New research from CSIRO and ANU shows how business incubators can redesign programs for measurable performance gains through diversity, equity and inclusion practices.
What’s happening: CSIRO’s ON Innovation Program partnered with ANU’s Global Institute for Women’s Leadership and the Wiyi Yani U Thangani Institute for First Nations Gender Justice to investigate how diversity, equity and inclusion can be embedded into innovation ecosystems.
Why this matters: Research shows inclusive innovation teams are 10x more innovative, 8x more likely to collaborate effectively, and 6x more likely to report positive mental health. Yet most Australian accelerators still design programs around rigid structures that exclude parents, neurodivergent entrepreneurs, regional founders and anyone who doesn’t fit the Silicon Valley stereotype.
Most startup accelerators in Australia are built for people who don’t exist. The archetypal founder envisioned by these programs, a 25-year-old tech graduate with no caring responsibilities, unlimited flexibility and venture capital connections, represents a tiny fraction of Australia’s actual entrepreneurial landscape.
The reality looks dramatically different. According to Startup Muster data, the average Australian founder is in their late thirties with financial dependents, working to solve problems they’ve encountered in business. More than a third were born overseas. All-male founding teams secured 85% of the capital raised in the first half of 2024, whilst startups with at least one woman founder received 10%, and all-female teams captured only 5%.
Now, CSIRO has released research showing exactly how much innovative potential Australia’s innovation ecosystem is leaving on the table, and provides a detailed roadmap for capturing it.
The Stanford dropout problem
CSIRO’s ON Innovation Program, in partnership with the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership and the Wiyi Yani U Thangani Institute for First Nations Gender Justice at ANU, spent months investigating how diversity, equity and inclusion practices impact innovation outcomes. The findings confirm what many entrepreneurs already know: programs designed around stereotypical founders systematically exclude the majority of Australia’s entrepreneurial talent.
The research examined accessibility, communication, cohort diversity, policy frameworks and program responsiveness across Australia’s innovation ecosystem. Using surveys, interviews and policy analysis, the teams identified systemic barriers that limit participation and impact.
What emerged was a clear pattern. Rigid program structures exclude participants with caring responsibilities and neurodivergent needs. First Nations innovators require tailored, respectful engagement aligned with cultural protocols that most programs don’t provide. Women report dissatisfaction with leave and care policies, highlighting systemic inequities. Feedback mechanisms remain inadequate, with few clear, safe and transparent complaint channels.
What the research found
The performance implications are significant. According to CSIRO’s findings, inclusive teams are 10x more innovative, 8x more likely to collaborate effectively, and 6x more likely to report positive mental health compared to homogeneous teams.
The research also revealed that representation matters at every level. Diverse facilitators and mentors foster trust and psychological safety, creating environments where participants can contribute meaningfully. Cultural safety emerges as critical, particularly for First Nations innovators who require engagement that respects cultural protocols rather than imposing mainstream business frameworks.
Programs that actively support diversity, equity and inclusion see stronger engagement and retention. Inclusive design leads to more innovative, socially relevant outcomes. Participants value cultural safety, flexibility and visible leadership commitment as core enablers of success.
The project produced multiple resources tailored for different ecosystem participants: a comprehensive playbook, plus specific roadmaps for innovators and researchers, for programs including incubators and accelerators, and for funders including venture capitalists, angels, philanthropists and government agencies.
Why SMEs should care
For small and medium enterprises, particularly those founded by women, parents, regional entrepreneurs or people from underrepresented backgrounds, these findings validate experiences many have encountered when seeking accelerator support or investment.
Female founders face investor bias that frames questions differently, with women asked risk-prevention queries whilst men receive growth-oriented questions, steering discussions towards risk rather than opportunity.
Research from multiple sources confirms the pattern. On a global basis, female-founded startups secure just 3% of all venture capital funding, whilst in Australia that figure increases to 10%. Female founders are outnumbered three to one in Australia’s startup ecosystem because they often lack the support of a strong network of door openers.
The CSIRO playbook provides a framework for changing these dynamics through inclusive program design. For SME founders, understanding these principles means identifying which accelerators and incubators have genuinely redesigned their approach versus those maintaining structures that will create obstacles rather than opportunities.
The research outlines specific implementation strategies including inclusive recruitment and leadership development, flexible program design that accommodates diverse needs, capability building for staff and mentors, structural redesign to remove systemic barriers, and improved data systems to support accountability.
The performance advantage
CSIRO’s work extends beyond identifying problems to providing actionable solutions. The playbook examines leverage points and best practices for embedding diversity, equity and inclusion across innovation systems, developing strategic frameworks to guide inclusive design, delivery and evaluation of programs.
The business case is unambiguous. Research shows that inclusive innovation leads to stronger problem solving through diverse perspectives, greater relevance of solutions to real-world challenges, improved collaboration across sectors and communities, and enhanced commercial outcomes through broader market reach.
For Australian SMEs navigating the innovation ecosystem, these findings matter for practical reasons. Founders can use the roadmap to evaluate whether programs genuinely support diverse participants or simply pay lip service to inclusion whilst maintaining exclusionary structures.
The research makes clear that inclusive innovation isn’t a one-off initiative but a long-term commitment to transforming how Australia’s innovation ecosystem operates. Programs must move beyond isolated interventions to systemic change that makes inclusion standard practice rather than exception.
CSIRO’s ON Innovation Program has equipped more than 7,800 researchers and innovators across 62 research organisations since its launch in 2015. Alumni have raised over $415 million in investment capital and secured more than $336 million in commercialisation grants, supporting the formation of new deep-tech companies that have created over 700 jobs.
The inclusive innovation playbook represents the program’s commitment to ensuring these opportunities remain accessible to all potential founders, regardless of whether they match outdated stereotypes about who entrepreneurs should be.
For SME founders, the message is straightforward. Programs designed around inclusive principles don’t just feel better, they perform better. The evidence now exists to prove it. The question facing Australia’s innovation ecosystem is whether it will act on that evidence or continue excluding the majority of entrepreneurial talent by designing for founders who largely don’t exist.
The playbook and roadmaps are available for download from CSIRO’s website. The organisation welcomes feedback, collaboration and participation in future evaluations.
For roadmap and playbook, visit: https://www.csiro.au/ON-inclusive-innovation
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