Australian small and medium sized companies and local researchers will partner with international counterparts to grow their businesses and undertake research to benefit industry, with more than $660,000 in commercialisation grants from the Turnbull Government.
As part of the National Innovation and Science Agenda, funding will be provided to 14 projects in sectors related to the Turnbull Government’s Industry Growth Centres of Advanced Manufacturing, Food and Agribusiness, Medical Technology and Pharmaceuticals, Mining Equipment, Technology and Services and Oil, Gas and Energy Resources.
This funding will support Australian businesses to be globally competitive, helping them to commercialise their products by collaborating with researchers overseas.
It will also support Australian researchers to work with international businesses to solve problems in industry and the community, with benefits flowing through to Australia.
Australian researchers will partner with companies from China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Spain and the USA. In turn, Australian companies will work with researchers from the Czech Republic, France, Italy, UK and the USA.
Grants totalling $662,608 have been awarded, with individual grants ranging from $35,000 to $50,000.
Examples of collaboration include:
• Developing an ecofriendly control for powdery mildew and downy mildew control – two diseases that devastate grapes in both countries involved in the project. (Australia/India partnership).
• Creating a prototype hardware and software system to assess the progress of victims of spinal cord injury and other neuromuscular conditions, as they undergo rehabilitation. (Australia/United States partnership).
• Creating technologies for the development of superfast, low-cost and selective gas sensors with the capability of sensing/detecting explosives, drugs, air and food quality. (Australia/France partnership).
• Developing smart sensor networks that communicate data about the structural health of civil engineering projects, with applications in construction, transportation, mining, water treatment and security. (Australia/United States partnership).
• Investigating a new method for healing micro cracks in roads using waste products from the mining industry. (Australia/Italy partnership).
The Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering delivers the Global Connections Fund, which is a key component of the Turnbull Government’s Global Innovation Strategy.
This program provides funding of $4.9 million over four years to support SME-to-researcher collaborations between Australian entities and overseas partners.
This funding will allow these successful projects to grow in scope and scale, and to test commercialisation and proof of concept.
Supporting collaboration between Australian and international researchers and businesses is a key element of the Turnbull Government’s $1.1 billion National Innovation and Science Agenda (NISA).
Next week marks one year since the launch of NISA and major initiatives, including the Global Innovation Strategy, are underway to help Australians get their ideas to market and create the jobs and growth the country needs.
A full list of round one of Global Connections Fund Bridging Grant recipients is available at: https://globalconnectionsfund.org.au/