NSW Physical Sciences Fund grant winners announced

Four grant winners have been announced under the NSW Physical Sciences Fund: Envision Systems, Lab 360 Solar, MicroTau and Syenta.

The grant winners were named at an event on Tuesday marking five years of the PSF, which is administered by the Office of the NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer. 

The PSF is a competitive development and commercialisation program, offering grant support worth between $200,000 to $2 million. 

According to the Chief Scientist’s office, funding supports development of new devices and systems within the state, “across the branches of the physical sciences and engineering, including physics, chemistry, astronomy and the earth sciences”.

The four funded companies are:

• Envision, which develops sensors that use radio sensing and AI to quickly predict and detect fires and other hazards on cargo ships and elsewhere;
• Lab 360 Solar, which uses drone-based photoluminescence imaging, to understand faults across modules in solar farms;
• MicroTau, a maker of shark skin-inspired riblets that help reduce aircraft friction drag, resulting in fuel savings; and
• Syenta, which makes systems to simplify, speed up and improve quality in semiconductor packaging.

Each of the companies is commercialising a product described as being between Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 4 and TRL 6.

According to NSW Chief Scientist, Professor Hugh Durrant-Whyte, the PSF “to date has provided $19 million to 18 companies, resulting in the attraction of more than $300 million in additional investment.”

More on the program and the grant recipients can be seen in the PSF Fund event booklet (linked.) 

Picture: credit MicroTau