Team:Macquarie Australia/Practices/Implementation/Legacy
It is important to reflect on what Macquarie University iGEM has achieved over the last 3 years towards our goal of creating a versatile tool-set from photosynthesis that are useful for future synthetic biology applications. The 2015 team has brought our vision of a commercially viable application for our work closer than ever by forming synergistic relationships with both industry and members of the community. When photosystem II can be effectively and reproducibly made within E. coli we feel the trajectory towards a successful business enterprise is both promising and exciting.
Proof of concept – Functional prototype
The leap from proof of concept to a functional prototype will not only be a significant engineering challenge, but also a significant financial challenge. As discussed in risk *link* this will be perhaps one of the greatest challenges to be overcome, after which labour costs will decrease dramatically. We feel as though with the interest of socially conscious investors that share a global mandate to reduce carbon foot-print, this barrier can be overcome and our project would be an attractive opportunity. Further development could also assimilate sustainable strategies for sourcing both water and the materials involved within the hydrogen hero.
Bringing to market – Create revenue
As for any start-up business generation of revenue streams is of foremost importance particularly in a well-defined time scale that can be realised by investors. We feel as though selling the pilot module will be the first step towards this, especially in assuring investors of commercial viability. Moving forwards acquiring additional finance required to produce additional modules would no longer be a barrier. At this point ideally modules would be made on an on-demand basis to both reduce overheads and preserve capital.
Consistent revenue, expansion, future development
Once revenue has been consistently demonstrated on an annual basis the possibility for expansion and future development can be explored. At this point the major technical problems with our product will be well described and understood, and capital can be both allocated from revenue and raised through non-equity means. This capital would be invested in both improving the means of production to minimise cost through scaled production, but also additional research into potentially smaller modules that could be marketed towards households.
Diversification as the sun sets on fossil fuels.
Finally we feel as though the long-term legacy of our project will be to fill a widening gap that will be come more prevalent as the sun sets on fossil fuels in the coming decades. Effective capital management, research and development will yield a diversified product base that will fill a growing plethora of needs in a maturing renewable energy market where fossil fuels are no longer economical.
