Media Release
The Cooperative Research Centres Association today welcomed the announcement by the Minister for Industry, Science and Technology, the Hon Christian Porter, of twenty-two new Cooperative Research Centre Projects.
The new CRC-Ps have been funded under Round 11 of the Cooperative Research Centres Projects as part of the Cooperative Research Centres Program.
They represent a collective investment of almost $133 million, with $47 million in Australian Government funding leveraging investment from both industry and universities.
“Industry-led cooperative research enabled through the Cooperative Research Centres Program is an Australian success story, translating research into action and generating enormous benefit,” said CRC Association CEO Jane O’Dwyer.
“The CRC Projects are short, highly industry-focused projects that make it possible for many Small to Medium-sized enterprises to partner with each other and research organisations and to pursue ideas that create new products, jobs and build Australian innovation capacity.
“It provides a great framework for developing highly productive cooperative partnerships and making the most of the world-leading research know-how that we find in our research institutions.
“We know that for every dollar invested by government in collaborative research through the CRC Program, some three times the value is returned, generating more than $14 billion in direct economic benefits to the nation from CRC produced technologies, products and processes since the program was founded.
“This has translated into new Australian industries, new Australian businesses and new Australian jobs,” she said.
“A huge congratulations must go to all of the CRC-P participants and partners. The field was incredibly strong, and all 22 of those who have been funded are projects that will make a real difference.
They are an extraordinary range of projects, including rocket boosters, low-cost rapid-response air ambulances, extraction of critical minerals and rare earths from bauxite residue, bionic medical devices that deliver visual-spatial perception for the sight impaired, and new ways of monitoring and preventing low oxygen for mothers and babies during birth.
The twenty-two new CRC-Ps bring the total number of Cooperative Research Centres Projects since the establishment of the program in 2016 to 176.
