Shaping the scientists of the future, p3
Leveraging university networks, p6
Forging long-term partnerships, p8
Science
ACDS PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
Welcome to Issue 12 of Australian University Science, the Australian Council of Deans of Science magazine, which showcases the impact and importance of university science. In this edition, we focus on collaborations between universities and industries that are driving more impactful and rewarding partnerships, for the benefit of Australia and its communities.
FOREWORD: COLLABORATING FOR IMPACT
This topic is especially relevant following the recent launch of the National Science Priorities by our Chief Scientist Dr Cathy Foley. These inspiring new priorities have a strong focus on innovation, the development of new industries and the creation of a future made in Australia, with imperatives including “Science at the centre of Australian industry” and the development of “a diverse and skilled workforce to underpin the translation of science into new industries”
I am excited to share our stories highlighting how university science is contributing to these goals across the breadth of our activities, from undergraduate education through to impactful research. Examples include highly productive partnerships between universities and SMEs that enable the sharing of infrastructure, resources, expertise and knowledge, with outcomes that are more than the sum of the parts in critical areas including energy transitions and food sustainability. We also showcase life-changing undergraduate, postgraduate and research student placements and internships, that enable the development of skills and the creation of opportunities for students and hosts alike. A reflection on the changing policy and funding landscape over the years and into the future provides hope as we pivot our nation to a brighter future through effective industry partnerships.
Many thanks to all our amazing contributors from across the breadth of university science in Australia and to Professor Attila Brungs, Vice-Chancellor of the University of New South Wales for his insightful and inspiring opening remarks.
Professor Melissa Brown, President, Australian Council of Deans of Science
AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITY SCIENCE
Australian University Science advocates the value of university science to the broader community.
Australia’s strong science research and training is integral to driving new economies. Universities have a critical role as partners in establishing innovation and technological change in industry. As science delivers new insights and tools, new industries are emerging, and people with science skills will be essential to these new industries. Australian University Science magazine highlights these stories, showcasing exceptional science teams and Australian science graduates working in industry. To provide feedback or suggestions, subscribe or order additional copies, visit acds.edu.au/AustUniScience
In early 2022, as the spectre of COVID-19 began to shift, leading RNA scientists from several Australian universities and medical research institutes gathered in Sydney with industry and government partners to open the UNSW RNA Institute. It was a celebratory occasion, a milestone for Australia’s RNA technology capabilities and research runway, the exigency of which was one of the perverse positives to emerge from the pandemic.
The excitement of university, industry and government partners coming together to share scientific breakthroughs or cutting-edge solutions to pressing global challenges is a special feature of the research pipeline.
There’s a simple reason why. It’s because we know two heads are better than one for driving innovation, for taking a brilliant discovery through to a brilliant solution and for bringing science from the lab to those who can benefit most.
Science. Collaboration. Impact. It’s a powerful triumvirate. It’s underscored in the revitalised National Science and Research Priorities, in the Trailblazer Universities Program, in CRCs, ARC fellowships and many more initiatives.
It’s also at the heart of what UNSW Dean of Science Professor Sven Rogge has championed as Pact for Impact, a collective commitment with partners in industry, not-forprofits and government to improve the world through science and to measure and be accountable for our social, economic and environmental impacts.
Australia’s universities and industry have a demonstrated history of joining forces to improve the world through science.
Let’s capitalise on this momentum with the innovation and creativity to drive our impact even further. Because, just as the National Science and Research Priorities emphasise the collaborations Australia needs to solve our greatest challenges, we know that making a difference, together, just makes sense.
Professor Attila Brungs FTSE FRSN Vice-Chancellor & President UNSW Sydney
This edition of Australian University Science was published 18 October 2024 by Refraction Media on behalf of the Australian Council of Deans of Science. Designed by Jon Wolfgang Miller. Printed in Australia by IVE. ISSN: 2652-2403.
© 2024 Australian Council of Deans of Science, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any manner or form without written permission. If you would like to reproduce anything from this issue, email info@refractionmedia.com.au.
“YOU END UP WITH THIS LONGITUDINAL RELATIONSHIP, WHICH THEN COMPLEMENTS OTHER RELATIONSHIPS THAT THE INDUSTRY PARTNER MIGHT HAVE WITH THE UNIVERSITY”
SCIENTISTS OF THE FUTURE ENGAGING WITH INDUSTRY
The long-term prioritisation of work integrated learning and industry based research training is driving more and deeper relationships between university science and industry
The large research projects conducted by university scientists and industry working together often draw headlines, but in reality partnerships are being forged every day thanks to programs now embedded in undergraduate and postgraduate university science courses.
