Tag Archives: innovation

Monash University, Fujitsu and CSIRO unite to advance Australia’s quantum research capability

August 7, 2026 SMB Contributor Leave a comment

The collaboration between Monash, Australia’s largest university, leading Japanese information technology company Fujitsu, and Australia’s national science agency CSIRO will strengthen Australia’s quantum computing capability by advancing quantum research, expanding training opportunities and accelerating the translation of new discoveries into practical applications.

Quantum computing could help solve some of the world’s most complex challenges by enabling faster and more powerful analysis of scientific problems than is possible with conventional computing. It will be central to critical areas of research, including cybersecurity, healthcare, decarbonisation and climate science.

The collaboration supports the newly signed Memorandum of Cooperation between Australia and Japan on quantum science, technology and innovation, reflecting the growing strategic importance of quantum technologies to both countries.

(L to R) Japan’s Minister in Charge of Economic Security Kimi Onoda, Dr Anthony Chesman (CSIRO), Mr Jungo Okai (Fujitsu), Petra Andren (Quantum Australia) and Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor John Carroll (Monash University).

Monash University will lead the establishment of a shared quantum research and education facility and coordinate collaborative training activities, creating opportunities for researchers and PhD candidates to work with Fujitsu and CSIRO on projects that advance quantum computing research and result in meaningful impact.

Monash University Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise) and Senior Vice-President Professor Robyn Ward said the collaboration would strengthen Australia’s ability to translate quantum research into technologies that benefit society.

“Quantum technologies have the potential to transform the way we unlock solutions to some of the world’s most pressing issues, and building capability in this field will require deep collaboration between universities, industry and government,” Professor Ward said.

“This partnership brings together world-leading research expertise, advanced industry capability and opportunities to train the next generation of quantum researchers and innovators.

“Monash is proud to play a leading role in strengthening Australia’s quantum ecosystem – developing talent, enabling international collaboration and ensuring our research has a meaningful pathway from the lab to the real world.”

The collaboration’s research program will be based at Monash University’s Faculty of Information Technology.

Monash’s Faculty of Information Technology Dean Professor Ian Burnett welcomed the initiative and said the Faculty was excited to build on its deep expertise across AI, cybersecurity and advanced computing.

“This collaboration will bring our various multidisciplinary technology research strengths together in quantum computing, creating new opportunities for our researchers and students to contribute to advances in quantum algorithms, software and machine learning while working alongside leading experts from industry and Australia’s national science agency,” Professor Burnett said.

CSIRO Technology Director Dr Katja Digweed said this innovative collaboration can help accelerate the development of advanced quantum computing technologies in Australia.

“Connecting deep scientific capability with the right software and algorithms can bring quantum computing closer to practical use in areas like cybersecurity, health, and climate science,” Dr Digweed said.

“Together we can build the skills, infrastructure and partnerships across research and industry, and between Australia and Japan.”

Fujitsu in Oceania CEO Peter Grassi said by bringing together Fujitsu’s leading quantum technologies, Monash University’s research excellence and CSIRO’s applied science expertise, new opportunities will be created to accelerate innovation, develop future talent and translate quantum breakthroughs into real-world outcomes.

“As a company with deep Japanese heritage and over half a century supporting organisations in Australia, Fujitsu is uniquely positioned to help connect the strengths of both countries’ quantum ecosystems,” Mr Grassi said.

“This collaboration will deepen research and innovation links between Australia and Japan while expanding access to advanced quantum technologies and expertise to help solve society’s most complex challenges.”

This article is a media release from Monash University. Read the original media release here.

Highlight, News

Focus, collaboration and accountability: CSIRO’s ideas for Australian science delivered at Press Club Speech

July 29, 2026 Jasmine Fellows Leave a comment

At today’s National Press Club address, CSIRO Chief Executive Dr Doug Hilton AO called for a more focused, collaborative and accountable Australian research system. He argued that stronger cooperation could make investment in, partnership with and support for science “perhaps even irresistible”.

During the speech, Hilton began to paint a picture for Australia. One that CSIRO could help create.

Abundant clean energy, critical minerals processed into valuable technologies onshore, oceans understood as well as we do our land, a DNA library of every Australian plant and animal, and Australian foundational models built with Australian data.

“In a world that can feel like it’s running out of wonder, imagine discovering there’s more of it here – in Australia – than anyone realised,” he said.

Powerful ideas. However, they were not accompanied by a clear account of what CSIRO needs to make that future possible: how many researchers, what level of sustained funding, which facilities, what policy changes.

Investing in Australian science

Hilton acknowledged that CSIRO’s funding has not kept pace with inflation. The organisation’s infrastructure has aged, and the cost of conducting science has risen. More than 80% of CSIRO’s approximately 800 buildings had reached their technical end of life by the end of 2025.

Additional government funding will support much-needed maintenance, equipment and IT systems. However, Hilton stopped short of a clear public ask for support of the broader Australian research system.

It’s worth noting that Australia’s total R&D investment has fallen from a historic high of 2.24% of GDP in 2008–09 to just 1.69% today, compared with an OECD average of around 2.7%.

Asked whether Australia adequately funds research, Hilton said the sector first needed to demonstrate it is making the best use of existing resources. “The answer, I think, is that we can do better with the resources already entrusted to us,” he said.

When does efficiency become fragility?

Hilton’s address raises a difficult question: how resilient is a system that increasingly depends on collaboration while many of its institutions, programs and researchers are under financial strain?

CSIRO rarely delivers impact by itself. “Irrespective of the timeframe, to deliver real benefit, we almost always need to collaborate with partners in industry, in government and in universities,” Hilton said.

That collaboration typically involves co-investment, pooling money, expertise and infrastructure needed to address problems no single organisation could solve by itself.

When working as intended, this model allows Australia to achieve far more than any single institution could independently. But it may also create fragility. When one part of the system loses people, expertise or infrastructure, the effects can ripple through research partnerships, national facilities and long-term programs.

That is the darker side of Hilton’s call for greater collaboration. Hundreds of job cuts and disappearing research programs do not affect CSIRO alone. They can reduce the capability available to every organisation that relies on it as a research partner.

This is particularly important when CSIRO is expected to provide sovereign scientific capability, the expertise Australia needs when international supply chains fail, new diseases emerge or access to strategic technologies is challenged.

What’s next for CSIRO

CSIRO has lasted 100 years so far, and Hilton wants to strengthen it for 100 more. While this will depend on government, business also has a part to play.

Companies working with CSIRO may consider the terms of their research partnerships, how they co-invest in shared expertise and infrastructure, and how they might advocate for the stable national R&D system on which their own innovation may depend.

Overall, Hilton’s message was hopeful for CSIRO and Australian science. “Imagine future generations looking back on this decade, as the moment Australia decided that curiosity, ambition and audacity were our greatest national assets,” he said.

Industry

Swarm robots inspired by bees and ants could transform the future of mining

June 25, 2026 SMB Contributor Leave a comment

Published in Natural Sciences, this research looks at how social insects work together to find and transport food, and applies those same ideas to teams of small robots. The robots work together without needing a single control centre, allowing them to respond more effectively to changing conditions.

Mining is becoming more challenging as companies move into deeper, more remote and harder-to-access locations. While automation has improved safety and productivity, many existing systems are expensive, inflexible and can be vulnerable if a central control system fails.

To explore a different approach, the Adelaide research team investigated whether the teamwork seen in nature could help solve some of these challenges.

Using small Zumo 2040 robots in a laboratory set-up designed to mimic a mine, the researchers tested three different approaches:

a basic system where robots collect ore and immediately return.
an ant-inspired system where robots share tasks.
a honeybee-inspired system where robots first explore and map an area before collecting resources more efficiently.

Instead of relying on one central controller, the robots operate as a swarm, making their own decisions while working together. This allows the system to keep operating even if individual robots stop working.

Learning from nature

Lead author, Dr Joven Tan. Image: Courtesy of Adelaide University.

Lead author Dr Joven Tan, who carried out the research as part of his PhD at the School of Chemical Engineering, said the study shows the value of learning from nature.

“Social insects have developed very efficient ways of solving problems together,” Dr Tan said.

“By applying these ideas to robotics, we can create systems that are more efficient, adaptable and reliable for industries such as mining.”

The results were striking, with the honeybee-inspired approach performing best in all tests. By first exploring the area and remembering where resources were located, it:

reduced travel distance by up to 80%;
reduced energy use by about 50%; and
completed ore delivery tasks up to 60% faster than the basic approach.

The ant-inspired approach also improved performance by dividing the work between robots, with one robot finding resources while another transported them.

Replicating real-world mining operations

The research was not limited to computer simulations. The team tested the approaches using real robots in a laboratory environment that replicated mining operations, demonstrating that the concepts can work in practice.

Project leader and co-author Dr Noune Melkoumian from the School of Chemical Engineering said the findings show how ideas from nature can be turned into practical technologies.

“Nature has spent millions of years developing efficient ways for groups to work together,” Dr Melkoumian said.

“By learning from these systems, we can develop new technologies that are more flexible, reliable and efficient.”

