Key points
- ON Prime helps researchers transition from lab to real-world impact by building customer discovery skills.
- Through the program, researchers develop confidence and clarity to engage industry partners and refine their value propositions.
- Recent alumni projects include AMTi’s advanced titanium alloys and PROLIFERATE_AI’s adoption-focused AI platform.
What if the next leap in aerospace came not from an industrial giant, but from a university lab in Melbourne? Or if AI could predict how an invention would succeed before it even reached the market?
Every year, brilliant ideas stall not because the science is weak, but because the pathway to adoption is unclear. Globally, it is often cited that fewer than 10 per cent of research outputs progress beyond the lab into products, services, policy or practice. The challenge is rarely the quality of the science — it’s navigating the messy middle between discovery and adoption.
Translating real-world impact means moving beyond proof-of-concept to understand users, contexts and constraints. It’s part science, part social insight and part storytelling.
Programs like ON Prime are designed to empower research teams do exactly that: test assumptions, listen to potential users and consider how their ideas might work in real-world settings.
Why do great ideas struggle to leave the lab?
Tennille Eyre, Program Director, ON Innovation Program at CSIRO, explained that even strong technologies can miss the mark if they’re built around what’s technically possible rather than what people actually need.
“For researchers, this gap shows up as familiar pain points — little time or confidence to engage with industry, uncertainty about who the real user is, and difficulty explaining complex work in language that decision-makers understand.
“Without targeted support during the early-stage, even high‑potential ideas risk staying on the shelf instead of creating impact,” explained Ms Eyre.
AMTi: Stronger alloys for a lighter future
At RMIT University’s Centre for Additive Manufacturing, Ryan Brooke set out to develop titanium alloys tailored for 3D printing — materials designed to be stronger, more affordable and more efficient than traditional options.
The science was looking promising. But making an impact beyond the lab would require more than data— Ryan’s team needed insight into where their technology mattered most and how to communicate value.
Participating in ON Prime prompted the group to step outside the lab and into conversations with aerospace engineers, manufacturers and designers. These discussions offered insight into practical needs and helped the team express their work in terms that made sense to stakeholders.
“I came into ON Prime hoping for a clear, step-by-step plan to commercialise our research. What I found was something better, a framework that helped us figure out the next steps ourselves,” Ryan said.
“Talking directly to industry reshaped our message and enabled us to better align our technology with real-world applications. Learning to explain why this matters in plain language was a game-changer.”
This shift — paired with growing confidence and connections — helped Ryan secure a Research Translation Fellowship at RMIT and opened pathways in aerospace, defence, shipbuilding and biomedical sectors.
PROLIFERATE_AI: Predicting adoption before it happens
At Flinders University, Dr Maria Alejandra Pinero de Plaza (Ale) was grappling with a different challenge. Many technologies fail not because they don’t work, but because they don’t fit how people use them.
Her answer was PROLIFERATE_AI, an AI-powered platform designed to predict adoption pathways and design innovations that stick.
While Ale’s team had a strong technical solution, they had a limited understanding of the customer’s needs.
“We initially focused on what our tool could do. The program flipped our perspective to focus on what customers wanted and valued,” Ale said.
Conversations with healthcare professionals and policymakers clarified opportunities, limitations and workflows. This reshaped the project into a framework with applications in both national and international health settings.
“Before ON Prime, we thought like researchers — but after ON Prime, we thought like problem-solvers,” Ale said.
Today, PROLIFERATE_AI is partnering with hospital partners to improve healthcare delivery and prevent costly adoption failures. Communication skills honed through ON Prime also supported Ale’s acceptance into MIT’s Applied AI and Data Science Program, further extending the project’s capability.
What these case studies teach us
These are not just stories about titanium alloys or AI platforms— they highlight the importance of listening to users, adapting ideas and refining how research is communicated across sectors such as materials, defence, policy, health and data science.
Teams like AMTi and PROLIFERATE_AI gained clarity on where their work could add the most value, and how it would fit into existing systems.
They also became more flexible about pathways to impact, exploring options from fellowships and partnerships to international upskilling opportunities.
The bigger picture: pathways to impact
ON Prime offers a structured, evidence-based approach to early-stage customer discovery, helping researchers test their assumptions before committing resources.
Since 2015, more than 8,500 researchers have taken part in ON programs, reporting a range of outcomes including new collaborations, funding opportunities and a clearer research direction. Some projects have gone on to develop ventures or licenses.
For AMTi and PROLIFERATE_AI and many others, progress began with a simple question: who is this really for?
For researchers ready to test their ideas in the real world, ON Prime offers more than guidance. It offers a launchpad for impact.