BEECHWORTH product Adrian Spencer has spent his lifetime turning curiosity into accessible information for others, resulting in him recently winning AgriFuture Australia's 2022 Researcher of the Year.
The award is for a research project undertaken in an emerging industry area that helps Australian growers tap into and advance their markets.
Adrian's research is on seaweed and algae and how it could be used in the emerging health product market.
From a country boy with an interest in gemstones, his life experiences have led him to setting up companies, completing projects for Prime Ministers, being invited to meetings at the US Senate to discuss collaboration on grants and funding, and attending Presidential functions.
Adrian's journey began in Beechworth where he went to school at St Josephs and then The Scots School Albury.
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From Year 10 he had regular holiday work at High Grove Farm in nearby Stanley.
While picking berries and working as a farm hand, he began to develop an appreciation for the challenges and potentials in agriculture, which laid the groundwork for his desire to see growers supported better with new markets and opportunities.
In his HSC he selected chemistry and biology, but switched a subject when Mr Remmington needed one more student so a geology class could be offered.
"He knew that I spent my weekends fossicking and collecting gemstones and invited me to join the class," Adrian said.
"I enjoyed that subject so much I decided to pursue science as a career."
After Adrian finished school he wasn't sure what science degree to do until he discovered the new La Trobe University campus in Wodonga offered the first year of a degree in fresh water ecology.
This meant he could stay one more year at home before heading off to Melbourne to finish a degree in biology and geology.
"I really love Beechworth," Adrian said.
"I spent a lot of time running around the gorge and fossicking for gemstones down Reedy Creek in the Woolshed Valley.
"To me, Beechworth is home and the place I'm most connected to."
In his high school years, he attended the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Wangaratta.
"It transformed my outlook on life, nurtured my faith and taught me to look beyond my needs," he said.
After he finished university, Adrian got a job as an exploration geologist with Rio Tinto, travelling all over the country.
During those travels he met his wife, Heather, in Parkes, and they married in Beechworth in 2002.
He changed careers so they could be together more, getting a job securing grants and funding for research development companies at Ernst & Young in Melbourne.
This work led him to set up his own consultancy with his wife, GrantReady, a grant writing business, which resulted in GrantGuru, an online portal to help people find government grants and funding.
"It has been incredibly satisfying to create a level playing field for accessing grants and helping to support so many worthwhile initiatives, especially grassroots projects," Adrian said.
"We have delivered support to local cricket clubs through to multinationals and everyone in between."
Through GrantGuru they started working with the nutraceutical sector, mainly vitamin companies.
"We learnt that $1 billion of ingredients are imported into Australia each year for the manufacture of vitamins, health supplements and skin care, but virtually none of the ingredients are sourced locally," he said.
So he and his wife set up Sampano with the aim of building a local value chain for the nutraceutical industry.
"We quickly discovered a gap of knowledge and research, so we went back into a research space to bridge that gap and share knowledge with industry," Adrian said.
One of their nutraceutical partners, Swisse, asked if it was possible to source Omega–3 oil from algae, as an equivalent to fish or krill oil.
They approached AgriFutures Australia with the concept for a research project and received funding through their Emerging Industry Program.
Project partners included the CSIRO Marine Laboratories in Hobart, Marinova, a marine biotechnology company also in Hobart, and Swisse.
"Our results have shown that Omega–3 oils, particularly EPA and DHA can be successfully grown and extracted commercially from local of locally grown algae," Adrian said.
"Though independent growers, we expect that these products will become available within the next 12–24 months, effectively kicking off a whole new industry in Australia and for the first time, a local source of omega–3 oils."
They also reviewed research into collagen (the most popular protein in the human body) extraction from seaweed, and along the way discovered that a certain seaweed extract inhibits the degradation of collagen in the body.
Sampano's research highlighted hundreds of uses for both seaweed and algae, from shampoo to natural food dye, to food, supplements and skin care.
"I find it hard to turn down a good idea, especially if it makes life better," Adrian said.
"Helping people to achieve their dreams, grow their reach or have bigger impact really motivates me."
Adrian now serves on the board of his local church in Melbourne who last year gave out over a million meals during COVID.
His immediate plans for Sampano include encouraging extraction facilities to be built in regional areas and to see nutraceutical products created with 100 per cent Australian ingredients.
He wants GrantGuru to impact the globe with its products and services, and create a level playing field for finding and accessing funding.
Adrian, Heather and their four children live in Surrey Hills, in Melbourne, but he takes his family back to Beechworth as often as he can.
