$15.9 million awarded in Women in STEM and Entrepreneurship (WiSE) grants

Funding worth $15.9 million has been announced by federal industry and science minister Ed Husic for round four of Women in STEM and Entrepreneurship (WiSE) grants. The grants provide between $500,000 and $1 million each towards expanding “successful projects that have increased awareness of STEM education and improved opportunities for girls or women” related to…

Details

Anteris Technologies reveals trials data of its aortic valve replacement

Brisbane medtech manufacturer Anteris Technologies has announced positive 12-month results from the first-in Human (FIH) study designed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of its DurAVR aortic valve replacement device (pictured) in patients with symptomatic severe aortic stenosis. DurAVR is a new class of aortic valve that utilises the company’s patented ADAPT anti-calcification process and…

Details

New iLAuNCH Hub announces leadership appointments

The University of Southern Queensland-led Innovative Launch, Automation, Novel Materials, Communications and Hypersonics (iLAuNCH) Hub has announced leadership team appointments in the roles of COO, CTO and Executive Director. iLAuNCH was supported under the former Coalition federal government’s $362.5 million Trailblazer Universities initiative, with $50 million in federal funding announced in May before the election.…

Details

Collaborative project yields “world-first” geotechnical sensor

A project between Geoinventions Consulting Services and Griffith University has yielded a multi-function connected sensor for geotechnical monitoring, which has been patented ahead of production on Queensland’s Gold Coast. The new product “revolutionise traditional geotechnical monitoring,” said David Chuter, Managing Director of the Innovative Manufacturing CRC, which sponsored the collaborative project through its activate program.…

Details

Battery gigafactory set for Geelong

New-York-based Recharge Industries is to build a lithium-ion battery gigafactory in Geelong, Victoria to generate up to 30 gigawatt hours of storage capacity. The company announced that it had engaged advisers Accenture as its engineering provider to move forward on building what it envisages as one of the world’s largest gigafactories. At full capacity, the…

Details

NIOA enters US manufacturing with firearms buy

Privately owned Queensland defence contractor NIOA has entered US military manufacturing with the 100 per cent acquisition of the Tennessee rifle design and manufacturing company, Barrett Firearms. The purchase price was not revealed. Revealing the company-changing move, NIOA Group CEO Robert Nioa (pictured) said the two family-owned companies came together out of a shared commitment…

Details

First Graphene and Suvo partner for low emission concrete

First Graphene and Suvo Strategic Minerals have signed an agreement to jointly develop graphene-enhanced metakaolin solutions for the production of low emission concrete products. Technologies from the graphene manufacturer and the producer of  metakaolin, a pozzolanic material derived from fine kaolinite clay, will be used to partially replace traditional clinker which is the binding element…

Details

Australia’s productivity problem part 1, the big issue – by John Sheridan

Australia faces major economic problems, with boosting productivity foremost. Here, in the first part of a two-part series, John Sheridan identifies the major issues. Former Treasury boss Ken Henry said ‘something is desperately wrong’ with Australia’s economy, which is beset by ‘structural deficiencies’ that cannot be fixed by interest rate cuts or government largesse. Dr…

Details