News Alerts

Automotive review recommends extension of Green Car Innovation Fund

The Review of Australia's Automotive Industry undertaken for the federal government by Steve Bracks has recommended the formation of a new Global Automotive Transition Scheme to replace the current Automotive Competitiveness and Investment Scheme, and that the Green Car Innovation Fund, currently allocated $500 million over five years from 2011, be brought forward and increased to $1 billion if successful.

The Green Car Innovation Fund, introduced as part of Labor’s election platform, will operate on a three-to-one dollar basis with industry to encourage the development and manufacture of low-emission vehicles.

The proposed Global Automotive Transition Scheme (GATS) would have funding over the five years to 2015 of $1.5 billion, with three options outlined for an additional $1 billion. Within the GATS, the list of eligible R&D activities should be streamlined and exclude payments for recruitment and management; and the rate for claims for investment in eligible R&D should be increased from 45% to 50%.

An Automotive Industry Innovation Council should be established, with representation for motor vehicle producers, component suppliers, unions, research and academic organizations, and government to provide advice and oversite in relation to the new transitional arrangements applying to the incustry.

The Council would include a reference group to provide advice on automotive skills issues to the industry skills council, Manufacturing Skills Australia.

Recommendations regarding the Green Car Innovation Fund included that:

• Its start date should be brought forward to 2009;
• If it provies successful in its first two years, funding should be doubled to $1 billion and the scheme extended beyond its initial five years;
• Benefits should be paid as cash grants following a competitive selection process based on innovation, technological, commercial and environmental merits;
• There should be scope to vary the one-to-three dollar funding ratio to take account of varying risk profiles;
• All organizations and individuals should be eligible including research organizations and international firms where eligible activities are performed in Australia.

The full report can be downloaded at www.innovation.gov.au

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Indicators Development Group appointed to advise on ARC's ERA indicators

An Indicators Development Group (IDG) has been appointed to advise on the application of discipline-specific indicators for the Australian Research Council’s Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) initiative. The ERA initiative will evaluate higher education research quality and activity.

The IDG will consider, test and recommend appropriate discipline-specific indicators, including metrics and other proxies of quality, applied research and activity. The Group is made up of twelve research metrics and statistical experts. Three of these experts are from overseas.

Terry Nolan, Head of the School of Population Health at the University of Melbourne and Associate Dean in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, has taken up the role of Chair for the IDG.

Members of the IDG include: 

• Ken Richardson, Executive Officer for the Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Research (DVCR) at the University of Queensland;Dr Marcus Nichol, Director of Evaluation and Reporting for the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC);
• Tony Sheil, Senior Manager, Research Policy at Griffith University;
• Paula Callan, eResearch Access Coordinator at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT);
• Professor Max King, Pro-Vice Chancellor (Research and Research Training) and a Sir John Monash Distinguished Professor at Monash University;
• Tim Yapp, manager of the Operational Performance Group in the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO);
• Dr Jonathan Adams, Lead Founder and a Director of Evidence Ltd;
• Professor Anthony F.J. van Raan, Professor of Quantitative Studies of Science and Director of the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) at Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands;
• Professor Patty Solomon,l Professor of Statistical Bioinformatics in the School of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Adelaide. She was previously Head of Statistics;
• Paul Hubbard, Head of Research Policy at the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE); and
• Linda Butler, Head of the Research Evaluation and Policy Project (REPP) in the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University.

To help the IDG provide advice on all disciplines, two sub-committees have been created-one for the Creative Arts and the other for the Humanities.
Professor Margaret Seares, Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Western Australia, has been appointed Chair for the Creative Arts sub-committee, and Professor Stuart Macintyre, Ernest Scott Professor of History at the University of Melbourne, as Chair for the Humanities sub-committee.

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New appointment to CSIRO Board

Professor Ian Chubb has been appointed as a part-time member of the CSIRO Board.

Professor Chubb is the Vice Chancellor of the Australian National University and the Chair of the International Alliance of Research Universities.

His career includes six years as Vice-Chancellor of Flinders University and senior executive appointments at Monash University and the University of Wollongong.

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Victorian Innovation Statement boosts funding by $300 million

The Victorian Government has released its 2008 Innovation Statement, which includes $300 million in new funding.