The researchers say there are still challenges to overcome before the technology can be widely used in mines, including improving sensors, extending battery life and adapting to unpredictable underground conditions.

Industry applications: from safety to space

Despite these challenges, the potential applications are significant.

“Swarm robotic systems could be used in dangerous or difficult-to-reach mining areas, reducing risks for workers while improving productivity,” Dr Melkoumian said.

“They could also play an important role in future space mining missions, where fully autonomous systems will be essential. Our research shows that swarm robotics is no longer just a theoretical idea. These systems can be built, tested and operated in real environments, with the potential to change how resources are explored, excavated and transported.”

‘Bio-Inspired Swarm Robots Design for Mine Automation is published in Natural Sciences. DOI: 10.1002/ntls.70049

This article is a media release from Adelaide University. Read the original media release here.

Hero image: AI-generated images demonstrate how bees and ants could improve mining operations in remote areas. Courtesy Adelaide University.

Energy, Innovation, News

Floating solar could help power nations with limited land

June 3, 2026 SMB Contributor Leave a comment

Photovoltaic systems that float offshore and on inland water bodies could help decarbonise the energy sectors of land-restricted nations.

But are they as effective as conventional solar arrays which remain fixed to the ground?

In a new study published in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, researchers from Taiwan’s National Taipei University of Technology addressed this question by comparing a land-based solar farm with the island’s first large-scale commercial offshore floating photovoltaic installation.

The system located at Changhua Coastal Industrial Park has a maximum power output under standard test conditions of 181 megawatt-peak (MWp).

The researchers carried out a lifecycle energy assessment on the system after mathematically adjusting this capacity to align with the Changhua Coastal Industrial Park’s 100 MWp land-based photovoltaic system.

“This normalisation approach allowed us to directly compare performance metrics – such as energy yield, efficiency and environmental impacts – under equivalent system capacities, eliminating bias due to size differences,” says co-author Ching-Feng Chen.

“What we found is that offshore floating solar systems can generate more electricity over their lifetime – about 12% more than land-based systems under the same conditions.

“Because of this higher energy output, they also achieve greater carbon emission reductions. In simple terms, even though both systems use similar technology, placing solar panels on water can make them more effective.”

This is partly due to the cooling effect of the surrounding water, which conducts heat away from the solar panels more efficiently than air. The electrical efficiency of solar cells decreases as ambient temperatures increase, so this effect is particularly helpful in warm climates.

“Taiwan’s pathway to net-zero emissions by 2050 requires innovative deployment strategies, not just more of the same technologies,” says Chen.

“From a broader perspective, our work shows that offshore floating solar is not just a technical alternative but a strategic solution for other countries with limited land resources that can help expand their renewable energy capacity while still meeting environmental and land-use constraints.”

– Written by Imma Perfetto

This article first appeared in CSIRO Publishing’s ConnectSci. Read the original article here.

Innovation, News, Technology

Australia’s reliance on Big Tech leaves room for new opportunities

May 28, 2026 SMB Contributor Leave a comment

Globally, users of digital media are increasingly locked into a handful of operating systems, app stores, and communication platforms. Most of us must choose between Apple, Windows, or Android. All of these are owned by American tech giants.

Much of private and government IT infrastructure – websites, mobile banking, nearly anything online you can think of – uses cloud services, such as Amazon Web Services, Cloudflare or Microsoft Azure. They might have locations worldwide, but these are also US companies.

Mobile phones, laptops, smartwatches and more are mostly made by American or Chinese companies. And it’s getting worse as tech companies embed artificial intelligence (AI) assistants directly into everyday devices, such as Google’s Gemini or Microsoft’s Copilot. They’re doing this in ways designed to further entrench users within particular ecosystems.

When a single cyber security update brought down Windows computers the world over in 2024, it was a stark reminder nobody should put all their IT eggs in one basket.

But what might that actually look like? The “digital sovereignty” movement in the European Union (EU) can show us the way. European countries are gradually breaking up with American tech giants and pushing for local AI development, all in the name of achieving digital autonomy.

What exactly is ‘digital sovereignty’?

A state’s sovereignty means to be able to govern itself. Extend that to the digital era, and we arrive at a concept that’s difficult to pin down, but broadly means being in charge of your own digital infrastructure.

Let’s take the European digital sovereignty strategy. It provides a roadmap for creating, owning and governing computer hardware, AI, software, and social media within the EU. Any tech providers would have to comply with core EU values of human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law, and respect for human rights.

The ultimate goal here is digital autonomy. It means reducing reliance on systems vulnerable to growing geopolitical and economic risks. If you make your own devices and host your data locally, you’re not at the mercy of multinational corporations whose interests may not align with your own.

Several prominent EU institutions have already ditched the Microsoft Office suite for official communication. Instead, they use European software such as Office EU or free open-source alternatives.

The EU is also making progress on Gaia-X, a local alternative to global cloud providers.

But these efforts come with major challenges. Large tech companies such as Alphabet (Google), Microsoft and Amazon are not watching idly. By promising local governments and organisations greater control, they’re tapping into the digital sovereignty discussion.

Researchers call this “sovereignty-as-a-service”. Through it, big tech is shaping digital sovereignty on terms that are favourable to them.

Alternatives already exist

Europe’s digital sovereignty strategy is a long-term, multi-country initiative that involves major financial, industrial and policy changes. Outside of the EU, countries including India, Brazil, Nigeria and South Africa are also pursuing digital sovereignty plans.

But for everyday users, much of it comes down to turning to viable alternatives to dominant tech platforms. Many already exist.

Decentralised social media ecosystems allow independently operated communities to communicate across shared protocols without being controlled by a single corporation. One such example is the Fediverse, which includes platforms like micro-blogging site Mastodon and video sharing site PeerTube.

Similarly, the AT protocol, which powers micro-blogging sites Bluesky and Eurosky, aims to separate social networking from platform ownership. It enables users to move identities, content and communities between services more freely.

Open-source office suites such as LibreOffice have provided alternatives to Microsoft Office for more than two decades.

It’s also increasingly possible to run AI systems locally on personal devices or private networks. This reduces reliance on cloud-based AI services controlled by big tech.

In other words, many of the technical foundations for greater digital autonomy already exist. The challenge lies with adoption and coordination. When Twitter was bought by Elon Musk, many users fragmented to other sites – from Mastodon and Threads to Bluesky and others. If your friends are all on different social media sites, which do you choose?

What can Australia learn from this?

Australia is in a similar position to the EU. We’re heavily reliant on foreign-owned digital infrastructure. We’re also increasingly exposed to the geopolitical tensions surrounding it.

Australia could take a leaf out of the EU’s book and develop its own roadmap for digital sovereignty. This would have to operate at both the policy and public levels.

Australia’s digital policy shouldn’t be dictated by large platforms or external geopolitical actors. There’s also a pressing need to promote local innovation for the future, such as investing in quantum computing.

Publicly funded organisations have already demonstrated Australia can invent globally significant technology. After all, Australia’s national science agency, the CSIRO, patented the technology that led to wifi. Universities and publicly funded institutions should be at the core of future tech innovation as well.

Most importantly, Australia is home to First Nations communities. Their governance systems have long operated through decentralised, relational, and autonomous forms of organisation.

Groups such as Maiam nayri Wingara and the HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons have already developed internationally significant frameworks for Indigenous data sovereignty. These cover data governance, stewardship, collective benefit, and the rights of communities to control data about their peoples, lands and cultures.

We can learn from these. Respecting Indigenous sovereignty may also open a pathway for all Australians to rethink what our shared digital futures can look like.

– By Ashwin Nagappa, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, Queensland University of Technology, and Daniel Angus, Professor of Digital Communication, Director of QUT Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology

This article first appeared in The Conversation. Read the original article here.

Australian University Science, Collection 15, Highlight, News, Opinion

Sounding the alarm on Australia’s future workforce

May 14, 2026 SMB Contributor Leave a comment

– By Anna-Maria Arabia OAM

The Australian Academy of Science has sounded an alarm that policymakers can no longer afford to ignore. Its landmark Australian Science, Australia’s Future: Science 2035 report identifies 8 critical science domains where gaps in workforce, infrastructure and coordination will cripple our ability to meet future challenges: agricultural science, AI, biotechnology, climate science, data science, epidemiology, geoscience, and materials science.

The diagnosis is sobering. The prescription demands urgent attention from those who shape higher education policy.

A vision of science in 2035

Read the report, *Australian science, Australia’s future: Science 2035*. Image: Australian Academy of Science.

Why does the Science 2035 report matter? Because capability gaps are not just a skills problem, they are a sovereignty problem.

Since 1990, 90% of global technological advancement has been rooted in fundamental science, yet Australia has spent decades allowing its STEM workforce to be determined haphazardly.

We are now at risk of compromising our ability to adequately respond to climate disruption, the critical minerals transition, or the AI revolution.

A nation that cannot generate its own scientific knowledge or secure diverse international research collaborators, becomes dependent on others to solve its problems, a dependency fraught with risk in a volatile world.

Future workforce needs

The report unambiguously shows that a critical misalignment persists: the current pipeline and study choices of students are not aligned with the needs of our future workforce. And declining STEM participation, shortages of in-field teachers, and unfocused international STEM mobility threaten national capability.

