In an effort to address commercialisation issues, the Federal Government will hand out almost $29 million to a range of business-research collaborations, as part of its Cooperative Research Centres Projects (CRC-P) program.
The grants are provided to apply research to solving industry-specific problems or developing new products or technologies. The $28.8 million grant will be divided between 13 projects.
The biggest grant ($3 million) is for a project involving Austrak and the University of Southern Queensland, which will be working together to develop polymer composite transforms for rail bridge deck replacement.
Funding is also being put toward a portable 3D metal manufacturing solution that will help build remote housing and a new way to turn solid waste into sustainable diesel fuel.
Advanced manufacturing is a major focus of the grant, with $20 million being allocated to the sector.
“We see manufacturing as an indispensable part of the innovation ecosystem that we are trying to build in this country,” Senator Arthur Sinodinos told InnovationAus.
“The future is very much in innovative and smart manufacturing, which means that we have both an innovation mindset and a global outlook, to help to give us scale.”