Bernadette Spinks
Bern is a strategic leader, passionate about driving impactful change through innovation, collaboration, and investment. With over two decades of experience, she has successfully secured more than $1.1 billion in funding, shaping ground-breaking initiatives across health, social services, energy, building and agriculture.
A dynamic collaborator, Bern specialises in developing investment-ready, high-impact projects that address complex industry, social, and environmental challenges. Her expertise spans strategic development, evaluation and impact assessment, project management, and grant writing, helping organisations transform ambitious ideas into reality.
Bern has worked extensively with universities, research organisations, industry, government, and not-for-profits, guiding them through to securing funding and delivering transformative projects. She has played a key role in twelve successful Co-operative Research Centre (CRC) bids, obtained funding from programs such as the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) and facilitated co-design initiatives to innovate social services.
Her recent achievements include:
Co-operative Research Centres: She has been instrumental in securing funding for CRCs including SAAFE CRC, One Basin CRC, Future Energy Exports CRC, Building 4.0 CRC, Future Food Systems CRC, SmartSat CRC, and the Blue Economy CRC.
Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) projects: Supporting projects to secure $72 million in funding including Australia’s first national biotech incubator with Brandon Capital; MAGNET, a clinical trial network focused on mental health; and DELIVER, a consortium enhancing healthcare at home through optimising virtual tools for older people in rural and regional Australia.
Social Service Innovation: Leading strategic funding initiatives, co-design, evaluation, continuous improvement and implementation of innovative social services, working with organisations including Redfern Legal Centre, EACH, Good Shepherd ANZ, CommBank Next Chapter, ADEC and the Cancer Wellness Centre.
Bern holds an MBA from the Melbourne Business School, a Graduate Diploma in Human Nutrition, and a Bachelor of Applied Science.
Her motivation is seeing visionary projects come to life, making a tangible impact on industries, communities, and society.
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