$10.2 million in ARC Linkage grants announced for advanced manufacturing projects

Advanced manufacturing had a high representation among the latest round of projects supported through the Australian Research Council Linkage program.

Funds totalling $40 million for 81 new projects were announced under the program on Tuesday.

By “Science and Research Priorities” areas, 20 Advanced Manufacturing projects were awarded funding (out of 49 considered), more than any other. The cumulative grant amount of $10,186,959 was also the highest for any of the nine priority areas.

Fourteen projects under the Environmental Change theme were funded (totalling $6,941,198 in funding), ten Food projects (totalling $5,362,762) and eight Energy projects (totalling $5,077,473) were backed through the Linkage Projects scheme 2022 Round 1.

Linkage grants support collaborative projects involving experts from Australian universities and other publicly-funded research institutes, plus industry or community participants. Grants under the scheme are worth between $50,000 to $300,000 per year, for projects running between two and five years.

“By supporting the development of partnerships, the ARC encourages the transfer of skills, knowledge, and ideas as a basis for securing social, commercial and other benefits of research,” said ARC CEO Judi Zielke  in a statement on Tuesday.

Among those receiving grants were:

• A project involving visual methods for automation of underwater manipulation, increasing the autonomy of underwater robotic systems engaged in intervention and inspection tasks, led by Reach Robotics with University of Sydney the admin organisation. ($419,886 grant.)
• A project to develop an “integrated photoreactor and membrane separation system for efficient photocatalytic water splitting” led by Graphenex with the University of Queensland. ($644,398 grant.)
• A project continuing a long-running collaboration between Eco Detection and University of Tasmania on an improved electrophoretic analyser for water quality monitoring. This aims to advance the “Eco Sensor”, an Australian-made portable electrophoretic analyser for autonomous monitoring of water chemistry. ($799,084 grant.)
• A project led by ANCA and featuring The Australian National University as admin partner, aiming to develop “an advanced high-precision ultrashort pulse laser technique for shaping and sharpening cutting tools…” ($308,586 grant.)

 A full list of approved projects is available at this link.

Also of note is a project led by 5B Australia, with the University of Sydney, listing Sun Cable as an industry participant. 

5B, which makes prefabricated and pre-wired modular solar PV array systems, was selected as the preferred supplier for Sun Cable’s Australia-Asia PowerLink project in the Northern Territory. Sun Cable was placed in voluntary administration last month.

According to the list of approved applications, the project concerns 5B’s solar arrays and temperature-induced panel efficiency losses. It involves the building of “sophisticated multiscale models to simulate and understand the multiple interacting phenomena that cause panel heating, for the first time. This project will create the tools and know-how to optimise array design and solar farm development, delivering major efficiency gains and enhancing the viability of future gigascale solar projects.”

Picture: Credit Grey Innovation