Former Victorian Premier John Brumby will lead a new $2 billion research fund to turn good ideas into businesses and jobs, to counter a long-running failure of research and innovation policy.

A new company has been established to administer the Victorian government’s $2 billion Breakthrough Victoria Fund, which will be chaired by Mr Brumby, who is also Chancellor of La Trobe University, chairman of Biocurate – a partnership between Melbourne and Monash universities – and was recently appointed chairman of the state’s International Education Advisory Council.