New funding under the statement, Innovation: Victoria’s Future, includes:

• $145 million for Victoria’s Science Agenda (VSA) which includes the VSA Investment Fund for competitive innovation, science and technology grants and the Strategic Projects Fund to develop research facilities, platform technologies and skills, and boost private and public sector R&D investment;
• $50 million towards the new $100 million Victorian Life Sciences Computation Initiative, the world’s largest life sciences supercomputing facility to accelerate Victorian biotechnology research and develop new drugs and treatments;
• $40 million for the Boosting Highly Innovative SMEs (BHIS) program, which will support small to medium enterprises to commercialise new knowledge through targeting Government challenges in areas that require new solutions, especially where there is likely to be flow-on demand locally or internationally; and 
• $10 million for the Victorian Advanced Resource Recovery Initiative (VARRI), that will develop innovative new waste recovery facilities.

Innovation Minister Gavin Jennings said the third generation of innovation funding provided through Innovation: Victoria’s Future took total Victorian Government innovation-related commitments to $3.39 billion since 1999. It is in addition to $714 million worth of innovation-related initiatives announced in the 2008-09 State Budget.

Innovation: Victoria's Future can be accessed at www.business.vic.gov.au

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Victoria Prize awarded to flu drug developer

The Victorian Government’s $50,000 science prize, the Victoria Prize, has been awarded to Professor Peter Colman for his research and discovery of a new class of anti-influenza drugs.

Professor Colmans breakthrough occurred in 1989 when he led the team that discovered the drug Zanamivir, having crystallised and solved the 3-D structure of neuraminidase with a team from CSIRO.

The work led to the development of two neuraminidase inhibitors, Relenza and Tamiflu, which are now registered for the treatment and prevention of influenza.
In 2001 Professor Colman moved to The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research to head up research in structural biology and drug discovery.

“The team has made progress in the challenge of discovering new drugs for some cancers and, together with other Walter and Eliza Hall Institute colleagues, recently announced a collaborative research program in cancer therapeutics with the US companies Genentech and Abbott.

The Victoria Prize is complemented by the awarding of the $100,000 Anne & Eric Smorgon Memorial Award from the Jack and Robert Smorgon Families Foundation.

Victoria Fellowships, which provide an $18,000 travel grant to undertake a short-term international study, were awarded to:

• Dr David Forrester – to study advanced management practices in South American Eucalyptus plantations that may be used to arrest Australia’s $2 billion trade deficit in wood products;
• Dr Amy Richards – to examine ways that Victoria’s food industry can move towards developing foods that contain healthier oils and, in particular, low saturated fatty acid and trans fat free products;
• Dr Ian Majewski – to investigate next generation gene sequencing which has the potential to accumulate genetic sequence data 1000 times faster than existing technology thereby enabling easier identification of people at high risk of developing disease;
• Dr Adrian Orifici – to advance frontiers in smarter and safer aerospace technology;
• Dr Steven Pas – to develop novel image technology that can detect subtle changes in the nanostructure of tissues and industrial materials earlier than current technology; 
• Dr Zhejun Pan – to explore the viability of enhanced coalbed methane production and CO2 sequestration in Victoria’s coal seams.

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Victoria appoints Climate Change Advisory Group

The Victorian Government has established a reference group to provide independent expert advice about climate change issues and policies.

The Climate Change Reference Group will advise on the development of climate change policy in relation to the national Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, as well as the opportunities for innovation, technology and industry that may arise as a result of the impacts of climate change.

The reference group will also advise the Victorian Government about the type of support and assistance that vulnerable communities will need to adapt to a low-carbon economy.

The reference group will be chaired by Professor David Karoly, Federation Fellow at the University of Melbourne’s School of Earth Sciences. Other members are:

• Tony Nicholson, Executive Director of the Brotherhood of St Laurence;
• Professor Amanda Lynch, Federation Fellow with the School of Geography and Environmental Sciences at Monash University;
• Bob Welsh, Chief Executive of VicSuper;
• Dr Peter Christoff, Coordinator, Environmental Studies Faculty at the University of Melbourne;
• Professor Robin Batterham, Group Chief Scientist with Rio Tinto Limited, and President of the Academy of Technological Sciences;
• Erwin Jackson, Director of Policy and Research at The Climate Institute; and
• Dr Kate Auty, Magistrate in Western Australia specialising in justice and equity issues, and Chair of the Victorian Ministerial Reference Council on Climate Change Adaptation.