Fixing this requires active intervention: curriculum signalling; targeted incentives for students entering priority disciplines; alignment of workforce and immigration policy objectives; and partnerships between universities and industry to make career pathways visible and attractive well before students reach Year 12.

Universities are Australian assets

This is precisely where Australian universities must be understood as unique and strategic national assets, not credential factories. Universities can do something that no technical training program can replicate: they deliver research-led education.

When a student is taught by a practicing researcher working at the frontier of geoscience or epidemiology, they do not merely learn what is known, they learn how knowledge is created and challenged. That depth is exactly what the public and private sectors need when it confronts problems that have no established answers.

Industries that employ PhD graduates derive significant adaptive capacity from these employees through improved innovation, advanced problem-solving, and the ability to navigate complex, data-driven environments. And we know innovative industries are profitable and productive ones too.

The future with AI

A purely technical training response to the Science 2035 findings would be a mistake. Training people to operate today’s tools prepares them for yesterday’s challenges.

The AI landscape of 2035 will not be navigated by graduates taught only to use current software, it will be shaped by graduates who understand the underlying mathematics and can innovate when those tools evolve or become obsolete. Research-led science education builds that adaptability.

Follow the roadmap

The Science 2035 report gives policymakers something rare: a map of what needs to be done, backed by evidence. The response must match that ambition.

Sustained investment in university research and research-led teaching is not a cost, it is the essential infrastructure on which Australia’s future standard of living depends.

Anna-Maria Arabia OAM
Visiting Fellow, Australian National University
Former Chief Executive of the Australian Academy of Science (Oct 2016 to April 2026)

Image: Australian Academy of Science

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Agriculture, ANSTO Innovation Series, Highlight, Innovation

Webinar: Using science to verify the origin of food

October 29, 2025 Karen Taylor-Brown Leave a comment

Join experts from ANSTO and industry to explore how nuclear science is securing our food future.

Food is vital for our health and wellbeing, but food fraud is a growing global issue. From false labelling to product substitution, fraud costs the global food industry an estimated $40–50 billion USD each year. Even worse, unsafe or contaminated food makes 1.6 million people sick every day.

Today, consumers and regulators expect clear proof of origin. However, traditional methods such as paper-based documentation, genetic testing and chemical profiling can be incomplete, leaving exporters, retailers and consumers exposed to risk.

Join leading experts from ANSTO, government and industry as they unpack the science and technology tackling food fraud and explore how innovation is helping ensure safety, traceability and trust in the global food system.

Register now for this important discussion.

📅 Date: Wednesday 10 December
⏰ Time: 12 noon AEDT
📍 Online | Free Registration

Be part of the practical science movement protecting Australia’s future — register now.

Featured speakers

Dr Debashish Mazumder, Leader of Food Provenance Research, ANSTO

Under Dr Mazumder’s leadership, ANSTO has developed traceability technologies, including field-deployable handheld XRF scanning techniques, to verify the origin of food products. These cutting-edge tools, rigorously validated on seafood and native bushfoods, address critical traceability and biosecurity challenges in trade. These tools help industry safeguard the integrity of their supply chains. Dr Mazumder collaborates with government agencies, industry partners and academic institutions across Australia and the Asia-Pacific region, focusing on food origin and related environmental research.

Erik Poole, Head of Product and Quality, Sydney Fish Market

Erik took up a role in quality assurance with Sydney Fish Market in 2005. Prior to this, he worked as a qualified skipper, operating fishing vessels in Papua New Guinea and the Northern Territory, and completed a fisheries science degree at AMC in Tasmania.

Erik is now responsible for overseeing SFM’s QA, food safety, and engagement with stakeholders in the seafood industry, particularly related to quality standards, grading, and technical projects.

Dr Stephen Pahl, Seafood Safety and Market Access Program Leader – Food Sciences, South Australian Research and Development Institute – SARDI

Dr Stephen Pahl is a chemical engineer with research, product development and process improvement expertise within the food, bioproducts and nutraceutical sectors. He obtained his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Adelaide before joining SARDI in 2012.

His core research activities are directed towards food safety and product innovation within the Australian seafood and food manufacturing industries. Dr Pahl also provides technical support to SafeFish on seafood post harvest operations and advice to support Australia’s seafood trade and market access negotiations and helps to resolve barriers to trade.

Dr Patricia Gadd, Science Research Leader and Instrument Scientist, ANSTO

Currently, Patricia Gadd leads the Water Resource Sustainability Program within the Environment Research and Technology Group, whilst running the Itrax Core Scanner Laboratory at ANSTO. She is a much sought after expert in X-ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy (XRF). Patricia developed a world-first non-destructive technique to evaluate tissue. Her use of this technique on seafood profiles led to a new and growing research field at ANSTO, seafood provenance.

Register here!

Environment, Highlight, Industry

ANSTO Science Series Webinar: Nuclear science reducing PFAS packing risks in Australia

August 19, 2025 Karen Taylor-Brown Leave a comment

Science and industry unite to advance PFAS-free packaging

PFAS chemicals in packaging pose serious environmental and health risks, but Australia’s packaging industry is leading the way to phase them out. Backed by cutting-edge nuclear science, industry-led action is creating safer packaging solutions for all Australians.

VIEW THE RECORDED WEBINAR HERE

Join ANSTO, Detmold Group, and The Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO) to explore the science, policy and practical actions behind Australia’s transition to PFAS-free packaging. This session will answer key questions, including:

What is PFAS and why is it used in packaging?
What are the current and future regulatory requirements?
How is PFAS currently tested and what role does ANSTO’s advanced nuclear accelerator technology play in screening for fluorine?
What does the PFAS reduction journey look like from an industry perspective?

This 60-minute panel discussion, hosted by well-known science broadcaster Lee Constable, will explore both the challenge of PFAS chemicals and the science-led, industry-driven solutions paving the way for safer, sustainable packaging.

Featuring:

Megan Schutte, Strategic Product Development Manager, Detmold Group – innovators committed to PFAS-free packaging products
Jonathan Dolan, Senior Government Partnerships Coordinator, The Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO) – leading the national roadmap to phase out PFAS in packaging
Dr Madhura Manohar, Accelerator Scientist, Centre for Accelerator Science, ANSTO – harnessing nuclear science for real-world environmental solutions

📅 Date: Wednesday 24 September

⏰ Time: 12 noon AEST

Be part of the practical science movement protecting Australia’s future.

This webinar is proudly brought to you by ANSTO

About the speakers

Megan Schutte, Strategic Product Development Manager, Detmold Group

Megan Schutte is a Strategic Product Development Manager at Detmold Group. Her career began over 14 years ago in FMCG research and development at Unilever, where she progressed through roles in product development, technical innovation leadership, and strategic project delivery. Since immigrating to Australia, Megan has expanded her expertise into the packaging industry, leading new product development, R&D and commercialisation from concept to full-scale manufacturing. Throughout her career, Megan has been passionate about creating products that balance performance, manufacturability and sustainability. She’s also been actively involved in industry conversations around regulatory change. Megan is excited to share industry insights on the journey to removing PFAS from packaging.

Jonathan Dolan, Senior Government Partnerships Coordinator, Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO)

Jonathan is APCO’s Senior Government Partnerships Coordinator. After completing a Bachelor’s degree in Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney, he went on to earn a Master’s in Sustainable Development at Macquarie University. Since joining APCO, Jonathan has been involved in developing APCO’s 2030 Strategic Plan and works closely with government and industry stakeholders. He also supports brand owners to navigate packaging regulation, particularly for single-use plastics and PFAS in packaging.

Dr Madhura Manohar – Accelerator Scientist, Centre for Accelerator Science, ANSTO

Dr Madhura Manohar is an Accelerator Scientist at ANSTO’s Centre for Accelerator Science. Madhura uses accelerator-based techniques to contribute to key areas of research such as screening for PFAS, air pollution research, food provenance, materials research and many more. Madhura has a passion for science that addresses real world challenges for human health and the environment. Her work has meaningful impacts for the research community, industries such as the mining industry, food industry, packaging industry, government regulatory bodies, international agencies such as the UN’s international atomic energy agency and many more.

Agriculture, Environment, Highlight, Innovation

Seaweed business roadmap – a new billion dollar industry?

June 13, 2023 Heather Catchpole Leave a comment

Small business, academia, industry and policy leaders converged on the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) to discuss a roapmap moving forward for Australia’s burgeoning algae industry.

The bioeconomy – materials created from organisms rather than traditional manufacturing or fossil-fuel-based products – is a huge new growth industry for Australia, the Algae Business Summit heard.

“Up to 60% of our manufacturing can come from organisms – the bioeconomy,” said Peter Ralph, the director of the Climate Change Cluster at UTS, a centre focussed on new insights into problems facing marine ecosystems by working at the intersection of the physical and life sciences.

“The bioeconomy can remove and wean us off the carbon economy,” he said.

“This will be a game changer. It’s a trillion dollar economy globally and employs around 17.5 million people.”

