Members - the Australian National University, the University of Canberra, the University of New South Wales Canberra, the Canberra Institute of Technology and CBRIN’s Education Partner the Academy of Interactive Entertainment make a joint, public and strategic commitment to entrepreneurship by co-investing with the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Government and the business community (Canberra Airport, Optus, PWC, and King & Wood Mallesons) to fund the Canberra Innovation Network (CBRIN). This collaboration and shared commitment is consistent, has created a significant impact for the regional economy spanning over the past 10 years, including benefits for students, researchers and staff from the member institutions. Specifically, the partnership has led to an estimated economic impact of $197M added to the local economy in 2024, having supported over 1,600 innovation jobs (both directly and indirectly) and generating $57 for every $1 invested by the ACT Government since the start of the initiative in 2014 (Canberra innovation Network’s Economic Impact, 2024). The Foundation member institutions commit to co-investing funds to the collaboration and providing shared leadership through the Board of Directors for CBRIN, co-development of long-term shared strategic directions and annual work plans for the network, and driving connectivity with and among their faculties, across their campuses, programs, facilities and researcher, staff and student pools.
‘Rainforest’ Culture that Supports Diversity
At the heart of CBRIN’s success is its ability to act as a neutral, open and inclusive platform. CBRIN’s approach, driven by the ACT higher education institutions, follows the Rainforest innovation ecosystem principles (Hwang et al., 2012). CBRIN curates an environment where people from diverse backgrounds and organisations from a variety of sectors, and in all stages of maturity, can connect, collaborate, develop capability, access resources and share ideas and opportunities freely.
Typical CBRIN ecosystem connections activity
Instead of focusing on rigid plans or top-down control, CBRIN-led or enabled programs, events and initiatives nurture trust-based networks that help talent, capital, capability, expertise and ideas flow more easily across the ACT innovation community - much like nutrients circulating in a thriving rainforest ecosystem. The key to CBRIN’s philosophy is to not focus only on the ‘tall trees’ (i.e. just the big, venture-pathway or tech firms) but to purposefully create opportunities to grow diversity and address any gaps (such as to encourage participation of under-represented groups, or to connect makerspace facilities across institutions and make them available to entrepreneurs, etc.). Programs like Female Founders or supported programs delivered by partners, such as the Mill House Ventures, target audiences that seek different ways of engagement to thrive in the shared entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Regularly Nurtured Connectivity
A great example of the rainforest approach is CBRIN’s First Wednesday Connect, an open meetup for the local innovation ecosystem held once per month in different locations across the many higher education campuses in Canberra. Since 1 July 2015, the series has had over 111 iterations, attracted over 23 thousand registrations and hosted over 1,400 sixty second pitches that allow founders, researchers, students, mentors, program managers or others to present their projects, requests for help or opportunities to the crowds (Adamek, 2024). Regularly and consistently each event attracts over 200 participants, from a variety of backgrounds, including startups, scaleups, SMEs, researchers, students, mentors, investors, government, community organisations, other collaborating intermediaries and programs, youth, creatives, under-represented groups or general population with interest in innovation and entrepreneurship. First Wednesday Connect creates a real sense of pulse or rhythm within the local innovation ecosystem. Through its regular and predictable cadence, large reach, variety of locations, inclusive and friendly atmosphere, and approximately 50% of registrants being new every time, the event manifests the expansive and open character of the innovation ecosystem nurtured by CBRIN. This is enabled by the strategic co-investment of the members and partners, and it is critical for supporting the innovation ecosystem vibrancy, fluidity, density and connectivity (Stangler D. et al, 2015).
Panorama of 100th First Wednesday Connect hosted at ACT Government
Consistent Multilevel Collaboration
CBRIN’s consistent and structured collaboration led by (1) universities and higher education, with support of (2) government, (3) corporations and industry, (4) venture capital, and engagement with (5) community organisations to support entrepreneurs is critical to the network’s effectiveness. This approach combines the Mode 3 quadruple helix framework (Carayannis et al., 2009), and the MIT frameworks for (a) innovation ecosystem stakeholders and (b) innovation-driven entrepreneurial ecosystems (Budden et al., 2017; Budden et al., 2018). CBRIN’s strategy focuses on building innovation capacity, entrepreneurial capacity and structured as well as serendipitous but frequent linkages between the two subsystems to support entrepreneurs whose progress and success ultimately drives the ecosystem’s impact.
