China is gunning for supremacy in the global green hydrogen race. Will it shatter Australia’s dreams?

China is responsible for almost one-third of global emissions each year. It’s committed to becoming carbon neutral before 2060 – and producing green hydrogen is key to this plan. Australia is also pouring millions of dollars into green hydrogen technology. But China’s new plan could throw cold water on Australia’s dream of becoming a global hydrogen superpower.

Australia has committed $1.6 billion to help research projects become commercialised. Here’s what the money will do

By Rajat Roy, Bond University and Vik Naidoo, University of Sydney The federal government is investing $2.2 billion for university research commercialisation which would place “university innovation and industry collaboration front and centre of Australia’s economic recovery.” Part of this funding includes $1.6 billion over ten years for Australia’s Economic Accelerator – a new competitive…

Budget 2022: $9.9 billion towards cyber security aims to make Australia a key ‘offensive’ cyber player

By Paul Haskell-Dowland, Edith Cowan University In the 2022 federal budget, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg launched a range of vote-winning initiatives – one of which included a breathtaking A$9.9 billion for cyber security over ten years. Bundled under the acronym REDSPICE (which stands for resilience, effects, defence, space, intelligence, cyber and enablers), the program is expected…

Australia wants a space industry. So why won’t we pay for the basic research to drive it?

By Phil Bland, Curtin University In the past few years, Australia has formed its own space agency and launched a defence “space command”. Billions of dollars for defence, and hundreds of millions for civilian space, have been allocated from the public purse to develop capability in this growing sector. This funding covers the Moon-to-Mars Program,…