Industries present at the summit included Pacific Bio, an Australian biotech company whose signature product, RegenAqua, cleans wastewater using seaweed filled water tanks that can be placed near wastewater from councils or aquaculture farms. During this cleaning process, it also creates as a subsidiary product PlantJuice, a fertiliser for farmers.

Also present at the summit was Sampano, supply chain specialist who source local ingredients for global nutraceuticals, and whose biggest success story was developing the science and strategy to replace krill oil in Swisse pharmeceuticals with a vegan seaweed alternative.

Colin McGregor, CEO of BioGenesis, which develops nutraceutical, stock feed and fertiliser products from seaweed, says the potential for algae is vast in a green climate ecology, but it needs policy and regulatory input, something the summit aims in developing within a new roadmap for the industry going forward.

“Algae is the fastest growing plant on the planet. It doubles in mass everyday – compare that to corn, which doubles its mass every 60 days,” says McGregor.

“We know that algae has to be part of the solution to feed the planet. Half of all of the world’s photosynthesis is already provided by algae. Climate change and food are the two big opportunities for the future.”

Catriona McCloud, Interim Executive Director, Institute for Antarctic and Marine Studies, said you can replace whole carbon based industries.

“The opportunity is huge,” she said.

Take Asparagopsis, for example, a genus of edible red macroalgae that massively reduces methane emissions from cows.

“We have to come together to share knowledge, understanding and the pathway moving forward. We need to be clear about our purpose and what it means. We need to get people on the journey and be clear about what the benefits are.”

By Heather Catchpole

Highlight, Industry, Innovation

Advanced materials supporting green technologies

October 18, 2022 Heather Catchpole Leave a comment

Wednesday 9 November 2022 12 noon AEDT

As we see demand for renewable energy and clean technologies at an all-time high, Australia’s manufacturing sector is transforming by embracing green technologies.

Australia’s manufacturing capabilities will play a key role in maintaining a high value, sustainable and prosperous economy for the future.

Through ANSTO, Australia already supplies more than 50% of the global demand for irradiated silicon, used in manufacturing high-tech products for high-speed trains, EVs, wind turbines and more.

A thriving advanced manufacturing sector will see Australia meet its sustainability targets and lead the world. Discover what the future holds in advancing Australia’s manufacturing capabilities in green technologies and how to work with the organisations and businesses at the cutting edge of this sector.

Register here

Wednesday 9 November 2022 12 noon AEST

This webinar is FREE to attend and registration is essential. Secure your spot by clicking the button above.

The Panel

Dr Alex Han, Silicon Irradiations Engineer, ANSTO

Dr. Alex Han is an Silicon Irradiations Engineer at ANSTO. Before joining ANSTO Silicon Alex had about 10 years of experience in advanced silicon solar cell research & manufacturing at the School of Photovoltaics and Renewable Energy, UNSW. His current work at ANSTO focuses on production planning, process optimisation and advanced calibration for silicon irradiations services.

Dr Jitendra Mata, Instrument Scientist, ANSTO

Dr Jitendra Mata is a senior instrument scientist for the Kookaburra an Ultra Small Angle Neutron
Scattering (USANS) instrument (since March 2017) and an instrument associate for the Quokka a
Small Angle Neutron Scattering (SANS) instrument (since July 2018) at Australian Centre for Neutron
Scattering (ACNS), Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Oranisation (ANSTO), Australia. Dr
Mata has been at ANSTO for > 13 years; working as an instrument scientist for the Quokka for 4
years, a research leader at ANSTO Minerals for 3 years, and as a postdoctoral research fellow at the
ACNS for 2 years. He also worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at The Australian National
University with Prof. John White for 3 years.

Dr Mata’s research concerns complex soft materials and has had industrial relevance since his PhD.
He has investigated several areas of soft condensed matter science, such as surfactant and block
copolymer solutions, emulsions, food proteins, hydrogels, and minerals. Dr Mata has co-authored
more than 100 peer reviewed articles including 2 book chapters: all in high impact international
journals. He has also published several scientific reports.

Emma Jenkin, Investment Director, Kilara Capital

Emma has over 20 years’ experience in finance across portfolio management, fixed income and impact investing. She is considered a climate pioneer and has led a number of domestic and global innovations across the clean energy transition, ESG investing, carbon finance and emissions trading. Initially working in investment banking, she also has entrepreneurial experience working directly in and with start-ups and early-stage ventures and has successfully established partnerships to accelerate innovation and product development. Emma completed a Bachelor of Science majoring in Mathematics and a Bachelor of Commerce and is a passionate STEM advocate.

Dr Nadia Court, inaugural director of the Semiconductor Sector Service Bureau (S3B).

Dr Nadia Court is the inaugural Director of the Semiconductor Sector Service Bureau (S3B). Until recently, Nadia was the Technical Director of the Research and Prototype Foundry, the University of Sydney’s micro- and nano-fabrication facility and the Sydney Hub of the NSW Node of the Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF). Nadia has worked in various roles with ANFF since 2012, both at UNSW and the University of Sydney. Prior to this Nadia spent several years working in the UK on printed electronics and optical communication technologies for the defence industry.

The ANSTO Innovation Series

The ANSTO Innovation Series is a virtual and hybrid meet-up that focuses on the key capacities of ANSTO’s people, partners and facilities and how they are meeting global challenges in sustainable industries, medicine, advanced manufacturing and in accelerating small business.

Delivered as a quarterly webinar, the ANSTO Innovation Series features an expert panel exploring the latest science, industry and start-up opportunities, including innovations in food, energy storage, nuclear medicine and health, engineering new materials and accelerating deep tech business.

The ANSTO Innovation Series is produced in partnership with STEM-specialist publishers, Refraction Media, publishers of Science Meets Business, and hosted by leading science journalist, Lee Constable.

Register here

About ANSTO

The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) is the home of Australia’s most significant national infrastructure for research. Thousands of scientists from industry and academia benefit from gaining access to state-of-the-art instruments every year.

ANSTO researchers work on global science and technology challenges, and operate landmark research infrastructure including one of the world’s most modern nuclear research reactors, OPAL; as well as a comprehensive suite of neutron beam instruments at the Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering; the Australian Synchrotron; the National Imaging Facility Research Cyclotron; and the Centre for Accelerator Science. ANSTO also hosts the nandin innovation centre, one of Australia’s few deep technology hubs facilitating industry engagement and research translation.

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Early Career Researchers, Industry, Innovation, News, Profiles

Science entrepreneur to speak at deep tech acceleration event

May 9, 2022 Heather Catchpole Leave a comment

The push towards deep tech commercialisation is in the news following the announcement of the $2 billion Research Commercialisation Action Plan from the Federal Government pre-May 2022 budget and election push.

But for an Australia’s science entrepreneur, the business of science and innovation can start at the very beginning of a career – at least that’s the case for ShanShan Wang, an industrial designer who took her university project into a stellar science and innovation career.

ShanShan Wang is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Roam Technologies, an Australian medical device company focused on portable oxygen, and making oxygen accessible and measurable to everyone.

She has since has won over five international design and innovation awards with her the most recent win of COVID19 NASA International Space Apps Challenge. She has also been named as one of Australia’s youngest innovators and the next generation of disruptive business leaders including Business Insider, AMP Amplify, Sydney Morning Herald and Australia’s Women’s Weekly– AWW Women of the Future.

Catch ShanShan in conversation at ANSTO’s Accelerating Deep Tech Businesses, the fourth installment in the ANSTO x Science Meets Business Innovation Series. Register here.

From study to business

So many innovations start with a problem. For then UNSW industrial design student Wang, that problem was “what on earth am I going to write my thesis on?”

The answer came in surprising form – she spotted a mother and young child, tugging around a large cylinder, which she later learned was for the supply of pure oxygen. After some research, she realised there hadn’t been much improvement to this method of delivery for a long time, despite many people needing to use oxygen tanks daily.

“I saw a problem, and I wanted to solve it,” she says.

Wang launched Roam Technologies – and a plan to convert air to oxygen on demand, in a small, easy-to-transport device – in 2014, the year after she graduated from university. Backed by clinical expertise in the field, engineering competancy, regulatory and quality supoort, their product, nicknamed Juno, is a small portable device that can produce oxygen out of ambient air and can regulate oxygen to user activity levels.

Juno leverages gas separation techniques with artificial intelligence to improve health.

“It’s impactful health,” says Wang. “As COVID-19 has exacerbated a lot of problems that we’re trying to solve, it’s more important than ever.”

The technology has since been featured in Popular Science, BBC News, Fox News, Business Insider, Huffington Post and more.

She and her team are accelerating development of the device for regulation approval, before it is released to the wider market.

Accelerating Deep Tech Businesses is the fourth instalment in the ANSTO x Science Meets Business Innovation Series. Bringing together science leaders, deep tech entrepreneurs, academic partners and national organisations, this in-person and online event will be an opportunity to hear from, and connect with, those who embrace challenge-based innovation and collaboration.

Collaborate Innovate, Innovation

Free science the key to research translation, says Chief Scientist

October 22, 2021 Heather Catchpole Leave a comment

Speaking at the national conference of the Cooperative Research Centres Association, recently renamed Cooperative Research Australia, Chief Scientist Cathy Foley called for open access to science and a push for the end to paid access to peer reviewed journals.

