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NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet has announced a new $1.5 million funding partnership between NSW care and insurance provider icare and Cerebral Palsy Alliance (CPA), to help improve the lives of people with disabilities.
The money will be allocated to the Remarkable Accelerator Program over the next three years, to provide technology start-ups with seed funding, mentoring, coaching, access to investor networks, expertise, and guidance.
“Technology changes lives, and our challenge as a community is to ensure we maximise the benefits innovation offers for those people living with a disability,” Perrottet said. “This partnership through the icare foundation will give businesses and people the help they need to take an idea to the next level, and, in the end, improve the lives of those with a disability and the community as a whole.”
Don Ferguson, icare group executive of integrated care, said technology can be a powerful force for enabling social inclusion and for breaking down barriers faced by people living with a disability – a view shared by CPA CEO Rob White.
“Our goal is to help accelerate technology from prototype into real inclusive technologies and improve quality of life and participation in the community,” Ferguson said.
“We see that advancements in artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and machine learning will be game-changing for people living with a disability,” White added.
Peter Horsley, Remarkable Program founder, noted that many promising solutions in Australia have not made it past the prototype stage “due to a lack of access to start-up capital, market opportunities, and the network of support needed to guide these ideas towards commercialisation.”
“This funding will go a long way in helping ensure good ideas become a reality,” Horsley said.
