UniQuest was launched by The University of Queensland on 1 July 1983 and incorporated as a company limited by guarantee on 10 July 1984.

Then UQ Vice-Chancellor, Professor Brian Wilson, established UniQuest as a "contract research and marketing organisation".  At the time, it was seen as an experiment in bridging the gap between basic research performance in universities and the development of new products and processes in industry.

The company was based on similar university technology transfer experiments in Silicon Valley, California and Cambridge, England.  In these locations, Professor Wilson argued, there was a critical mass of entrepreneurial brainpower stimulating the engines of industry, with the higher education institutions very definitely in their centres. 

From the outset, UniQuest has played an important role in developing a significant Australian contribution to the world-wide market for technology-intensive exports.

In 1995, UQ invested $5 million in the company, enabling a fundamental shift in the nature of technology commercialisation, from the licensing of technology to third parties to the establishment of start-up and spin-off companies. 

The establishment of the $20 million seed fund, Uniseed Pty Ltd in 2000 was a significant contribution to UniQuest's new direction. The fund was created to develop new funding mechanisms to hasten the commercialisation process. The divisions of Consulting and Research and International Projects also emerged at this time, both now integral and important aspects of UniQuest's business activities.