“Researchers must come out from behind paywalls of scientific papers.

“Open access of research from all publishers and open access to all journals would allow everyone in Australia to access academic information: industry, government and researchers could access all Australian research,” she said.

Dr Foley said while $12B had been poured into public research, people were paying $400-$600M to access the research through journals.

“We need an ongoing model with ongoing funding to support this, and I have been in discussion working towards this,” she added, saying she has already put forward a proposal to the National Science and Technology Council, who were “very positive and are supporting it”.

“We need to rethink the whole way we communicate research. Peer review is critical to build trust. Open access is important because everyone needs to access the information and understand it. Many journals require scientists to have 9-10 points that summarise the point of the paper,” for example, she said.

“We need to connect science to engineering, to social access, to government regulation, and marketing – all of these components need to come together for successful science translation. Open access is part of that toolbox.”

R&D needs innovation districts and set priorities

Dr Foley also highlighted the need to set priorities in science R&D and spoke of the revolutionising impact of quantum technologies and AI.

“The next revolution is coming and Australia is globally competitive in this. Quantum technologies will create a new, high-tech industry for Australia that will be worth billions of dollars.”

SA Chief Scientist Caroline McMillen also spoke on the value of international collaboration in science and technology and the need for innovation districts to promote collaboration in research.

“We need to set priorities including: investment in R&D as a proportion of GDP, convergence of fields – as in AI plus health, and quantum technologies plus space. We also need to create and foster innovation districts and create places of convergence to hear about and curate these emerging technologies. These must include industry PhDs,” she said.

Science much more than lab work

Foley said there was a need to broaden the concept of science beyond academic pathways.

“We need to broaden the idea of what the STEM pathway looks like. Research is a small subsection of the workforce and yet is the main concept people have of a STEM career.

“Diversity and gender, digital technologies and a quantitative approach is essential – we need more statisticians and mathematicians and we need to broaden our idea of what a career in STEM looks like. A research pathway is important but it is only a small part of what is possible.

“The career opportunities in STEM beyond the university sector are huge and we need to open up those doorways.”

Highlight, Innovation, News

Inexpensive materials for high-performance batteries of the future

June 22, 2020 Karen Taylor-Brown Leave a comment

A new study has shown for the first time how inexpensive materials can be used in high-performance batteries of the future.

The study, published last week in ACS Energy Letters, is a collaboration between Monash University, the India Institute of Technology Bombay-Monash Research Academy, and Deakin University.

Scientists and engineers have been focused on finding a more sustainable way of using lithium batteries which rely on scarce resources and is challenging to produce on a large scale at affordable prices.

But now scientists have shown that using a ‘carbon cloth collector’ can improve the sulfur utilisation of batteries, which would make them more efficient.

“Batteries of the future are necessary because in various significant market areas they form a vital part of the transition away from fossil fuels,” said study author Professor Douglas MacFarlane, from the Monash University School of Chemistry.

“Integration of renewables into the grid is hampered by the variability of the supply, and battery storage either in the home or at the wind/solar farm is seen as a necessary, but currently very expensive, component of the system” he said.

The research was conducted through a highly innovative PhD program in the IITB-Monash Research Academy – a partnership between the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB), India and Monash University.

Deakin University, with expertise in the prototyping and scale up of the batteries, also played a key role in the study. The research is part of a longer term collaboration between Monash, Deakin and the ITTB funded through an Australia India Strategic Research Fund (AISRF) project aimed at developing affordable high-performance batteries.

“The most immediate application of these batteries in India could be in local transportation applications, for example in the Auto-Rickshaws that are extensively used in Asia as well as smaller electric vehicles (EVs),” said study author, Professor Maria Forsyth, from Deakin University.

“In Australia we could see such batteries powering EVs, and they could also be used for home battery storage,” she said.

The study describes outstanding performance for a high-energy density room-temperature sodium-sulfur (RT Na-S) battery, with the discovery that a simple chemical activation of a carbon cloth current collector (which researchers fill with a sulfur-based liquid electrolyte ) could allow a Na-S battery to operate at near its theoretical voltage and deliver an energy density of just under 1kWh/kg of Sulfur.

The appeal of the Na-S battery is that the raw materials, sodium salts and sulfur are very commonplace and inexpensive.

The battery operates at room temperature and can be charged and discharged at reasonable rates, for example 1/2 an hour charging and discharging.

The carbon cloth is the key to the development. By activating it in a simple process it becomes a catalytic agent in the discharge process of the sulfur electrode, leading to a higher overall voltage and extended cycle life.

Careers, Collaborate Innovate, Highlight, Opinion, Opportunities

Towards diverse boards: Pathways to directorship

May 15, 2020 Karen Taylor-Brown Leave a comment

The most common undergraduate degree for ASX 50 CEOs is science. However, when it comes to the boardroom, Australia lacks technical literacy, according to a recent member survey by the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Although three-quarters of members said their organisation had an innovation vision, more than half said innovation rarely, if ever, featured on their board’s agenda. Also, worryingly, only around one-third of members felt their board possessed the right skills and expertise to properly consider modern technology, and only 3 per cent of directors had personal expertise in science and technology.

While having scientists on boards is certainly a step in the right direction, technical expertise is not the only form of diversity a board would benefit from. Australia also has a problem when it comes to gender diversity on boards, with less than one-third of people on ASX 200 boards being women.

The CRC Association commissioned Women on Boards to conduct a survey on CRC board diversity. Among other things, it showed women’s representation had only slightly improved throughout the decade.

The session at Collaborate Innovate 2019, where the results were presented, prompted a question from a talented CRC program manager, to the effect of, “How does a young researcher ever get onto a board?”

I found the answer from the stage — which was essentially to go and do a $10,000 course — unsatisfying. So did the individual who asked the question, noting that their employer was unlikely to send anyone who was not already a senior manager on a course at that level.

This year, the CRC Association has responded with its new board diversity initiative, ‘Towards Diverse Boards: Pathways to Directorship’. We have partnered with the Governance Institute of Australia to offer 20 people from groups currently under-represented on boards to undertake the Institute’s Certificate in Governance Practice or Certificate in Governance for Not-for-Profits. The Certificates will be completed online and are heavily subsidised to reduce the barrier to entry.

But we know access to formal education is not enough to facilitate change. While the participants are studying, we’ve organised some incredible coaches on various aspects of best practice: the Minister for Industry, Science and Technology, The Hon Karen Andrews MP; head of the Australian Space Agency, Dr Megan Clark; former president of the World Federation of Engineering Organisations, Dr Marlene Kanga; CEO of the Governance Institute of Australia, Megan Motto; former chief scientist of South Australia, Dr Leanna Read; and the chair of the CRC Association, Belinda Robinson.

We’re also partnering with Dr Ruby Campbell, managing partner and founder of ProVeritas Group and author of Scientists in Every Boardroom: Harnessing the Power of STEMM Leaders in an Irrational World.

In order to spread the message further, every Towards Diverse Boards participant will receive a complimentary copy of Scientists in Every Boardroom, as will every Collaborate Innovate 2021 conference attendee. I hope they will find it useful and that it serves to remind them of their role in encouraging more scientists and other kinds of diversity on boards. After all, research shows us that diversity pays off.

Tony Peacock is the CEO of the Cooperative Research Centres Association.

Innovation, News, Technology

Towards smarter transport

May 15, 2020 Karen Taylor-Brown Leave a comment

Transport affects every one of us every day, even if we stay at home. Better (more convenient, faster/more efficient, more reliable, more comfortable…) transport systems improve lives, communities and industries, but there are many challenges to overcome to make it happen.

On one hand we have disruption and constant evolution in passenger transport. With the stream of new entrants into this space comes a raft of questions for traditional transport service providers, particularly state and local governments.

On the other hand we have the fragmented, low-margin world of freight, which desperately needs to collaborate to improve, but is subject to significant commercial sensitivities that impede willingness to go down that path.

Ten years is a necessary amount of time to conduct significant R&D, but also a challenging timeframe in a fast-changing transport environment.

We are pleased to be delivering some things years before we anticipated — in particular, the momentum that has built around Mobility as a Service (MaaS) — but we can also reference the growth in number and capability of journey-planning apps for mobile phones. Our research into MaaS has already expanded from an initial investigation into consumer attitudes, to a real-world trial happening in Sydney delivering valuable insights.

It is research that pushes us closer to fully integrated transport services in our increasingly crowded cities, enabling people to reduce their dependence on single-occupant vehicles.

Some research areas remain worthy of ongoing investigation and trial, but are proving to be further off than previously anticipated, such as automated vehicles. They were once a frenzy of media commentary and speculation, yet the complexities of getting a computer to mimic a human driver and the challenge of winning community acceptance of this technology are now much clearer.

Queensland is particularly active in Australia’s research into the benefits and challenges of vehicle connectivity and the safety and efficacy of highly automated vehicles.