For almost 10 years, Work Integrated Learning (WIL) has been an agreed priority for Australian governments, industry groups and universities seeking to improve graduate employability.
What began as placement of students into workplaces has evolved into true collaboration between industry and the scientists of the future. Industry PhDs, curriculum co-design, and industry based research training have also helped organisations and researchers cultivate the expertise and innovation capability to become industry leaders.
Deakin Distinguished Professor
Liz Johnson leads the university’s education and employability strategy and has also worked with the Australian Council of Deans of Science (ACDS) to champion WIL in science. She says the advent of compulsory WIL for many university science students has helped foster longer-term university-industry collaboration, at a variety of different commitment levels.
“You end up with this longitudinal relationship, which then complements other sorts of relationships that the industry partner might have with the university, whether it’s around teaching or graduate recruitment,” Johnson says.
“A startup, for example, probably can’t take on an intern straight away, but they might want to come in and be part of a judging panel or give a talk to students,” Johnson adds. And, she says, given many university science graduates go on to work not as traditional scientists, but directly in industry roles, WIL is a real opportunity for science schools to “make better industry”.
“Because it’s a three-way partnership. It’s the student, the institution and the industry partner, and you have to have all three of them working tightly together.”
Australian National University (ANU) Professor and Director of the
ACDS
Teaching & Learning Centre
Susan Howitt agrees once industry and university science partners take the first step with WIL, it then opens up other opportunities. “I think once you’ve established that connection, then it’s easier to think about other options or other ways that we can work together.”
The more recent development of Industrial Transformation Training Centres supports university science graduates to partner with industry in priority areas for Australia. And degree apprenticeships are now on the horizon.
“Industry is asking for students that have a wide range of capacities: can they apply the science that they’re doing?
Do they have the resilience and persistence to be able to deal with openended problems and really complex problem solving, for example,”says Dr Bonnie McBain, WIL leader and senior lecturer at the University of Newcastle.
“So if you take it back to the basics of what you are preparing students for, then you see that WIL can take many forms.”
This increasingly includes industry projects where students work in teams across disciplines to solve complex or “wicked” problems for industry partners, McBain says.
“We have a full range of partners from individual contractors who are running their own business to larger organisations. So the model we have tends to be really flexible… and the commitment from the industry partner doesn’t have to be very big.” — Charis
Palmer
Dr Bonnie McBain
Professor Susan Howitt
Professor Liz Johnson
INDUSTRY AND UNIVERSITY SCIENCE: PARTNERING FOR IMPACT
University science is the partner innovative Australian businesses need as they take on the tricky mission of scaling for the world stage
Recent weak National Accounts figures underscore the urgent need for greater investment in research and development to drive Australia’s economic growth. More industry investment is critical and university-industry partnerships are key to this effort, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which make up over 99% of Australian businesses and contribute a third of the nation’s GDP.
Large companies dominate mining and finance, but SMEs play a critical role in other sectors, kickstarting innovation, providing localised solutions and adopting new technologies faster to meet emerging market needs.
“While we outperform in the creation of startups and small businesses against other OECD countries, our industry structure is overly skewed to small businesses with less than 20 employees. It’s hard to compete when you are small,” says Industry Innovation and Science Australia Chair Andrew Stevens.
Australia’s new science priorities and $392 million Industry Growth Program both call for the nation to address the “missing middle” that has held back Australia’s ability to scale up and
“The outcome we need right now is the scaling of small businesses into medium-sized businesses. This will build sovereign capability and economic complexity in Australia,”
Collaborations with Australian university science are the key to helping businesses scale.
Research has found SMEs that collaborate with universities and research institutions experience higher innovation and economic performance. By establishing links with academic researchers, SMEs are able to engage in product and process innovation which, in turn, positively influences revenue growth, access to new markets or higher profitability.
Australia’s competitive university science schools bring expert problem solvers, lateral thinkers and inquiring and talented students who often go on to work with SMEs that they engage with during their study, says Warwick Dawson, Pro Vice-Chancellor Industry and Engagement at the University of Newcastle.
