$26 million awarded through ARC Linkage projects

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…

Deakin and Jet Technology say ‘where there’s muck, there’s brass’

Deakin University’s Recycling and Clean Energy Commercialisation Hub (REACH) has partnered with Japan’s Jet Technology to recycle organic waste into valuable products, including converting apple waste into organic fabrics and sugar waste into stock feed. Alfred Deakin Professor and Deakin’s Chair in Biotechnology Colin Barrow and his team from the Centre for Sustainable Bioproducts will…

Xefco, Deakin reach for water-less garment dyeing

Deakin University has announced another project through the new Recycling and Clean Energy Commercialisation Hub (REACH), linking up with textile technology company Xefco for R&D on a waterless dyeing process for garment manufacture. Xefco has previously worked with Deakin’s Institute for Frontier Materials through the Innovative Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre to develop its water-less dyeing…

Deakin partners to convert old tyres to electricity

A new collaboration between Deakin University’s Recycling and Clean Energy Commercialisation Hub (REACH) and industry partner Clean Energy Resources (CER) aims to develop novel technologies to convert old tyres into electricity, hydrogen and other important resources. The partnership between Deakin and Geelong-based CER will develop a technology that provides a new way to generate electricity…

Quickstep leaps into R&D to cut composites production costs

Aerospace composites manufacturer has signed an exciting engineering collaboration with the Sovereign Manufacturing Automation for Composites CRC (SoMAC CRC) and Deakin University Geelong’s Institute for Intelligent Systems Research and Innovation (ISRII) to help bring down the cost of production. An initial 12-month Aeroline programme of research is valued at $1 million, funded 50-50, and forms…

Hanwha consortium pitches VenomX autonomy to the army

Korean defence manufacturer Hanwha Defense Australia (HDA) has brought together Australian and South Korean industry to pitch its autonomous VenomX logistics concept. The company is pitching the AI powered ‘Automated Protected Logistics to the Edge’ system to the Australian Army via the Robotic and Autonomous Systems Implementation and Coordination Office (RICO). Hanwha is building self-propelled…

Rediscovering our ability to spin a yarn

The textile industry still exists in Australia, but it’s misunderstood and strengthening it will be essential in addressing environmental and social problems. Brent Balinski speaks to Meriel Chamberlin, founder of Full Circle Fibres. “TCF” is a peculiarly Australian, bureaucratic category for a misunderstood, thrown-together collection of industries, believes Meriel Chamberlin. “That is such a vast,…

SmartSat CRC aims for autonomous AI driven spacecraft

Collaborative space research centre the SmartSat Cooperative Research Centre (SmartSat) has launched a $7 million project to develop new autonomous spacecraft using artificial intelligence (AI). The three-year project, Spacecraft Autonomy and Onboard AI for Next Generation Space Systems, or SCARLET-α, aims to create a set of autonomous algorithms that will enable small and distributed spacecraft…