There is also some movement in collaboration to improve freight, albeit of a much less disruptive nature. Last year, we completed the well-received Freight Data Requirements Study on behalf of the Federal Department of Infrastructure to assist them with their development of the National Freight and Supply Chain Strategy. The department is now drawing on that study to inform their development of the National Freight Data Hub. We believe supply chains will greatly benefit from improved visibility, and this is supported by a suite of projects — currently information — that will devise practical and realistic ways to achieve this.

Another way our partners are looking to deliver better transport is by being more holistic. Integration of our transport and land planning is not a new concept, but it is one that deserves renewed attention for its potential to achieve simultaneously favourable social, environmental and economic outcomes.

There is already much diversity in the 39 projects in the iMOVE portfolio, and every day brings new opportunities.

Trends are emerging in what we have learnt and how we can build on this for future activities.

Transport needs to continue widening its collaborations and embrace national coordination to ensure the benefits are shared as we all progress towards a better transport future — whether we choose to leave the house or not!

imoveaustralia.com

Australian University Science, Environment, Opinion

Australian University Science Issue 2: Water Futures

March 12, 2020 Heather Catchpole Leave a comment

As an increasingly dry continent, Australia faces immense water challenges. Australian universities play a critical role in undertaking research and development to assist in the identification of water management problems, the achievement of water security, and the creation of innovative solutions.

Universities engage at each stage of the innovation cycle to help water managers deliver water security to communities, industries, agriculture and the environment.

The stories within this issue highlight university science contribution to enterprise, education and agriculture in Australia.

In the Foreword to the latest edition of Australian University Science, Professor Rob Vertessy, Enterprise Professor (Water Resources), University of Melbourne looks at the big picture issues in water management.

End-to-end solutions

From catalysing new science to ‘pull’ water out of the air using smart, fundamental chemistry to testing research and development (R&D) directly with end users, universities engage at each stage of the innovation cycle to deliver water security to communities, industries, agriculture and the environment.

Australia’s comparative success in addressing our water challenges has much to do with the fact we have had a strong water research and teaching community that functions as an early warning system for emerging problems, and as a training ground for the advanced technical capability that is entrained in the water sector. This knowledge transfer is needed today more than ever before to contribute expertise to the ‘wicked’ problem of equitable sharing of water as a highly contested resource. Achieving water security is one of the great global challenges of our times.

Through ideas and people working within and with Australian university science, we create world-leading expertise in water management problem identification and remediation. We still have many serious water security issues to surmount, as evidenced by the recent crisis in the Murray-Darling Basin. Advances will require a national architecture for identifying and funding research priorities. It will also require the ingenuity, tools and people that can bring together research knowledge with fast, effective delivery of solutions.

Consulting with the university science community, the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (ATSE) and the Australian Academy of Science (AAS) are working to prepare a strategic vision for Australian water research in 2020. That vision will require collaboration between university science, national agencies, industry, researchers, education and end users. Australian universities have a vital role to play in shaping this strategy and promoting it to government.

University science has the facilities, space and expertise to test R&D in the environment in which it will be used, and the remit to train people to address these challenges. Our resilience to a changing climate and water system will rely on this inbuilt capacity and ingenuity.

Professor Rob Vertessy

Enterprise Professor (Water Resources), University of Melbourne

This article appears in Australian University Science issue 2.

Australian University Science, Highlight, Innovation, News, Technology

Drops from thin air

March 9, 2020 Heather Catchpole Leave a comment

The University of Sydney Nano Institute team

University science is behind some of the most profound innovations and breakthroughs in water research, from the development of cutting-edge techniques to maximise irrigation, to the creation of innovative new materials that can literally capture water from the air.

At the University of Sydney, the Advanced Capture of Water from the Atmosphere (ACWA) project applies nanoscale materials science to mimic the remarkable adaptation of desert beetles in Namibia, a region where just 1.4cm of rain falls each year. The beetle collects water vapour from the atmosphere, turning it into liquid via the intricate shapes of tiny bumps on its exoskeleton.

Biomimicry — learning from, and mimicking, clever strategies found in nature to solve human design challenges — is an important component of the work of the University of Sydney Nano Institute, co-led by chemist Professor Chiara Neto and physicist Professor Martijn de Sterke. Innovations from the research include a nanotextured surface which can repel bacteria, algae and other marine life from ships’ hulls, inspired by a lotus leaf; a nanoscale slippery surface, inspired by the pitcher plant, that can be used for microfluidic channels in bioengineering; and a stain-resistant paint base.

The Institute has attracted top-level researchers from chemistry, physics, materials science and bioengineering from across the university.

“We began with the idea of capturing water from the atmosphere by optimising the surface chemistry of a material so it would enable the formation of droplets out of humid air,” says Neto.

“We are now developing new devices that capture water from the atmosphere through condensation, using no external source of energy, by designing surfaces that spontaneously cool when exposed to the air,” she says.

Related: Software saves rainwater

The team has made two key breakthroughs. First, they have perfected the surface science of nanoscale ‘bumps’ shaped in a way to harvest a very thin film of water vapour, similar to the Namibian desert beetle.

Their second breakthrough is the development of an entirely new surface that is naturally chilled and causes water to condense into droplets. Wherever the atmosphere is above 30% humidity, this surface will automatically collect water vapour from the air.

The ACWA project is well on the way towards its ambitious goal to create materials that capture sufficient water from the atmosphere to alleviate the effect of drought by providing water for humans, animals and plants.

Patents are underway for exciting applications for the technology, including watering devices to use within greenhouses; a portable self-filling water bottle for bushwalkers and emergency crews; and small water stations to sustain wildlife in remote areas

— Fran Molloy

This article appears in Australian University Science issue 2.

Australian University Science, Environment, Innovation, News

University Science Delivering Water Innovation

March 9, 2020 Heather Catchpole Leave a comment

Peter Mabbitt (left) and Kai Xun Chan (right) from the Australian National University Research School of Biology.

Unexpected outcomes

Scientists from the ANU Research School of Biology made a major breakthrough for world food security while investigating photosynthesis. They discovered that chloroplasts — which convert sunlight into sugars through photosynthesis — can also activate a chemical signal to close stomata on leaves to protect individual plants from losing vital water in drought. By boosting this chloroplast signal in barley plants, the team improved drought survival time by around 50%. The team is exploring ways to boost this chloroplast signal in different crops, through breeding, genetic or agronomic strategies.

Connecting with industry

More than five million hectares of agricultural land in Australia is hydrophobic, meaning the soil repels water. Global chemical company BASF co-funded research by scientists at Swinburne University, led by chemistry Professor David Mainwaring, with the CRC for Polymers, to develop solutions to help soil accept water. These new soil-wetting agents have increased crop yields. The multidisciplinary team has now patented two polymer surfactants and a soil diagnostic test.

Diverse Teamwork

Murdoch University’s Centre for Sustainable Aquatic Ecosystems is tackling clean-energy and fresh-water challenges with a cross-disciplinary approach. Researchers in aquatic biology and ecology, marine mammal ecology, fisheries, aquaculture, algal biotechnology, oceanography, human-use and habitat assessments, bioinformatics, economics and spatial sciences are all working together. One recent project tackled challenges around the release of aquaculture-bred fish into the wild environment.

Students help scientists from Murdoch University’s Centre for Sustainable Aquatic Ecosystems release bream into the river

Creating real value

Inspired by plant experiments on the International Space Station, University of Queensland researchers are advancing the technology of ordinary glasshouses with a revolutionary “speed breeding” technique that can cut plant breeding time in half. Dr Lee Hickey and his team developed a ‘desktop breeding cabinet’ that will allow researchers to develop wheat, barley, canola and other crops adapted to drought, changed local soil and climate conditions.

Dr Lee Hickey from the University of Queensland developed a way to allow crops to adapt to drought in new water innovation — Dr Lee Hickey from the University of Queensland

Innovation, Technology

Why can’t my Uber find me?

May 10, 2018 Heather Catchpole Leave a comment

It’s dizzying to contemplate: in the past decade, everything on our maps has moved by more than 1m, as Australia’s continental tectonic plate slides inexorably north at a rate of 7 cm a year.

“Geoscience Australia defines latitude and longitude for the country through the national Geocentric Datum, and last year we adjusted that by 1.5 m based on projections to 2020,” says Dr John Dawson, a geodetics expert who is the program manager of the CRC for Spatial Information (CRCSI) Positioning Program.

If you use the Uber ride-sharing app, you may have noticed its location accuracy is improving. Over the next few years, there will be a significant increase in this kind of precision.

Updating our latitude and longitude is just one stage of an overhaul of Australia’s mapping and positioning systems, which currently rely heavily on overseas-run spatial infrastructure.

“Precision in latitude and longitude is becoming very important as new positioning technologies with finer accuracy come online,” says Dawson. “For example, if I measure the location of a pipe using a device with 10 cm accuracy, then come back a year later to dig in that location, then relative to latitude and longitude, it would look like that pipe had moved.”

Currently, positioning in Australia has accuracy between 5m and 10m. Trials are now underway on satellite technology with the potential to upgrade that location accuracy to less than 10 cm.

“With applications such as self-driving cars, 5 m of accuracy can put your vehicle on the wrong side of the road,” explains Dawson.

