University of New South Wales
Economic analysis helps the Randwick Health & Innovation Precinct realise its full potential.
Precinct positioning
The Randwick Health & Innovation Precinct (RHIP) comprises a number of established health and education assets with both national and global recognition. Collectively, the RHIP delivers care across a patient’s lifespan from preconception to the complex health needs of the elderly, from primary to quaternary acute care – all in the one location.
The wide range of health services, education providers and Medical Research Institutes already established in the RHIP underpin its capacity to grow as a leading health and innovation precinct, building on its critical mass, pathways and partnerships to accelerate the translation of research across all disciplines into new approaches in patient care.
SGS recently helped the RHIP estimate how it creates economic value. This work established a baseline for clearly articulating how enhancements to the RHIP will enable it to realise its full potential. The analysis also provides a solid foundation for assessing the payoff from future interventions that improve the precinct’s capabilities.
Economic impact framework
The team established that the RHIP directly stimulates the economy through:
- Capital investments that deliver buildings for offices, labs and healthcare, etc.
- Service delivery expenditures, particularly health and education expenditures
- Research expenditures directed towards designing, developing and testing products and services, and
- Commercial tenant incomes generated on site.
More importantly, the RHIP indirectly creates economic impacts on a much larger scale through:
- Labour force skills development in graduating students
- Labour force health improvements in treated patients
- Research translation outcomes, and
- Attracted international student spending.
Both these direct and indirect economic impacts create additional impacts through their respective value chain linkages, through upstream suppliers and downstream consumption expenditures.
Estimated economic impacts
The modelling indicates that the RHIP generates very large contributions to Greater Sydney’s Gross Regional Product, rising from $4.7B in 2021 to $7.7B per annum in 2040, and with 30,000 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) jobs supported throughout the 2021-2040 period.
If a New South Wales perspective is taken, the results are even larger. The RHIP supported approximately $6.1B in 2021 and this is estimated to rise to $9B by 2040, with approximately 35,000 FTE jobs supported throughout.
Enabling greater precinct impacts
SGS established the following 10 opportunities for improving the RHIP’s capabilities and impacts:
- Evolve governance
- Leverage the competitive offer
- Actively encourage collaboration
- Take the ‘strengths’ to the next level
- Target a range of entities
- Provide both the ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ infrastructure
- Flexibility and affordability will be a key consideration
- Simplify the systems
- Engage with the world outside the precinct boundary
- Evolve the measures of success.
