Fast-track to founder: solving uncertainty in conflicts of interest
By Jen Waters
Conflicts of interest are an essential consideration in virtually any field. But for many, this can be a difficult concept to navigate.
“In the course of my research, I found people often had trouble conceptualising conflicts of interest,” says Macquarie University bioethics researcher Professor Wendy Lipworth.
“They sometimes struggled to work out for themselves if they had conflicts of interest, and if so, how to assess the risks they might present, weigh those up against the benefits of the activity they were entering into and create a management plan. I realised that people needed guidance.”
Professor Lipworth – a medically-trained bioethics and health social science researcher whose work focuses on finding pragmatic solutions to complex and controversial real-world problems – searched online for a simple step-by-step reasoning tool. Unable to find one, she decided to create one herself.
“Attest is an online questionnaire that guides people systematically through the process of identifying, appraising, and managing conflicts of interest to protect their reputations and manage risk,” she explains.
Developed as a side project with the thought of someday commercialising, she declared her existing IP on joining Macquarie a year ago. The Office of Commercialisation and Innovation told her about the Researchers IMPACT Program, and – with no prior experience with terms like ‘value proposition’ or ‘minimum viable product’ – she jumped on board in June 2022.
“The IMPACT program gave me a conceptual framework for thinking about an idea and going through a systematic but also quite fluid and iterative process to determine where it might be useful. It provided me with an entirely new way of thinking about impact.”
With Professor Lipworth named a runner-up in the program’s pitch final in October, the potential for her research to have a wide-ranging impact is clear.
“Any organisation in any sector could potentially use it, because anyone whose job or organisation has any complexity is going to run into circumstances where conflict of interest can arise. I plan to start with the academic sector, but in the future it could be used by business, government, NGOs – any organisation that has to show it has thought about its obligations and the potential for conflict of interest to impact them.”
The Macquarie Incubator is the next logical step, with Professor Lipworth joining the first cohort in 2023. She plans to leverage the expert guidance and uniquely structured framework to translate her ideas for commercial realisation.
“Being an entrepreneur isn’t my primary gig, I’m learning as I go. I see the Incubator as a support structure guiding me step by step through the process, so that I don’t have to become an expert in business , commerce or law all at once,” she says.
“It’s also giving me a secure base from which to explore a diversity of options to commercialise Attest, safe in the knowledge that there are people who will alert me if I’m getting into tricky territory or potentially making bad decisions. I think that’s really important for researchers – you don't have to know exactly what’s ahead or at stake, you can deal with it one small step and decision at a time.”