Cross sector and cross-ditch collaboration

Satellite positioning technology has revolutionised our lives, influencing everything from air transport to agriculture, and real estate to retail.

All of these are set to change dramatically in coming years as improved precision makes so many more applications possible.

The CRCSI’s Positioning Program research stream is part of the next era in satellite positioning, trialling three new technologies that will all potentially contribute to a Satellite-Based Augmentation System (SBAS) for the Australasian region.

The trials involve cross-industry collaboration with more than 30 organisations. They are funded by a $12 million contribution from the Australian Government, plus another NZ$2 million from the New Zealand government, and aim to establish a nationwide, high-accuracy, real-time positioning infrastructure.

The CRCSI estimates that updating our national positioning infrastructure will add an estimated 1.1–2.1% to Australia’s GDP by 2030, through productivity gains in mining, construction and agriculture. Benefits will also be widespread across tourism, transport and emergency services.

“We’ve taken GPS for granted in Australia as something provided as a global public infrastructure by the US, and we’ve accrued value as positioning improves efficiency and drives new products and services,” says Dawson.

The new technologies being trialled will enable precise positioning for a fraction of the cost of currently available commercial services. Providing it as public infrastructure will also reap productivity benefits dwarfing the initial investment.

Three technologies under trial

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is the world’s best known satellite-based navigation system and comprises a ‘constellation’ of 24 communications craft orbiting Earth.

Designed in the 1970s for military applications and funded by the US government, GPS is now accessed by billions of devices worldwide.

In 2020, Europe’s Galileo system, supported by 30 satellites, will become fully operational, improving location accuracy for applications across the planet.

While most of Australia’s satellite positioning currently relies on GPS, users in the USA, Europe, China, Russia, India and Japan are already using the more precise first-generation SBAS technology on a daily basis.

Geoscience Australia has partnered with global technology companies GMV, Inmarsat and Lockheed Martin to trial satellite technologies, and CRCSI is managing a range of industry projects trialling sector-based applications.

Under trial are first-generation SBAS, switched on in June 2017; second-generation SBAS, which came online in September 2017; and Precise Point Positioning, turned on in October 2017. These technologies combine satellite signals with ground stations.

Australia was the first country to transmit second-generation SBAS signals, and the first to trial Precise Point Positioning corrections integrated into an SBAS service.

–Fran Molloy

Health, Innovation

Bridging innovation’s valley of death

May 10, 2018 Heather Catchpole Leave a comment

The ‘valley of death’ is the place where good ideas go to die in the world of science innovation. The term hints at the often insurmountable financial, logistical and regulatory chasm required to bring a potential new product or idea to market. Unfortunately, not many negotiate it successfully.

In the world of cancer medicine, there are multiple valleys of death, says to Dr Warwick Tong, CEO of the Cancer Therapeutics CRC (Ctx-CRC).

The original valley of death in science innovation encapsulated the idea that “you can have great basic science. But to have something in your hands to translate and take forward, that was a difficult place to get money,” Tong says.

In the biomedical arena, the move from basic science to translatable concept is now considered only one of three valleys of death. The second is having enough money to take a new therapy to clinical trials, which can run into millions; while the third is having enough money to file and maintain patents — also expensive. However, Tong believes the Cooperative Research Centre model addresses at least one of those challenges.

Translate and Take Forward

The Cancer Therapeutics CRC operates like a semi-virtual biotech company. Though its researchers are based at universities and institutions around the country, they work solely for the CRC —collaborating and communicating by means of an e-research platform, which enables real-time sharing of data. The platform also helps to ensure everything is documented and there’s no loss of data— both important factors in patent applications.

Tong also argues that CRC ownership of patents is particularly important in the commercialisation process, at least when it comes to science innovation. “Our model means it doesn’t matter where the inventors of our patents sit, the patent is assigned to us in the CRC, so we own it,” he says. “One of the things the pharmaceutical industry often struggles with is having to reach back into academic institutions for intellectual property, so they have to be sure we have the right contracts in place for what we own.”

Commercial Partner Pitfalls

While central control of intellectual property by the Commonwealth benefits commercialisation in the science innovation space — and was part of the base agreement in earlier CRCs — it has not been an ideal setup for all CRCs with commercial partners.

A product to come out of the recent Invasive Animals CRC was a new bait for controlling feral pigs, which has just begun field trials in the USA. Feral pigs are a growing scourge not only there, but also across Europe and Australia. The bait started life as ‘PIGOUT’, a 1080-toxin-laced product, before evolving into ‘HOG-GONE’, a highly specific bait for pigs containing a common food preservative — sodium nitrite. This chemical kills them quickly and humanely, but targets pigs specifically and poses almost no chance of collateral damage to other species.

At the time the Invasive Animals CRC was set up, the standard model for CRCs dictated intellectual property be retained by the CRC, regardless of who contributed to that IP.

Professor Linton Staples, managing director of Animal Control Technologies — one of the commercial partners in the Invasive Animal CRC — says that model was not ideal for participating companies because it didn’t adequately recognise partner inputs. To overcome an ‘uncommercial’ approach, his company ensured that the projects for which his company made a substantial cash or in-kind contribution were exclusively licensed back to the company to then commercialise.

“It had a capital value implication for us,” says Staples, who is also an adjunct professor of animal science at The University of Queensland.

Regulatory Rigor Mortis

Regulatory requirements have been another challenge to making this space commercialised. Registering a new animal toxin and products for use in animal control is an onerous task.

“The process to do the trials to the very high standards of the US Department of Agriculture has meant that everything has to be documented to the last decimal dot,” Staples says. “The data on product efficacy and safety has to be bulletproof for regulatory review.”

The path to commercialisation of HOG-GONE has been far from smooth — at one point the baits were bursting apart, as the toxin reacted with their ingredients. Staples says his company has had to foot a significant amount of the development bill.

“This particular project is now running into millions of dollars, just because of all these technical difficulties we had to solve.” But with support from an AusIndustry Accelerated Commercialisation grant, Staples is hopeful they will soon have their new product on the market.

Finding your Market

One of the biggest traps for aspiring science innovation is finding their niche. That’s an issue that the Data to Decisions CRC isn’t leaving up to chance: they’re going directly to the source, and working with potential clients — namely agencies in the areas of national security and law enforcement — to develop products tailored to their needs.

“Our approach is to build software prototypes that we roll out for the end users to trial,” says the CRC’s commercialisation manager Duane Rivett. “We then use trial feedback to determine which features are put on the product roadmap.” The CRC’s in-house development teams include experienced commercial software architects, software engineers and data scientists, who work closely with the end users on every aspect of a product’s development.

The Data to Decisions CRC has launched two spin-off companies, both wholly owned subsidiaries of the CRC, with boards featuring members of the CRC’s own directors.

“We’re currently looking at expanding the governance of our start-ups to include external advisors and directors, to bring in different viewpoints,” Rivett says.

While the model for CRCs has changed considerably since the program began back in 1991, Rivett believes this approach greatly helps to bridge the valley of death problem in science innovation.

“In our experience, we can build commercial-grade software in-house and leverage our research from our university streams to deliver cutting-edge solutions,” he says.

-Bianca Nogrady

Australian University Science, Industry, Innovation, News

Unearthing resource value

May 2, 2018 Heather Catchpole Leave a comment

Two headline technologies for the mining sector are optimising the mining process for individual deposits and unlocking additional value for mining operations, Brendan Fitzpatrick reports.

To stay profitable and environmentally sustainable, mining faces the challenge of extracting efficiency through technological and process innovation. Grade Engineering® and the Integrated Extraction Simulator (IES) are innovations developed by the CRC for Optimising Resource Extraction (CRC ORE) to assist mines improve the recovery of valuable ore.

A range of mining companies, plus mining equipment, technology and service suppliers, and research organisations collaborated on the development of these technologies with funding from the Federal Government. It comes at a critical time for the industry, which faces increasing pressure to become more profitable and environmentally sustainable.

Conventional extraction methods are becoming harder and more expensive to implement as ore quality drops, mines get deeper and water becomes scarcer.

In an ideal scenario, miners could target the mineral they are after. However, mineral-bearing ores are heterogeneous with different levels of concentration. The challenge is to find ways to extract and process the ores and reject waste early in the extraction process.

Bringing tech to the process

Grade Engineering is an integrated approach to extracting metal more efficiently and improving the overall recovery of valuable ores from individual deposits. “It goes beyond the industry mindset that simply increasing throughout will bring more profit for a mining operation,” says Dr Ben Adair, CEO of CRC ORE. “It factors in the ore quantity and quality.”

Rejecting waste as early as possible in the mining process can significantly decrease the operating costs of a mine. Grade Engineering utilises a range of techniques and strategies that sorts and separates mined materials throughout all stages of the mining process.

Adair says the power Grade Engineering offers is a targeted assessment tailored to specific ores, which determines what lever has the potential to best maximise mine performance. Benefits include decreased costs; improved investment rate of return; reduced energy and water use with fewer emissions; delivery of higher feed grades and lower capital expenditure for start-up or expansion.