Through entrepreneur-focused initiatives, such as collaborative innovation labs, sector-specific challenges, stage-specific competitions and problem-focused hackathons, CBRIN contributes to activating the innovation ecosystem to grow the role of entrepreneurship in addressing complex issues, including in sustainability, energy transition, health, education, regional development and community wellbeing. Examples of collaborative projects in 2025 include better landscape rehydration, alignment of university-industry collaboration on future skills development, mapping and matching of key regional stakeholders in the AI ecosystem, or development of a joint program of four higher education institutions who, with support of local government, co-deliver a voucher program that connects entrepreneurial firms and local innovators to equipment and expertise in the member institutions’ makerspaces.
Collective Impact
The institutional commitment of the foundation members and partners together with the ACT Government is perhaps best illustrated in how CBRIN’s mission, vision and strategy focus on Collective Impact (Kania et al., 2011). CBRIN’s collective impact-driven strategy and workplans define the initiatives and resources accessible to the member institutions, so that they do not have to develop these individually on their campuses in any competition with each other. Instead, the members adapt their approaches to entrepreneurial education and industry engagement in ways that leverage CBRIN, its programs and events as shared resources that grow a shared innovation ecosystem. For example, a regular city-wide entrepreneurial competition (InnovationACT) for all tertiary education institutions’ students and researchers is delivered by CBRIN and co-funded by all the members. The contributions these members make into this shared ecosystem provide high returns. Each $1 a member higher education institution invests into CBRIN annually is matched by approximately $29 of combined (1) co-investment by other members, funders and sponsors and (2) performance of the company in generating its revenue. These resources are deployed through the collective impact strategy to create measurable impacts (approximately $320M added to Gross State Product of the ACT in 2022-2024) by increasing the commercialisation rates of research, enhancing entrepreneurial skills and capabilities within the community, and improving overall regional economic diversification and resilience.
Summary
CBRIN exemplifies how consistent collaboration led by the tertiaries, supported by government and industry, and engaging across the quadruple helix with a sector-agnostic approach to entrepreneurship significantly contributes to a rich, vibrant and impactful regional innovation ecosystem. As a neutral backbone organisation that drives co-investments and shared strategy in the long run, it offers an adaptable model for regional innovation ecosystems globally. One of the key ingredients to CBRIN’s success is its focus on promoting a culture of entrepreneurship across its members and the innovation community and coordinating and aligning programs, resources, events and services that support innovative entrepreneurs.
Adamek, P. (2024, December): 2024 End of Year CEO Message. CBRIN website. https://cbrin.com.au/general-news/2024-end-of-year-ceo-message/
Budden, P., & Murray, F. (2017, September). A systematic MIT approach for assessing ‘innovation-driven entrepreneurship’ in ecosystems (‘iEcosystems’) [Working paper]. MIT Sloan School of Management, Laboratory for Innovation Science and Policy. https://innovation.mit.edu/assets/BuddenMurray_Assessing-iEcosystems-Working-Paper_FINAL.pdf
Budden, P., & Murray, F. (2018, October). An MIT framework for innovation ecosystem policy: Developing policies to support vibrant innovation ecosystems [Working paper]. MIT Sloan School of Management, Laboratory for Innovation Science and Policy. https://innovation.mit.edu/assets/MIT-Stakeholder-Framework_Innovation-Ecosystems.pdf
Carayannis, E. G., & Campbell, D. F. J. (2009). ‘Mode 3’ and ‘quadruple helix’: Toward a 21st century fractal innovation ecosystem. International Journal of Technology Management, 46(3–4), 201–234. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJTM.2009.023374
Hwang, V. W., & Horowitt, G. (2012). The rainforest: The secret to building the next Silicon Valley. Regenwald.
Kania, J., & Kramer, M. (2011). Collective impact. Stanford Social Innovation Review, 9(1), 36–41. https://ssir.org/articles/entry/collective_impact
Stangler, D., BellMasterson, J. (2015, March 16). Measuring an entrepreneurial ecosystem. Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. https://www.kauffman.org/reports/measuring-an-entrepreneurial-ecosystem/
PwC (November 2024). Canberra innovation Network’s Economic Impact. https://www.cbrin.com.au/impact
Cover Image: Female Founders focused Collaborative Innovation Lab
Images courtesy of the author