The architect behind some of the region’s most transformative economic development projects has taken on a new challenge with the University of the Sunshine Coast (UniSC).
Paul Martins has been appointed UniSC’s inaugural director of strategic partnerships – a role that reflects a growing focus by Australian universities on strengthening ties with industry, government and investors to ensure research translates into economic and community outcomes.
Mr Martins brings more than a decade of economic development leadership across the Sunshine Coast and Moreton Bay councils. Most recently, he served as chief economic development officer at City of Moreton Bay, where he secured more than $600million in investment, created thousands of jobs and led nationally recognised innovation programs.
His career has included senior executive roles spanning international trade, diplomacy and the private sector.
“I’d worked with the university on and off for more than 10 years when I was in industry and then both councils,” Mr Martins says.
“I just saw the good it did. I had a great relationship with the vice-chancellor and a lot of the researchers and academics, and I thought I could make a difference by connecting them to opportunities they perhaps hadn’t encountered.”
Mr Martins is overseeing a broad portfolio spanning three key areas: government relations, industry engagement and innovation programs, while also supporting the commercialisation of university research.
At its core, however, he says the job is “fundamentally about connection”.
While leading economic development at Sunshine Coast Council, he worked across the partnerships that secured the international submarine cable landing at Maroochydore – a project that established the region as Australia’s first outside a capital city to host a direct international broadband connection and laid the foundations for a growing digital economy.
He also spearheaded the successful bid to establish the Sunshine Coast Lightning in the Super Netball competition, bringing together the council, university and corporate partners to secure the region’s first elite, national sporting team.
“Those initiatives never get off the ground in isolation,” he says.
“As the saying goes, it takes a village.”
Mr Martins says UniSC is uniquely placed to help local businesses solve practical issues amid technological changes that many could not tackle alone.
That work ranges from helping organisations transition vehicle fleets to electric vehicles through practical planning workshops, to world-leading research investigating how native seaweeds can dramatically reduce methane emissions from cattle, and how compounds found in spider venom could help combat the destructive varroa mite threatening Australia’s honeybee industry.
“There are more than 35,000 businesses across the Sunshine Coast,” he says.
“If we’re only helping 10 per cent of those, that’s 3500 businesses that can become more productive.”
