News Alerts

R&D Tax Credit Bills sidelined

The Research and Development (R&D) Tax Credit Bills have been sidelined in the wake of Julia Gillard’s accession to the position of Prime Minister.

The new R&D Tax Credit would replace the older R&D Tax Concession, which benefitted only those businesses that had already turned a profit. Under the new arrangements companies would receive a cash return on their R&D spending even if they fail to make a profit.

The two Bills were initially scheduled for debate in the Senate on Tuesday 22 June 2010, but were delayed and then removed from the Order of Business, meaning that they will not be tabled until the Senate’s next sitting, commencing 24 August 2010 at the earliest.

There had been some proposed Government amendments in relation to the objects clause and the definition of core R&D. Senator Fielding has proposed additional amendments, including changes to some definitions and a delayed start date of 1 July 2011.

However, Federal innovation minister Kim Carr has said that the government will seek to have its new R&D Tax Credit apply retrospectively from July 1 this year, providing greater financial certainty for Australian biotechnology companies planning research activities over the next 12 months.

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Call for input on Australia’s research workforce strategy

The Innovation Minister, Senator Kim Carr, has announced that a Research Workforce Strategy is to be developed to guide the future of Australian research.

Senator Carr said that the aim of the strategy would be to rejuvenate and expand Australia’s workforce.

“It is about planning for the future and making sure that we have the highly skilled researchers we need to stay competitive, to maintain living standards, and to fulfil the aspirations of working Australians.”

Senator Carr said the Research Workforce Strategy was part of the government’s innovation agenda, Powering Ideas.

A consultation paper has been prepared by a reference group chaired by Anne Bailey of the Department of Industry, Innovation, Science and Research.

The paper identifies three main challenges:

• ensuring that there are sufficient HDR (higher degree by research) qualified individuals to meet workforce demands;
• maintaining the quality and international standing of Australian research degrees in the face of the expanding skill requirements and global competition; and
• providing supportive career structures and pathways for researchers throughout their careers, while encouraging greater flexibility, mobility and adaptability in the research workforce to meet rapidly changing needs and priorities.

Issues are identified under the broad themes of: employer demand for researchers; supply of researchers to Australia; and research career pathways. The paper then proposes a set of priority focus areas and related actions for Australia to enhance its research workforce over the coming decade.

The consultation paper is available at www.innovation.gov.au.

Two commissioned studies addressing employer demand for researchers and Australia’s future research workforce are available here.

Submissions in response to the consultation paper are due by 6 August.

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New chair appointed to CSIRO Board

The new chairman of the CSIRO Board, appointed to replace Dr John Stocker who completed his term on 27 June, is Mr Simon McKeon.

Mr McKeon comes to the position having been the Executive Chairman of the Melbourne Office at Macquarie Group. He is also the founding President of the Australian Takeovers Panel, Chair of MS Research Australia, Chairman of Business for Millennium Development, Director of VisionFund International, Director of the Global Poverty Project and Director of Red Dust Role Models.

He has degrees in Law and Commerce from the University of Melbourne and prior to joining Macquarie, practised as a solicitor with Blake Dawson Waldron in Sydney. He is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and also of FINSIA.

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New program to support defence industry innovation

The Minister for Defence Material and Science, Greg Combet, has announced the establishment of a $45 million Priority Industry Capability (PIC) Innovation Program. The program is part of the governments new defence industry policy statement, Building Defence Capability: A Policy For a Smarter and More Agile Defence Industry Base.

Under the PIC Innovation Program, companies will be encouraged to submit to Defence innovative proposals, relating to one or more PICs, to Defence for direct funding.

To attract funding, proposals must clearly support one or more PICs and must have good prospects for driving additional work in Australian industry or provide cost savings for future Defence contracts.

Funding provided under the PIC Innovation Program will be in the form of a contractual arrangement with the company, and will be limited to $3 million to $4 million in any one instance.

Defence will develop a set of guidelines for the operation of this program in time for the first annual funding round in late 2010.

The new Defence Industry Innovation Board will oversee the PIC Innovation Program and advise Defence and the Government on appropriate resource allocation under the program.

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Inquiry recommends successor program for international research collaboration

The House of Representatives Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Innovation has tabled its report on Australia’s international research collaboration.

The Committee, chaired by Maria Vamvakinou, sought clarification from the government of the status of the International Science Linkages program which is not funded beyond June 2011. It argued that, rather than setting a particular direction or providing prescriptive guidelines on how to collaborate, the Australian Government should continue to provide assistance to encourage and facilitate international collaboration. It recommended that a successor program for the International Science Linkages program be developed with an increased budget.

