When manufacturing began closing down in South Australia, especially automotive manufacturing, it left a void that needed filling.

Struggling with higher unemployment rates and growing challenges in agriculture and manufacturing Adelaide looked towards reinvention. As a city Adelaide’s 1.7 million population is large enough to be a hub, yet small enough to remain agile, and boasting the lowest cost of living of all capital cities (according to the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling) makes Adelaide a natural drawcard for talent.

“We’re seeing the economy, not just in Adelaide, but Australia-wide moving more and more in to being digitally-enabled and service-oriented,” says Yvette van Eenennaam. “Adelaide had a big proportion of the local economy dependent on manufacturing, when that began closing we needed to tap into digital and look at new ways of driving innovation and economic wealth.”

Yvette, General Manager at Adelaide BioMed City is helping achieve this by driving and supporting multi-institute and the multidisciplinary collaboration through the long-term development, and continued investment into Adelaide BioMed City, a $3.6 billion initiative that co-locates institutions from research, education and clinical care into a tight-knit and collaborative precinct in the heart of Adelaide.

Ahead of Australian Healthcare Week 2020 we learn more from Yvette about this innovative precinct.