“Universities also bring world class research facilities that no SME would be able to afford to purchase on their own, and access to broader networks and related industry partners, connecting SMEs to each other as well as to researchers,” Dawson adds.
These unique university advantages are helping small businesses like EM Energy. In the process of trying to build a renewable battery, it found the organic material in it could be used to create hydrogen gas.
Founders Isabel Toasa and Chris Wilson knew they had made an important discovery, but the company didn’t have the facilities, people or equipment to help them test it.
During a University of Newcastle event, Toasa serendipitously met materials science researcher Peter Richardson, leading to a research project to test and validate EM Energy’s production of green hydrogen.
EM Energy became the first recipient of an R&D funding voucher as part of the government-backed Trailblazer for Recycling and Clean Energy ( TRaCE),
and Wilson says “it’s going to give us access to some of the really great resources within the university, such as the research staff, equipment and labs, helping us to accelerate our research and development activities for the company”.
PARTNERING FROM STARTUP TO SCALE
As the government seeks to incentivise and support the translation of science research into new industries and sustainable products, partnerships like that between the University of Queensland’s Food and Beverage Accelerator and deep-tech company Nourish Ingredients show the benefit of early connections on the path to scaling.
Nourish Ingredients is working with university scientists at FaBA to research how its new dairy-type lipid ‘Creamilux’ functions for use in various products.
“Companies have limited control over how an ingredient might be used in the future, so they want to know how their ingredient will interact with other ingredients,” says Professor Jason Stokes, UQ’s Premium Food and Beverage Program lead.
“They need to understand the product’s technical behaviour at different interfaces and understand the chemistry of how it will act,” Stokes adds.
Scientist and board chair Dr Leonie Walsh says while industry generally works on shorter time frames than university science, cooperative research centres have shown the benefit of partnerships that go further than earlystage validation of a product.
Walsh chairs the recently established Solving Plastic Waste CRC, and says she was drawn to it by the strategic approach bid leader Dr Ian Dagley took.
“He worked with the industry partners and identified what their problems were and the challenges along that plastics value chain. And then, based on those
Warwick Dawson
“UNIVERSITIES BRING ACCESS TO BROADER NETWORKS”
problems and challenges, he then approached the universities to look for the expertise that was best positioned to solve those challenges,” Walsh says.
The CRC has a combined $140 million in government and industry funding for its initial 10-year lifespan, and Walsh says it has taken a “quality over quantity” approach to partners.
“There’s a trend with CRCs that suggests ‘bigger is better’, but with the Solving Plastic Waste CRC we really focused on what are those problems and challenges that aren’t being addressed in the value chain today.
“We knew that if we helped plug those gaps, it would create a quantum effect that would support that whole sector.”
Walsh also sits on the board of solar thermal storage scale-up RayGen, which she says is constantly working to improve efficiencies in other aspects of its technology.
“And they work with three universities — UNSW Sydney, University of Adelaide and the Queensland University of Technology — to do that, targeting a specific skill set in areas where there is potential for further development. There are great opportunities to use that calibre of research to help finetune and continue to innovate in the technology area,” Walsh says.
TRAINING THE NEXT GENERATION OF INNOVATORS
For businesses that are yet to be, universities act as incubators to provide the runway, networks and commercialisation skills necessary while ideas or discoveries are honed.
Sydney University’s Knowledge Hub, for example, is supporting the work of Associate Professor Girish Lakhwani and Dr Inseong Cho from the university’s Faculty of Science.
Cho completed his PhD at the University of Wollongong, where he was a member of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science, and he’s now a member of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Exciton Science at the University of Sydney.
The researchers have found a way to manipulate laser light at a fraction of the cost of current technology, which could help drive down costs in industries including telecommunications, medical diagnostics and consumer optoelectronics.
Teams including Lakhwani and Cho’s took part in a four-day bootcamp and ongoing activities designed to build commercial skills as part of the Sydney Knowledge Hub’s PERIscope Commercialisation Award.
The program concludes with advice from commercialisation experts on whether the solution should be a new venture, a license with an existing company, or whether it should go back to the lab. — Charis
Palmer
Dr Leonie Walsh
The EM Energy team led by Isabel Toasa, in the lab at the University of Newcastle
Associate Professor Girish Lakhwani (left) with his team at the University of Sydney Centre of Excellence in Exciton Science
BUILDING NETWORKS FOR SUCCESS THROUGH GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES
Beyond its core role to educate and create knowledge, university science plays a critical part in bringing together the people and funding to push Australia forward
“People keep repeating that you can’t pick winners,” says Barry Jones, Federal Minister for Science 1983-1990.
