Why Adelaide
Why Adelaide
People ask why a medical AI group sits in Adelaide rather than Sydney, Boston or London. The short answer is that South Australia is small enough to change and large enough to matter, and that living here is not a sacrifice you make for the work.
The research argument
One health service, one state
South Australia has a single state health service covering 1.67 million people. A model that clears governance here can be deployed statewide rather than hospital by hospital, which is why three of our systems reached real clinical use.
SA Health · statewideEverything on one street
The lab sits at Lot Fourteen, the state's innovation precinct on North Terrace, with the Royal Adelaide Hospital, SAHMRI and the university within a few minutes' walk. Clinical collaborators are a conversation away rather than a calendar invitation.
Lot Fourteen · North TerraceAdelaide BioMed City
The precinct around us is a $3.6 billion health and life sciences cluster, among the largest in the Southern Hemisphere, bringing the Royal Adelaide Hospital, SAHMRI, the universities and the medical research institutes onto a single stretch of North Terrace.
$3.6B precinctAustralia's machine learning institute
The Australian Institute for Machine Learning is the country's largest machine learning research group, with more than 200+ NVIDIA A100 GPUs and over 5+ petabytes of secure storage available to the work.
200+ A100 · 5+ PBRunning a trial here
Prospective evaluation is where most medical AI stalls. South Australia is unusually quick to start one, which is part of why a randomised trial of clinical AI was possible here at all.
Six-week approvals
Clinical trial regulatory approval averages six weeks in South Australia, which the state puts at six to nine months saved against the alternative.
6 weeks, not 6 to 9 monthsIncentives
Up to 43.5 per cent cashback is available for clinical trials, analytics, study drug manufacture and prototype manufacture.
Up to 43.5% cashbackFull trial capability
Facilities for preclinical work and for Phase One, Two and Three trials sit inside the precinct, alongside the machine learning research centres.
Preclinical through Phase 3Precinct and trial figures from the Adelaide Economic Development Agency.
Living here
Climate and coast
A Mediterranean climate with more than 2,500 hours of sunshine a year, summers between 25 and 35 degrees, winters between 10 and 15, and no snow. More than 70 kilometres of coastline, with Glenelg, Henley, Semaphore and Port Noarlunga all reachable from the city in about half an hour. Bureau of Meteorology figures.
2,500+ hours of sun · 70 km of coastCost of living
Living costs sit below Sydney and Melbourne, though housing has risen sharply here as everywhere. On a postdoctoral salary or a PhD stipend that difference is still material. StudyAdelaide keeps a current breakdown rather than a headline figure.
Below Sydney and MelbourneWho lives here
1.3 million people in the metropolitan area and 1.67 million across the state. A quarter of residents were born outside Australia, from more than 200 cultural and religious backgrounds, and the city has been ranked the most welcoming region on Earth. Multicultural Affairs SA and the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
25% born overseas · 200+ backgroundsFood, wine and festivals
The Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale and the Adelaide Hills are all under an hour from the lab. February and March bring the Adelaide Festival, the Fringe, which is the second largest fringe festival in the world, and WOMADelaide.
Barossa · McLaren Vale · Adelaide HillsGetting here and away
Adelaide Airport is fifteen minutes from the city, with direct international flights and domestic connections of 1 hour 20 minutes to Melbourne and 2 hours to Sydney.
15 min to the airportStaying on
International graduates can access up to four years of post-study work rights, and South Australia projects 34,900 jobs of employment growth by 2029 with strong demand in health, technology and space. StudyAdelaide has the detail for international candidates.
Up to 4 years post-study work rightsCome and see
If you are considering a PhD or a postdoc with us and want to know what the place is actually like, ask. We are happy to put you in touch with people in the group who moved here from overseas.