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Smart State Innovation Grants awarded

The Queensland Premier, Anna Bligh, has announced funding of more than $27million for a series of innovation projects under the $300 million Smart State Innovation Funding program.

$15 million from the Innovation Building Fund will go towards the construction of a new purpose-built multi-storey facility to house the Queensland Centre for Advanced Materials Processing and Manufacturing.

Participants in the centre include the University of Queensland, the CAST CRC, CRC for Advanced Composite Structures, Polymers CRC and ARC Centre of Excellence for Design in Light Metals.

Other grants include:

• $2 million to a team led by Dr Andrew Ash from CSIRO to investigate the current ability of Queensland towns and cities, industry and governments to adapt to forecast climate change conditions. The project will assess infrastructure, urban design, emergency services, public health, energy production and supply, and primary industries. Dr Ash’s team will work with the Commonwealth Department of Climate Change and South East Queensland’s universities;
• $1.95 million to support the Queensland-China Alliance in Nanomaterials for Clean Energy Technologies. The Alliance is a partnership Led by Professor Max Lu from the University of Queensland’s ARC Centre for Functional Nanomaterials between UQ and the Chinese Academy of Sciences through its Institute of Chemical Physics at Dalian and its Institute of Metals Research at Shenyang. It aims to develop innovative materials, based on nanotechnology, to underpin emerging technologies in clean coal, hydrogen production and fuel cell efficiency;
• Almost $1.9 million for the Smart Forests Alliance Queensland to pursue critical research into growing hardwood plantation trees faster. The Smart Forests Alliance Queensland involves the University of the Sunshine Coast, the Queensland and Northern Territory departments of primary industries, the CSIRO, and two national timber companies: Integrated Tree Cropping Ltd and Forest Enterprises Australia Ltd;
• $1.8 million for the Advanced Manufacturing Centre for Queensland Defence Industry Capability Development at CAST Co-operative Research Centre at UQ;
• $1.4 million for the University of Queensland for a Korea-Australia Bio-Product Alliance research project into technology that converts leftover parts of sugarcane into bio-chemicals, including a type of biofuel considered more powerful than ethanol;
• $500,000 CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research for a collaboration with Gold Coast Marine Aquaculture to farm Elite Giant Tiger Prawns;
• $405,000 for the continuous press forming project at UQ in partnership with licensee Australian Tube Mills to develop a new machine to form flat metals into shapes;
• $1.149 million for Smart Environmental Monitoring and Analysis Technologies development at UQ;
• $720,000 for Integrated Information Services for Smarter Collaborative Water Management at UQ in partnership with Microsoft;
• $771,470 for Mesaplexx Pty Ltd at Brisbane Technology Park to develop microwave and material designs to enhance performance of wireless communications systems in partnership with the CSIRO and the Australian National University; and
• $986,445 for St Andrew’s Medical Institute to develop and trial a fully-integrated, web-based clinical governance information system.

A new round of innovation funding will be opened in the near future.

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High Resolution Plant Phenomics Centre launched

The High Resolution Plant Phenomics Centre has been launched under the Australian Government’s National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS), with support from the ACT and South Australian governments, CSIRO, ANU and the University of Adelaide.

Co-located at ANU and the CSIRO’s Black Mountain site, the High Resolution Plant Phenomics Centre will will provide automated image analysis of phenotypic characteristics of extensive germplasm collections, together with large breeding, mapping and mutant populations, and will exploit recent advances in robotics, imaging and computing.

It is expected to attract plant scientists from across Australia and the world to Canberra by providing them with access to the next generation of robotic and imaging plant research tools.

CSIRO Plant Industry Chief Dr Jeremy Burdon said the Centre will house sophisticated growing environments, glasshouse automation technologies, and leading edge digital imaging technologies and sophisticated software to measure plant growth and development.

“This equipment, resources and associated expertise and services are currently not available in Australia, but the Centre will make them readily available and affordable,” Dr Burdon said.

“The Centre will lead to the development of new and improved crops, healthier food, more sustainable agricultural practices, and improved maintenance and regeneration of biodiversity,” he said.

The Centre is Canberra’s node of the Australian Plant Phenomics Facility located at CSIRO Plant Industry and ANU. The Plant Accelerator will be the Adelaide node of the Facility located at the University of Adelaide’s Waite Campus.

