Australia-China Association of Scientists and Entrepreneurs (ACASE)

Established in 2015, Australia-China Association of Scientists and Entrepreneurs (ACASE) started its journey as a not-for-profit organisation based in Melbourne, dedicated to technology commercialisation and innovation cooperation in Asia Pacific region. With a strong vision of supporting the broad start-up ecosystem, ACASE has been growing our professional team and services to support a wide range of cross sectoral start-ups and scale-ups in Asia Pacific regions in the past years.

From 2018 to 2019, Nanjing High Tech Zone (Pukou Park) conducted four visits to Melbourne and established the Nanjing Overseas Collaborative Innovation Center (Melbourne). In 2019, Mayor Sally Capp led a delegation of over 40 people to visit Nanjing and signed a memorandum of cooperation on innovation and entrepreneurship between the two cities. In 2020, the City of Melbourne established the Melbourne-Nanjing Center of Excellence in Nanjing. Based on the "dual cities and dual centers" cooperation model, we aim to promote deep cooperation between Melbourne and Nanjing.
Launched in 2019, Nexus is a startup program jointly delivered by the City of Melbourne, Nanjing Pukou High-Tech Zone and ACASE, with support from the Victorian Government and startup communities.
Nexus is a cross-cultural and diverse entrepreneurial ecosystem focused on connecting and activating business growth opportunities in Asia. It offers a unique pathway for startup businesses and Series A funded (or later stage) companies to enter the Asian market. This includes business pitch competitions, coaching, mentoring, specialist go-to-market consulting, investment support, establishment incentives, and new growth opportunity incubation.
Since its inception, Nexus has been a successful model of win-win cooperation between local governments in China and Australia. Through Nexus, Melbourne and Nanjing showcased their strength in the field of science and technology innovation, and effectively promoted the entrepreneurial environment and support policies. The start-ups from Melbourne have deepened their understanding of China and Asian markets, some of them successfully entered the China market through the gateway of Nanjing, directly boosting the economic development of the two cities.

 website: https://www.acase.org.au/