Economic accelerator grants offered in NRF priority areas

The first round of Australia’s Economic Accelerator (AEA) grants is now open to researchers and industry in key areas identified by the federal government such as refining and processing of critical minerals, renewable hydrogen, and green metals. $180 million in funding is available for university researchers and their industry partners to commercialise research related to…

Optiscan completes beta phase telepathology development

Confocal microscopy manufacturer Optiscan Imaging has completed the beta phase development of its cloud-connected telepathology platform developed in partnership with Prolucid Technologies. The development is a significant advancement in digital pathology, according to the company, enabling real-time, remote collaboration on patient imaging sessions. The platform utilises Optiscan’s confocal imaging technology to generate digital pathology data,…

Wanting Australian drones but buying foreign instead – by Dr Peter Layton

Australia has clear defence industry priorities including developing a local drone manufacturing sector. Here Dr Peter Layton examines Defence’s recent drone purchases, and asks why then, do we buy overseas made drones and not the best value or most advanced ones at that? In late February the Minister for Defence Industry launched the Defence Industry…

Manufacturing news briefs – stories you might have missed

Australian Vanadium receives $14.7 million grant Battery materials company Australian Vanadium has received a milestone payment of $14.7 million from the federal government under the Modern Manufacturing Initiative – Manufacturing Collaboration Stream. The grant provides up to $49 million to support the company’s Australian Vanadium Project to enable new critical mineral production which will support…

New AI tool speeds drug discovery

Australian researchers, led by Monash University, have invented a new artificial intelligence (AI) tool for virtual screening in early stage drug discovery to speed the identification of potential new medicines. Although computational methods within drug discovery are well established, there is a gap when it comes to AI tools to rapidly and cost-effectively predict the…

Towards 3% R&D – intelligent systems for defence innovation by Saeid Navahandi

Today in our editorial series – Towards 3% R&D – Turbocharging Australia’s Innovation Effort – Saeid Nahavandi looks at the role robotic and autonomous systems can play in defence innovation and operations. In line with the complexities of modern warfare, the integration of advanced robotic and autonomous systems (RASs), artificial intelligence (AI), and human-machine collaborative…

Akula Tech progresses bushfire monitoring from space

Akula Tech which aims to design and build a constellation of satellites to detect natural disasters and conflicts and analyse the information in space has qualified to join the XPRIZE Wildfire competition’s Space-based Detection and Intelligence Track (Track A). XPRIZE is a four year international competition to develop and demonstrate fully-autonomous capabilities to detect and…