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Announcements

Awards and grants for research excellence - The Australian Academy of Science

Awards and grants for research excellence - The Australian Academy of Science

The Academy is calling for nominations for:

• medals and prizes for early career and career researchers;
Closing date – 30 August

• research support for the conservation of endangered vertebrate species;
• support for overseas travel
Closing date – 30 September

The Academy is also calling for expressions of intent for:

• support for research conferences
Closing date – 30 September

Further information:

http://www.science.org.au/awards/index.htm
http://www.science.org.au/awards/research.htm

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Innovation grants for Climate Ready projects — now open

Innovation grants for Climate Ready projects — now open

Applications are called for innovation grant projects for up to 50% of costs, ranging from $50,000 to $5 million and up to three years duration.

Applications are encouraged for projects that address the effects of climate change, such as: 

• water recycling, waste recovery or small scale renewable energy technologies
• technologies that reduce the energy used by appliances or increase the efficiency of industrial processes
• products, processes or services to monitor emissions or energy use
• using biotechnology or nanotechnology to address the effects of climate change on people and the environment
• information systems for businesses or consumers to compare the carbon footprints of different activities
• green building materials that make homes more energy efficient. 

The program opened on 28 July 2008 and three rounds remain for 2008-09.

• Round 2 closes 4 December 2008.
• Round 3 closes 12 March 2009.
• Round 4 closes 25 June 2008.

For further information about this program or to subscribe to the AusIndustry e-bulletin or 'email updates' about more than 30 AusIndustry business programs, visit www.ausindustry.gov.au or call the AusIndustry hotline on 13 28 46.

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Further Education

Responsibilities and Ethics of Clinical Research

360820 Responsibilities and Ethics of Clinical Research (12.5pts)

Enrol now for the September intake

Objectives:
• Demonstrate a sound understanding of the basic concepts in human ethics, including the principles of:
- Autonomy
- Justice
- Beneficence
- Malfeasance
• Understand the need for integrity in both research and researchers
• Understand the need to protect human rights in research
• Appreciate the requirement for informed consent
• Appreciate both sides of the risk-benefit tension
• Understand the impact of different cultural perspectives on ethical issues

Description:
• Structure of Informed Consent documents
• Meaning of “Informed” in the context of blinding and randomisation to allocated treatments.
• Basic human rights in experimental settings
• The human being as an experimental subject and unit of analysis
• Data monitoring and safety committees
• Exercises in complex ethical situations
• Ethics committees – structure; membership; terms of reference
• Assessment of ethics applications (mock exercise)
• Cultural differences in ethical viewpoints
• Ethics under adverse conditions or under duress
• Ethical responses to unlawful collection of data or specimens
• Ethical issues of individual or volunteered experiments on the dying

Cost: $2,100 + GST

When: September, 15, 16, 18 & 19 2008

Where: The University of Melbourne
Level 3, 442 Auburn Road
Hawthorn, Victoria Australia 3122

www.mccp.unimelb.edu.au/clinicalresearch

Express your interest in this course or related courses by contacting;
Mary Georges on (03) 9810 3185 or email m.georges@mccp.unimelb.edu.au

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Biomedical Research Management - 4 day short course

Biomedical Research Management

The Melbourne Consulting and Custom Programs, University of Melbourne, is pleased to announce that we will be holding a 4 day short course on Biomedical Research Management, Part 1 - Sep 8, 9, 10 & 11 Part 2 – Oct 13, 14, 15 & 17 2008.

NUMBERS ARE LIMITED, so be quick!

A good Biomedical Research Manager is like the Conductor of an orchestra: bringing together all of the individual contributions at the right time, with the right contribution and the right intensity. The Biomedical Research Manager needs to be able to lead, coordinate and manage the activities of the experts from all technical, commercial and clinical disciplines, along with the stakeholders in a project – without losing their focus on the operational activities and strategic objectives. One of the most important roles of the Biomedical Research Manager is to avoid surprises and the consequences that occur because something was forgotten or ignored in the planning and delivery of their project.

NEED TO KNOW MORE? CHECK OUT INFORMATION AT:

www.mccp.unimelb.edu.au

Cost: $2,100 + GST

When: Part 1 - Sep 8, 9, 10 & 11 Part 2 – Oct 13, 14, 15 & 17 2008

Where: The University of Melbourne
Level 3, 442 Auburn Road
Hawthorn, Victoria Australia 3122

Express your interest in this course and related courses by contacting:

• Elise Strande on (03) 9810 3186 or email e.strande@mccp.unimelb.edu.au

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