Pact releases sustainability report Pact Group today released its 2023 Sustainability Report which reveals the company recycled more than 54,000 tonnes of plastic waste last financial year, the equivalent weight of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The plastic waste was recycled at seven facilities operated by Pact and its joint venture partners in Australia and New Zealand, converted…
The SmartSat Cooperative Research Centre (CRC), has announced a suite of new R&D projects and university appointments that inject new funds into research in space technologies addressing bushfire resilience, spacecraft system autonomy, space objects surveillance and cyber security. One of two new research projects co-funded by SmartSat and ACT Government brings together the Australian National…
The Minister for Industry and Science Ed Husic has visited the University of Newcastle to officially open a new ResTech facility, a joint partnership with electrical engineering manufacturer Ampcontrol at the industrial-focused Callaghan Campus. The partnership aims to accelerate the development and commercialisation of new cutting-edge technology and solutions for the energy, infrastructure, and resources…
Start-ups and small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs)are being offered access a new online innovation learning program, ‘Innovate to Grow: Agrifood’, led by science agency CSIRO. The free 10-week online programme is designed to help Australian SMEs assess how they can advance their technologies, solutions and ideas through research and development (R&D). The programme, supported…
Australia’s Future Battery Industries Cooperative Research Centre (FBICRC) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Indonesia’s National Battery Research Institute (NBRI) witnessed by Bill Johnston, WA Minister for Energy, Mines and Petroleum and the Hydrogen industry. The agreement is intended to strengthen collaboration in battery research, technology and innovation between Australia and Indonesia, and…
The recently established Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator in the Department of Defence is on the hunt for its most senior staff – its head and an assistant secretary. They will lead the organisation which took over disparate defence innovation efforts including the Defence Innovation Hub and Next Generation Technologies Fund. While these were considered successful,…
Enviro-tech startup Samsara Eco is to establish a new research laboratory to develop enzymes that can break down plastic waste ready for recycling into new materials. The company, which has been based since 2021 at the Australian National University (ANU), will develop its ‘infinite recycling’ Research & Development (R&D) facility at Queanbeyan in Regional NSW.…
The Business Council of Australia has called for the development of a national industry policy, echoing calls made by @AuManufacturing news over many years. The peak body issued a plan to secure Australia’s economic future – Seize the Moment – which aims to tackle chronic low and falling productivity and levels of national innovation, and…
The federal government has opened Round 15 of Cooperative Research Centres Projects (CRC-P) Grants to develop new technologies, products, and services. The government expects to award around $40 million in grants in the round to small and medium businesses for projects to support a circular economy or meet the key priorities of the National Reconstruction…
This week’s report from the Productivity Commission targeted Australia’s energy policies as a form of industry assistance – anathema to the dry economic policy group. Here, Roy Green finds the Commission out of touch with Australia’s needs. This is another tiresomely predictable and formulaic report from the Productivity Commission. Ironically it takes issue with the…