The next generation of mining simulation

CRC ORE’s Integrated Extraction Simulator provides insight into the entire process, from the mine to the mill. It combines existing industry standard simulation models with new models from diverse research and development sources. “It is the next generation of fast, reliable and accurate simulation across the value chain,” says Adair.

crcore.org.au

Industry, Innovation, News, Technology

Testing Australia’s top aircraft

May 2, 2018 Heather Catchpole Leave a comment

Research at ANSTO into innovative technologies for the repair and maintenance of military aircraft will have implications on the service life of commercial and passenger aircraft, Brendan Fitzpatrick reports.

Over 4.3 million passengers will fly this year and every day about 104,000 flights bring people and goods to their destination. The global economy relies heavily on aviation with $17.5 billion of goods travelling by air every day representing 35% of global trade by value.

Fatigue and corrosion damage to aircraft structural components are a major threat to the safety and airworthiness of civil and military aircraft, particularly those pushed past their intended service life.

Dr Anna Paradowska, Senior Research Scientist and Industrial Liaison Manager at ANSTO, worked with a team led by DST Group’s Dr Wyman Zhuang to test different technologies used to repair damaged aircraft structural components.

“Structural integrity requirements for aircraft parts are of the highest level. The repaired components need to demonstrate that the restored component shall have a structural strength condition, equivalent or better than its original configuration,” says Zhuang.

Zhuang’s team applied advanced repair techniques to aluminium alloy 7075–T651 — a lightweight, high-strength metal used in the aeronautical industry since 1943.

DST Group used laser cladding to deposit aluminium-silicon powders onto damaged surfaces of 7075 plates. They then applied post-heat treatment to reduce detrimental residual stresses, making the alloy stronger.

Following these processes, the team applied Deep Surface Rolling (DSR) — a surface enhancement technique that can introduce beneficial compressive residual stresses and enhance fatigue performance of repaired components.

After the treatment, Paradowska and the team at ANSTO used a sophisticated neutron diffraction instrument, the strain scanner KOWARI, to compare measurements of 3-D residual stresses on samples treated with different repair methods.

“We used this instrument because it can provide sub-surface information about residual stresses non-destructively with high resolution measurements. Often this information can’t be obtained by other techniques.

Neutrons can penetrate deep into materials to acquire data about localised stresses in the deformed material,” says Paradowska.

“This powerful tool gives researchers a unique capability to study the same specimens going through various stages of manufacturing process.” The neutron diffraction measurements showed that DSR caused deeper and higher magnitude compressive residual stresses at the surface and into the substrate. These stresses increased both the yield and ultimate strength of the tested plates.

Fatigue tests confirmed that DSR increased the average fatigue life by over 500% compared to plates that were only laser-clad, while the post-heat treatment increased fatigue life by 40%.

While research is currently focussed on military applications, it will have ongoing implications to aircraft service life in the broader aviation industry.

ansto.gov.au

Health, Innovation, News

Waking up to a big problem

May 2, 2018 Heather Catchpole Leave a comment

Four in 10 Australians miss out on a good night’s sleep, with inadequate rest costing over $60 billion a year in lost productivity. But research from the Alertness CRC into diagnosis and treatment for sleep disorders promises big benefits to our society and economy, Bianca Nogrady reports.

A bad night’s sleep can ruin your day, but imagine if every night for a year you suffer from a condition that prevents you from getting a full and satisfying night’s rest.

Then imagine that condition affecting four out of 10 Australians and you begin to get a sense of the enormity of our national problem of inadequate sleep.

A recent Sleep Health Foundation report by Deloitte Access Economics estimates the total cost of inadequate sleep in Australia was $66.3 billion in 2016–2017, which is why the Cooperative Research Centre for Alertness, Safety and Productivity has the mission “to promote the prevention and control of sleep loss and sleep disorders”.

Theme leader Professor Doug McEvoy says the Alertness CRC is searching for new tools and approaches to diagnose sleep problems with improved, targeted treatments. “While we talk about sleep apnoea and insomnia, within those conditions there is an amazing variety of presentations and causes of them,” he says. “To get good solutions for patients, you have to understand those differences so you can refine and personalise treatments.”

The Alertness CRC focuses on two leading causes of daytime sleepiness: insomnia and sleep apnoea. Each sleep disorder affects 10% of the population.

Insomnia is defined as difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep, and it can last from a few weeks to several years. It can be triggered by a stressful event, or related to conditions such as anxiety, depression, chronic pain and heart failure.

Sleep apnoea is a breathing problem whereby people don’t get enough oxygen during sleep so their brain periodically kicks them awake so they can breathe properly again. It’s often related to obesity, but some people have unexplained problems regulating their breathing while asleep.

Part of the challenge with sleep disorders like insomnia and sleep apnoea is diagnosis, which requires complex tests performed by a specialist. Both conditions are also usually under-diagnosed.

One research focus of the Alertness CRC is developing simpler diagnostic tests that can be administered by a GP, nurse, psychologist or pharmacist.

“We start to involve community practitioners in the identification and management of the condition, and the specialists can then act as more of a tertiary referral system for difficult cases,” says McEvoy.

Another challenge for the Alertness CRC is finding effective treatments for sleep disorders. The current gold standard treatment for sleep apnoea is continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), which requires patients to wear a face mask during sleep. It’s effective, but awkward, and many people can’t or won’t use it.

Patients with insomnia invariably end up being prescribed sleeping medication, which carries the risk of side effects and ‘hangover symptoms’ the next day.

In collaboration with an industry partner and Australian researchers, the Alertness CRC is trialling new solutions to the significant problem of sleepiness.

“Sleep disorders are impacting the health and wellbeing of sufferers, and because they are so prevalent, they’re also impacting productivity and safety of the Australian community,” says McEvoy.

ALERTNESSCRC.COM

Environment, Innovation, News, Uncategorized

Coral bleaching prevented through reef sun shield

March 29, 2018 Heather Catchpole Leave a comment

A ‘sun shield’ made from an ultra-thin surface film is showing promise as a potential weapon in the fight to protect the Great Barrier Reef from the impacts of coral bleaching.

Great Barrier Reef Foundation Managing Director Anna Marsden said the results from a small-scale research trial led by the scientist who also developed Australia’s polymer bank notes were very encouraging.

The project was supported by The Tiffany & Co. Foundation, made possible through a grant to the University of Melbourne USA Foundation.

“We’ve partnered with scientists from the University of Melbourne and the Australian Institute of Marine Science to develop sun protection for the Reef,” Ms Marsden said.

“The ‘sun shield’ is 50,000 times thinner than a human hair and completely biodegradable, containing the same ingredient corals use to make their hard skeletons – calcium carbonate. It’s designed to sit on the surface of the water above the corals, rather than directly on the corals, to provide an effective barrier against the sun.

“While it’s still early days, and the trials have been on a small scale, the testing shows the film reduced light by up to 30%.

“Scientists tested the effectiveness of the one molecule thick film on seven different coral species in simulated coral bleaching event conditions at the Australian Institute of Marine Science’s National Sea Simulator (SeaSim).

“The surface film provided protection and reduced the level of bleaching in most species.”

With the surface film containing the same ingredient that corals use to make their skeletons, the research also showed the film had no harmful effects on the corals during the trials.

“This is a great example of developing and testing out-of-the-box solutions that harness expertise from different areas. In this case, we had chemical engineers and experts in polymer science working with marine ecologists and coral experts to bring this innovation to life,” Ms Marsden said.

“The project set out to explore new ways to help reduce the impact of coral bleaching affecting the Great Barrier Reef and coral reefs globally and it created an opportunity to test the idea that by reducing the amount of sunlight from reaching the corals in the first place, we can prevent them from becoming stressed which leads to bleaching.

“It’s important to note that this is not intended to be a solution that can be applied over the whole 348,000 square kilometres of Great Barrier Reef – that would never be practical. But it could be deployed on a smaller, local level to protect high value or high-risk areas of reef.

“The concept needs more work and testing before it gets to that stage, but it’s an exciting development at a time when we need to explore all possible options to ensure we have a Great Barrier Reef for future generations.”

The research team comprised of Professors Greg Qiao and David Solomon and Dr Joel Scofield from the University of Melbourne, Dr Emma Prime (formerly University of Melbourne, now Deakin University), and Dr Andrew Negri and Florita Flores from the Australian Institute of Marine Science. Professor Solomon (AC) was the winner of the Prime Minister’s Prize for Science in 2011 for his exceptional contributions to polymer science.

First published by the Great Barrier Reef Foundation

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Two headline technologies for the mining sector are optimising the mining process for individual deposits and unlocking additional value for mining operations, Brendan Fitzpatrick reports.

Bringing tech to the process

The next generation of mining simulation

Research at ANSTO into innovative technologies for the repair and maintenance of military aircraft will have implications on the service life of commercial and passenger aircraft, Brendan Fitzpatrick reports.

Four in 10 Australians miss out on a good night’s sleep, with inadequate rest costing over $60 billion a year in lost productivity. But research from the Alertness CRC into diagnosis and treatment for sleep disorders promises big benefits to our society and economy, Bianca Nogrady reports.

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