CRC-P grants

The Australian Government has taken significant steps in recent months towards realising its goal of moving our manufacturing sector up the value chain.

I am not referring here just to the $15bn National Reconstruction Fund – though this is integral to our plans to generate new advanced industries and is close to being set up. Rather, I am alluding to strengthening our innovation ecosystem.

Earlier this year, the Australian Government allocated $650m to the 2023 funding round for the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS), and in June, I announced a further $50m in grants under the successful Cooperative Research Centres Projects (CRC-P) stream of the CRC Program.

The NCRIS gives researchers and industry access to advanced equipment, data, and expertise to develop new high value-added products and services for the global market – while the CRC-P grants stream supports short-term industry-led collaborative research projects.

Because advanced industries encompassing micro fabrication, smart robotics, 3D printing, and other digital technologies offer high growth potential, it’s important we enable their development is via a strong innovation ecosystem. We have that in place in Australia. With just 0.3% of the world’s population, we produce around 4% of the world’s research publications.

Seven of our universities are in the top 100 of the QS World University Rankings and six are in the top 100 of the Times Higher Education rankings. Our research and development expertise is reflected in that we’re in 25th place in the Global Innovation Index (GII).

To derive its overall rankings for 2022, the GII considered seven innovation pillars – institutions; human capital and research; infrastructure; market sophistication; knowledge and technology outputs; and creative outputs.

Australia ranked number five in human capital and research. In terms of knowledge and technology outputs we ranked No 37. The Australian Government wants more of our home-grown ideas or methods translated into commercial or societal benefits for the nation. For that, we need a stronger innovation ecosystem. The funding we are delivering through the CRC-P and NCRIS will help bring that about. The latest tranche of CRC-P funding, round 14, includes a focus on circular economy principles – and the 24 projects being supported will complement the seven areas we have identified as priorities for the soon to be-established NRF, including renewables and low-emissions technologies.

One round 14 recipient, Industrial Property Maintenance in Melbourne will receive a $3m grant to develop a pilot facility for recycling composite wind turbine blades. An estimated 30,000 tonnes of wind turbine blades are due to be retired by 2050 and diverting them from landfill will deliver important environmental benefits as well creating new jobs.

Another CRC-P recipient, OmnisOva, based at Werribee outside Melbourne, will use its $1.4m grant to further develop its advanced breeding technology to remove a major food allergen from eggs. Around 40 million children world-wide are allergic to eggs and successfully bringing this innovation to the global egg market will deliver major public health benefits here and overseas.

A Sydney company, MicroTau, has received a $3m grant to further develop and test a film coating that can reduce aerodynamic drag on aircraft. This film mimics the countless overlapping V-shaped scales or denticles that cover a shark’s skin. These denticles promote laminar flow and allow the shark to swim faster and more quietly. However, replicating the microscopic grooves and bumps with traditional manufacturing is difficult. MicroTau have solved this puzzle using specialist laser manufacturing technology to rapidly produce the shark skin pattern in a light-curable material on to large, self-adhesive patches.

MicroTau’s proprietary direct contactless microfabrication technology has potential uses in the shipping industry as well as wind turbine manufacture. Incidentally, MicroTau overcome the manufacturing challenge of working at the micro and macro scales simultaneously with technical help from the University of Sydney’s Research and Prototype Foundry.

This foundry is one of eight university-based nodes around the country that are under the aegis of the Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF). The ANFF, in turn, is funded by NCRIS.

It is a great example of the power of “networked” research and development – working with industry – to pressure-test great ideas, overcome technical issues, and turn them into viable new products or services. We in Australia have traditionally punched above our weight for innovation inputs.

By creating a joined up national innovation ecosystem where scientific research, the private sector and the government are fully engaged and committed, we can also excel in terms of innovation outputs. Outputs that will allow advanced manufacturing companies, particularly SMEs, to scale up their activities.

The policies and strategies we have committed to, and the funding and co-investment that we are now rolling out, will create more ideas and a greater appetite for risk.

Which is what is needed, in the long run, to transform our manufacturing sector and deliver sustainable economic growth. industry.gov.au

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