Biotech giant CSL is on the hunt for startups to move into its new Melbourne headquarters as it launches an incubator program designed to commercialise Australian ideas and keep research onshore.

The $144.5 billion coronavirus vaccine maker has inked a deal with the University of Melbourne and Walter and Eliza Hall Institute to launch a $95 million incubator project, which will also be supported by the Victorian government’s Breakthrough Victoria Fund.

The incubator, which is set to launch in 2023, will have space for up to 40 Australian companies that are looking to move their early stage research towards commercialisation. The companies will be based at CSL’s new global headquarters on Melbourne’s Elizabeth Street and have access to office space, equipment and lab facilities.

The collaboration comes as the country focuses on manufacturing its own medical products including vaccines following the COVID-19 pandemic.

CSL’s chief scientific officer Andrew Nash said that startup incubators have been missing from Australia’s biotech ecosystem and hoped other groups would consider launching similar hubs across the country.

“You’d like to see something like the facility [in which] we are investing in every major city in Australia,” he said.

“There is quite a bit of venture capital around at the moment for small companies - but this is a rally important piece in helping those small companies with the space they need and the advice they need.”

CSL chief executive Paul Perreault said the program was also designed to help researchers learn how to bring new products to market. “We are well positioned to support incubator residents, whose experience often lies purely within the lab, to better understand commercial aspects of medicines’ development that may be foreign or new to them,” he said.