The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has partnered with Australian startup incubator, Pollenizer to create DataStart, an initiative to support data-driven innovation in Australia. The initiative advances the Turnbull government’s innovation agenda and promise to work with the private sector on data-related, joint public-private projects. It will find, incubate and accelerate innovative business ideas that leverage openly available data from the Australian government, the government said. The first winning startup will be decided through a competitive selection process and will be announced on 18 January next year. Pollenizer and Right Click Capital are offering the winner a $200,000 seed capital investment. If both firms agreement to invest in the idea, the successful startup will be able to access the funds to grow their business and draw a salary during the incubation period. The startup will also be supported by a team based out of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet who will help the company access government data, customer discovery and technical support. Pollenizer said that more than 7,500 open data sets are available through data.gov.au and other government platforms and it is looking for entrepreneurs who can apply innovation and creativity to uncover new value and solve global problems. Shortlisted applicants are being asked to pitch their ideas to a panel of judges from government, industry and investment organisations. Their ideas will be judged on criteria such as the level of innovation and commercial viability. Data-driven innovation added around $67 million to the Australian economy in 2013, according to a PwC report released in September last year. It is also estimated that the Australian technology startup sector has the potential to contribute more than $100 billion (4 per cent of GDP) to the Australian economy by 2033. Follow CIO Australia on Twitter and Like us on Facebook… Twitter: @CIO_Australia, Facebook: CIO Australia, or take part in the CIO conversation on LinkedIn: CIO Australia Follow Byron Connolly on Twitter:@ByronConnolly Related content BrandPost The future of trust—no more playing catch up Broadcom: 2023 Tech Trends That Transform IT By Eric Chien, Director of Security Response, Symantec Enterprise Division, Broadcom Mar 31, 2023 5 mins Security BrandPost TCS gives Blackhawk Network an edge with Microsoft Cloud In this case study, Blackhawk Network’s Cara Renfroe joins Tata Consultancy Services’ Rakesh Kumar and Microsoft’s Nilendu Pattanaik to explain how TCS transformed the gift card company’s customer engagement and global operati By Tata Consultancy Services Mar 31, 2023 1 min Financial Services Industry Cloud Computing IT Leadership BrandPost How TCS pioneered the ‘borderless workspace’ with Microsoft 365 Microsoft’s modern workplace solution proved a perfect fit for improving productivity and collaboration, while maintaining security of systems and data. By Tata Consultancy Services Mar 31, 2023 1 min Financial Services Industry Microsoft Cloud Computing BrandPost Supply chain decarbonization: The missing link to net zero By improving the quality of global supply chain data, enterprises can better measure their true carbon footprint and make progress toward a net-zero business ecosystem. By Tata Consultancy Services Mar 31, 2023 2 mins Retail Industry Supply Chain Green IT Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe