New sovereign composites manufacturing CRC awarded $70 million in federal funding






Funding has been secured for a new Sovereign Manufacturing Automation for Composites Cooperative Research Centre (SoMAC) CRC through round 23 of the CRC Program.

The success of the CRC’s bid was announced on Wednesday, with SoMAC awarded $69.9 million in Commonwealth support and $189.3 million in cash and in-kind contributions provided by its 36 bid partners.

It is led by Chair Designate Dr Abby Bloom, interim CEO Dr Andrew Beehag, and bid leader and Research Director Designate Professor Gangadhara Prusty, who also directs the ARC Training Centre for Automated Manufacture of Advanced Composites at UNSW.

(Click here for an interview with Prusty, which ran on this website last November, in which he discusses the plans for a new, ten-year composites CRC.) 

The new SoMAC CRC would “unlock significant potential in Australia for the development, use and manufacturing of high-performance composite materials,” said Cooperative Research Australia CEO Jane O’Dwyer in a statement welcoming the news today.

SoMAC was announced among six manufacturing-focussed CRCs shortlisted for round 23 in December.

Bid partners listed in its prospectus include Omni Tanker, Gilmour Space Technologies, Quickstep, and UNSW. 

More information about the new CRC is available at its website.

Picture: An automated fibre placement robot at UNSW (research.unsw.edu.au)

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