Quantum amplifier, novel drone antenna among projects funded through $11 million AEA Seed round

The final tranche of the Australia’s Economic Accelerator (AEA) Seed pilot program has been announced, with funding totalling approximately $11 million awarded to 36 projects that are between Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 3 and TRL 5.

AEA said in a statement on Monday that the grants focus on three of the federal government’s priority areas for the economy: transport, defence and enabling capabilities (illustrated in picture.)

According to a description from the federal department of education, grants under the Seed program are worth up to $500,000 and help “confirm proof-of-concept on research ideas pursuing a commercial and translational outcome” and are targeted to “the experimental end of the research and development spectrum (TRL 3-5)”

Funded projects include:

• $311,054.00 awarded to a project led by UTS’s Professor Yingjie Guo to develop a new low-cost, energy efficient antenna technology for autonomous drones and surface vessels;
• $369,285.00 to Associate Professor Nick Bennett, also of UTS, to develop am additively manufactured heat absorber prototype that controls and absorbs bursts of thermal energy directed at electronic equipment;
• $249,902.00 to a project led by UNSW Associate Professor Jarryd Pla aiming to commercialise a quantum amplifier device that boosts the strength of weak communication signals; and
• $199,482.00 to a project led by Callum Vidler from the University of Melbourne aiming to develop a new biological 3D printing prototype as a potential alternative to the use of animal tissue in patients. 

“AEA Seed was a pilot for the stage one proof-of-scale grants known as AEA Ignite and forms part of the Australian Government’s $1.6 billion investment in AEA,” according to a statement from AEA. 

A full list of projects can be viewed here. The funding brings the total to approximately $26 million awarded to nearly a hundred projects through the AEA’s Seed program.

Picture: credit Australia’s Economic Accelerator