“That’s a sort of half truth.”
In reality, Jones says, successive Australian governments have always supported particular industries, companies and products. He says it’s part of the vital role of government in bringing good ideas to market and diversifying the Australian economy beyond minerals and agriculture.
University science is a key part of this innovation ecosystem, along with industry, venture capitalists and government.
Along the way, government-led university-industry collaboration programs have helped support the revolving door between university science labs and industry sectors hoping to grow rapidly through access to cutting-edge science.
One of the stand-out successes in the past 35 years has been the advent of co-operative research centres (CRCs).
Tony Peacock, who was chief executive of the CRC Association for 10 years between 2010 and 2020, says that the concept came about because Barry Jones, while minister, had urged scientists to advocate more forcefully for government support. At the opening of Questacon the National Science and Technology Centre in 1988, a group of scientists took him at his word and staged a public protest.
Then-Prime Minister Bob Hawke got the message, and the CRC concept was sparked. A CRC takes a specific research problem and brings together a consortium of university, industry and government researchers to tackle it. Through a competitive grant process, they are funded for (usually) seven years.
Since the first CRC in 1990, the government has funded more than 250, investigating everything from invasive species to hearing loss to minerals exploration.
SERENDIPITY AT WORK
Peacock says the most successful CRCs were ones that had a clear, specific goal, and that fostered a culture of collaborative creativity. “The biggest impact is often the hardest to actually describe,” he says.
It’s a message echoed by Stella Valenzuela from the University of Technology Sydney. A professor of cell and molecular biology, she is also director of the IDEAL research hub, which brings together university, industry and government to create devices to detect trace molecules or cell types in complex systems.
She celebrates the hub for “the serendipity of just bringing people together and seeing what happens in that melting pot”. Given the latitude to explore ideas together, hub members
Associate Professor Amy Cain and her team at the Woodford Folk Festival where they showcased synthetic biology, collecting microbes for the Wild Yeast Zoo
Image: Katherine Williams
Barry Jones
Tony Peacock
developed concepts not originally slated, but that bore fruit nevertheless.
As policy has evolved over time, programs like the ARC Industry Fellowships and more recently the National Industry PhD Program have fostered collaboration to bring the world-class research Australian universities are known for into businesses large and small.
The National Industry PhD Program sees PhD candidates undertake research projects co-designed by university and industry or, alternatively, enables industry professionals to do a PhD while still working for their employer. For employers with talented workers keen to do a PhD, the program can help ensure they don’t lose them, and they can also benefit from closer ties to a university.
The ARC Industry Fellowships are offered at three levels early career, mid-career and laureate, supporting university scientists to establish careers in industry, and industry-based scientists to work in university settings. The fellows also receive cash and in-kind contributions from their universities and industry partners. The fellowships have seen university scientists working with industry to solve challenges from recycling waste to transitioning to renewable energy and improving food security.
BRINGING SCIENCE TO INDUSTRY
ARC Industry Fellow and plant scientist Cailtin Byrt built a startup with her research team at ANU in 2021, developing nature-inspired separation technologies for harvesting nutrients, metals, minerals and clean water from industrial wastewater.
Along the way, the startup received research translation support from the ANU Agrifood Innovation Institute (AFII) hub. From here, the team was connected to the Canberra Innovation Network for startup training and introductions to the local innovation community.
In 2023 Byrt learnt about a global mining industry wastewater challenge opportunity created by mining giant Rio Tinto. Byrt and her team had been looking for an industrial
wastewater separation problem, and the global wastewater challenge was looking for a solution, so it made for an ideal partnership. The ARC Fellowship is now allowing them to kick off research into developing Rare Earth Element (REE) selective components for use in separating REE resources from wastes.
“THE BIGGEST IMPACT IS OFTEN THE HARDEST TO ACTUALLY DESCRIBE.”
Byrt says the fellowship has helped to expand networks within Rio Tinto and collaborating organisations working alongside it. “It has also created a pathway to apply laboratoryderived biotechnological innovations to addressing industrial waste and sustainability challenges,” she adds.
