A total of $25.7 million in support for 25 Mid-Career Industry Fellowships through the Australian Research Council (ARC) has been announced, backing research with industry partners in projects including green hydrogen production, methane pyrolysis, quantum sensors and extracting rare earths from waste. According to ARC’s website, the fellowships support academic researchers “in establishing careers in…
By Peter Roberts Much has been written about the Australian universities accord – final report from scientist and engineer Mary O’Kane (pictured). But from an industry innovation point of view her panel’s recommendations fall short of what is needed to kickstart Australia’s fading innovation – and I mean business innovation – performance. National R&D has…
HEO opens USA Office Satellite monitoring company HEO announced the establishment of its United States of America office, HEO (USA), on Friday (Sydney time). The company said the expansion reflects a commitment to serving new and existing defence, government, and commercial customers in the US market. The new office in the Washington DC metro area…
WA government backs engineered stone ban The state government announced on Wednesday that it will support the prohibition of the future use of engineered stone in Western Australian workplaces, citing the risk of silicosis. A recent report from Safe Work Australia found there no known safe level of silica in engineered stone, and concluded the…
Funding totalling $26 million has been announced through ARC Linkage Projects 2023 Round 1 across 50 projects, including for next-generation microchip manufacture, anodes for next-generation lithium batteries, and addressing superalloy microstructure defects. The Linkage Projects scheme backs projects that “initiate or develop long term strategic research alliance” and provides funding of between $50,000 and $300,000…
Sydney quantum computing hardware manufacturer Silicon Quantum Computing’s (SQC) Michelle Simmons was named last night as the winner of the 2023 Prime Minister’s Prize for Science. Professor Simmons (pictured) was recognised for creating the new field of atomic electronics which are ‘powering the transition from the digital to the quantum age’. Simmons, who has already…
Queensland researchers involved in the development of hypersonic systems have travelled to US for NASA-led observation of a capsule’s re-entry On September 24, a NASA capsule containing a sample of asteroid matter will make its return to Earth – with the characteristics of the capsule’s re-entry into the atmosphere at greater than Mach 5 speeds…
A University of Southern Queensland researcher hopes to combat the burning issue of the effects of climate change with advanced waste-heat-to-power technology. Materials scientist Associate Professor Min Hong (pictured) has been awarded $1 million in funding through the 2023 Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellowships scheme to develop a new generation of high-performance thermoelectric energy…
A new RMIT University-led project will see new roads at ten sites contain recycled material, including hard-to-recycle soft plastics, demonstrating “a viable circular-economy solution to the nation” according to the university. The project – which is supported by the Australian Research Council, Austroads and ten Victorian councils – will use post-consumer and industrial waste plastic…
Funding totalling nearly $65 million has been announced for eight new Australian Research Council (ARC) Industrial Transformation Training Centres and five new ARC Industrial Transformation Research Hubs, covering themes including battery recycling, digital manufacturing and radiation innovation. Industry partners and universities would also provide additional funding worth $227 million to the new ARC Training Centres,…