SA needs courage, ambition to turn old RAH site into world-class facility, says ex MaRS boss Isle Treurnicht

SOUTH Australia is in a “truly extraordinary moment” with what it chooses for the old RAH site, according to Isle Treurnicht. She should know. She built up one of the world’s best innovation hubs — on the site of the old Toronto Hospital.

The MaRS Discovery District in Toronto.

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ILSE Treurnicht, a Rhodes scholar with a flair for innovation, was the boss of one of the world’s best innovation hubs — the MaRS Discovery District on the site of an old hospital in Toronto, Canada.

Who better to come to Adelaide and talk about turning the old Royal Adelaide Hospital site into an ecosystem of start-ups and tech companies, entrepreneurs and innovators?

Ms Treurnicht has just finished a stint as Thinker in Residence at the Don Dunstan Foundation.

In her native Toronto she built up the MaRS Discovery District — the name originally stood for “medical and related services” — on the foundation of the old Toronto General Hospital site.

MaRS connects people from a range of industries to create and commercialise discoveries.

It generates thousands of jobs and billions of dollars.

The old Royal Adelaide Hospital site in the CBD.

Meanwhile in Adelaide, almost everyone agrees the old RAH should be a centre for innovation and creativity, even if they disagree on the details.

The State Government’s policy is to turn it into an innovation hub, to sit alongside a culinary school and an art gallery.

Ms Treurnicht says we have to be brave and embrace the challenge: the time for change is here.

“Business as usual is not working. Government as usual is not working. Education as usual is not working. Leadership as usual is not working. Innovation as usual is not working,” she said.

“Doing more of the same will not get us where we need to be.”

What will end up on the old Royal Adelaide Hospital site?

She talks about a deeper level of innovation, not just cool gadgets, higher productivity and improvements in technology, but also innovation’s effects on everyone’s everyday lives.

“We can no longer hide from the impact of highly innovative tech behemoths on our democracies and growing inequality, of new fast-moving technologies on workforce disruption, and of many of our important industries on the health of our planet,” she said.

“We also have no hope of solving society’s most intractable problems: climate change, health care for an ageing population, the crisis of social isolation and wellbeing, youth unemployment, restoring the legitimacy of government, to name just a few ... relying as we have in the past, on the talent, institutions, money, tools and policy instruments available to the social economy … without fully using technology and innovation.”

What she wants, she says, is a “far more ambitious view of innovation and its potential contribution to growth”.

The MaRS Discovery District is on the site of an old hospital.

The old RAH, the primest of prime real estate, is widely viewed as a unique opportunity to create something new.

A large site right next to the city, with the Botanic Gardens on one side and the sweep of North Tce cultural institutions on the other.

And Adelaide, viewed as affordable and liveable, is hoping to not only attract the brightest from all over the world but to make sure our own brightest stay right here.

“What struck me immediately upon arrival is the enormous opportunity that is here, right now,” Ms Treurnicht says.

“Conversations with a wide range of stakeholders reinforced this notion ... which brings us to this extraordinary place, and the opportunity for the reimagining and transformation of this site to play a catalytic role in shaping that forward-looking agenda, not just for Adelaide, but for SA. It is a truly extraordinary moment.”

But, she warns, it will take a “monumental effort” to get right.

“It will test your collective courage,” she says.

“What you choose to do with this site, or avoid doing because it is hard, will really only be felt in the opportunities available to your children and their children many decades ahead.

“If you miss the chance to fully capitalise on this moment, you will play catch-up for decades to come.

“I honestly think it is that black and white, that brutal a choice. Please don’t leave it to chance. It is clearly incredibly important to the future of Adelaide and SA.

“But more importantly, the world needs you to do something amazing with it. To innovate with purpose.”

The University of Adelaide, along with Flinders University, partners with the Don Dunstan Foundation to install Thinkers in Residence.

University of Adelaide Vice-Chancellor Peter Rathjen has been leading the charge for a “City Deal” for the old RAH site, to make it a Silicon Valley-style hub.

The deal would need all three levels of government to sign on, along with industry and universities.

The billions of dollars set to flow through SA as defence projects kick off will fuel the process, he says.

Professor Rathjen told The Advertiser that MaRS was “probably the best or one of the two best examples of what we can achieve in the whole world”.

“There’s a moment in history here where the site’s available and the defence funding is coming through the state,” he said.