“Rio Tinto has connected us with brilliant industry and university colleagues across the globe who are focused on transforming the way critical materials are produced, used and recycled to make the process more environmentally, economically and socially sustainable.”
FREEDOM TO SOLVE THE BIG ISSUES
ARC Future Fellow Amy Cain says it’s often the desire to solve big global problems that sees scientists move between university-based research and industry.
As a biochemist, Cain has worked with pharmaceutical companies and universities on new drug development, but also with UK charity the Wellcome Sanger Institute on addressing the growing scourge of antibiotic resistance, and at a large hospital in Malawi setting up a program to screen for hospital pathogens. She’s now back at Macquarie University, using the expertise gained along the way to solve new challenges.
“I always say to people I mentor that you’ve got to balance getting in-depth knowledge of one subject with broad
experience across different fields to have the best chance of having practical impacts with your research,” Cain says.
She helped spin out a new vaccine for a disease that is the biggest killer of horses in the world at Wellcome, and now in Australia as part of her ARC Future Fellowship has been applying research related to drug development to the completely different field of plastic waste.
At the ARC Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology, Cain had a mandate to use microbes to produce useful things and, while working on an ethical alternative to using mice for infectious diseases research, she saw how the larvae of the greater wax moth could voraciously eat certain types of plastic. “Now I’m building synthetic microbes that break down plastic, which is a completely different sort of science,” Cain says.
She credits the ARC for the support she has received for her work so far, and while she has contemplated a startup or spinout of some of her work, says it’s hard to beat the freedom universities offer to address challenges that may not be financially viable enough to appeal to industry.
“The main thing is encouraging people to take risks and removing barriers so scientists can freely move in and out of industry,” Cain says.
— Sara Phillips and Charis Palmer
Professor Stella
Caitlin Byrt
LONG-TERM PARTNERSHIPS
Translating university science for the greater good is often the product of experience, networks and relationships built over several years
PARTNERING WITH GOVERNMENT TO ADDRESS CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION
Macquarie University Distinguished Professor of Biology Lesley Hughes led the Biodiversity Node of the NSW Adaptation Research Hub during its five-year existence. Bringing together 64 researchers from 16 institutions and agencies across Australia, the Node developed an innovative model of collaborative research with projects co-designed and co-led by academic researchers in collaboration with government scientists and policy makers. The end result was shortened time frames between knowledge creation and implementation, saving money and helping ensure government decision-making was based on the best available evidence.
UNSW AND KANDUI TECHNOLOGIES REVIVING WASTE MATERIALS
Materials scientist Professor Veena Sahajwalla had been researching recycling of waste materials for more than a decade, during which, she met recycling company leader Andrew Douglas at a sustainability conference. Sahajwalla founded the Centre for Sustainable Materials Research and Technology (SMaRT) in 2008 and, in 2018, the world’s first ‘MICROfactorie’ was launched at the centre, using microrecycling to revive waste materials onsite. Douglas established Kandui Technologies based on a licensing agreement with SMaRT to use its green ceramics MICROfactorie technology and now the company is building a ceramics business transforming waste into tiles and kitchen benchtops.
IMPROVING CANCER DIAGNOSIS
Medical imaging scientist Professor Patrick Brennan first published research in 2010 that would eventually go on to drive the development of a company with global reach. After finding that mammograms failed to detect 30% of breast cancers in Australia he teamed up with University of Sydney colleagues Professor Mary Rickard and Dr Moe Suleiman, and found shortfalls across a range of diagnostic methods. DetectedX was formed in 2019 and now boasts more than 7500 users in 150 countries. Its methods have been published in more than 100 scientific journals and it has supported the ongoing research of 30 PhD students.
SAVING LIVES WITH GARDASIL
Born out of research by Professor Ian Frazer and Dr Jian Zhou that started in 1990 at the University of Queensland, it wasn’t until 2006 that HPV vaccine Gardasil was launched on the global market. Along the path, UQ commercialisation company UniQuest brokered a licensing deal with CSL which funded further research and development. Thanks to the success of Gardasil, Australia is hopeful of becoming the first country in the world to eliminate cervical cancer by 2035.
Image: Chris Stacey
Professor Veena Sahajwalla at the UNSW Centre for Sustainable Materials Research and Technology
Macquarie University’s Plant Growth Facility is helping to improve biodiversity through collaboration