68 projects announced under National Industry PhD Program

Funding totalling $12 million has been awarded to 68 research projects through the fourth round of the National Industry PhD Program, addressing industry problems in laser dentistry, surgical robotics, meat analogue foods, and elsewhere.

PhDs under the program are designed to tackle an industry application, with candidates undertaking a co-designed research project with university and industry participation.

Among a record number of applications for the program’s fourth round, funded projects included collaborations to:

• “investigate femtosecond laser-driven repair options in dental settings and characterise hard and soft tissue removal, leading to minimally interventional procedures with greater precision and outcomes” (Dentroid);
• “enhance arthroscopy, a keyhole joint surgery performed on over 50 million patients annually, by developing an advanced technique to accurately convert 2D videos into 3D in a robot-assisted arthroscopy” (Convergence Medical); and
• “investigate the flavour, taste, and colour attributes of plant-based meat analogues (PBMAs) primarily made from soy to address issues like taste, off-flavours, and colour discrepancies and produce more attractive PBMAs that meet consumer demands while ensuring a cost-effective and efficient supply chain” (v2food.)

Assistant education minister Anthony Chisholm said over 140 submissions under this round – “including those that were successful” – were identified as of an outstanding quality.

“It’s also incredibly encouraging to see that 45 per cent of applications in this round were from regional universities and around 33 per cent of all successful industry partners are based in regional Australia,” said Chisholm.

The National Industry PhD program was introduced by the previous federal government as part of its efforts to lift the commercial returns from publicly-funded research. It aims to produce 1,800 Industry PhDs over 10 years.

A full list of funded projects under the round can be accessed at this link.

Picture: credit Brisbane Economic Development Agency/Youtube

Further reading

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