The report made 18 recommendations addressing the issues of: impediments to outbound researchers; impediments to incoming researchers; access to domestic and bilateral research grants; access to overseas-based grant schemes; and strategies and opportunities.

The report is available here.

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ARC Linkage grants awarded

Funding totaling more than $66.7 million has been awarded to 218 research projects through Australian Research Council’s Linkage Projects scheme.

The total funding to the research projects from all sources is $263.36 million.

The University of New South Wales has received the largest allocation of $9.3 million for 27 projects. The University of Western Australia was second runner, with $8.05 million for 13 projects, followed by the University of Melbourne which receives $7.46 million for 24 projects.

Amongst the largest successful projects and their ARC funding are:

• Pathways, policies and prevention: better outcomes for western Australian children, led by Professor Fiona Stanley, University of Western Australia, $2.1 million over five years;
• Synthetic natural gas and biochar from biomass for energy services in remotecommunities and soil carbon sequestration, led by Prof Dongke Zhang, University of Western Australia, $2.5 million over five years;
• Strengthening organisational performance through accreditation research: the ACCREDIT project, led by Prof Jeffrey Braithwaite and Prof Johanna I Westbrook, University of New South Wales, $1.45 million;
• Biotic connectivity within the temperate Australian marine protected area network at three levels of biodiversity, communities, populations and genes, led by Assoc Prof Graham J Edgar, University of Tasmania, $1.135 million over five years; and
• Bushfires, social connectedness and mental health, led by Prof Elizabeth B Waters, University of Melbourne, $1.285 over five years.

More information about the grants is available here.

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Announcements

2011 Awards and Grants - The Australian Academy of Science

2011 AWARDS AND GRANTS – THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE

The Australian Academy of Science Honorific Awards for scientific excellence are made to early-career researchers under 40 years of age, and to career researchers for life-long achievements.

The Academy also supports research through the sponsorship of conferences that focus on rapidly developing fields of research; by awarding travelling fellowships for the exchange of scientific ideas; and providing grants to support research.

The Academy invites the following:

• 2011 HONORIFIC AWARDS

Nominations for Medals and Prizes for early-career and career researchers, including the new early-career Christopher Heyde Medal in the mathematical sciences

Website: http://www.science.org.au/awards/

Closing date – 30 July 2010

• 2011 TRAVELLING FELLOWSHIPS

Nominations for the Selby Fellowship in all fields of science for overseas scientists to visit Australia

Website: http://www.science.org.au/awards/awards/selby.html

Closing date – 31 August 2010

• 2011 MARGARET MIDDLETON FUND FOR ENDANGERED NATIVE AUSTRALIAN ANIMALS

Applications for funding for research in conservation biology

Website: http://www.science.org.au/awards/awards/conservation.htmlb

Closing date – 31 August 2010

• 2011 W H GLADSTONES POPULATION AND ENVIRONMENT FUND

Applications for funding for empirical research into how characteristics of Australia’s population are likely to affect our environment

Website: http://www.science.org.au/awards/awards/gladstone.html

Closing date – 31 August 2010

• 2011/12 RESEARCH CONFERENCES

Expressions of Intent to hold the following conferences in 2011/12:

• Boden Research Conferencein the biological sciences
• Fenner Conference on the Environment
• Elizabeth and Frederick White Research Conferencein the physical sciences

Website: http://www.science.org.au/awards/research-conferences.html

Closing date – 31 August 2010

Email enquiries to: awards@science.org.au

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Can the patent system work for you, or is it a waste of time and $?

Some companies do not understand the features, benefits and consequences of the patent system or, if they do, they consider them of low importance.

International experience demonstrates that companies need to be aware of the following:

Patents are here to stay.

While the patent system has its critics, there is significant evidence that the patent system encourages commercialisation of new ideas and is good for national economies.

Patents can prevent your competitors from copying your ideas.

It can be cheaper and of lower risk for a fast follower to commercialise an unprotected invention, thereby providing them with a competitive advantage. Why let somebody out-compete you using your hard work?

You don’t need to be Leonardo Di Vinci or Bill Gates to get an Australian patent.

The Australian innovation patent provides unusually strong protection for what can be little more than an incremental improvement, and at a reasonable cost. Both products and business processes can be protected.

Sophisticated investors like patents.

Patents provide a claim to legal ownership of a technology. Sophisticated investors and government funding agencies often demand the increased certainty that patents provide.

The patent system is the leading source of industry solutions.

Over 37 million patents have been filed to date around the world, and over 1.8 million are filed every year. Each of these discloses a solution to a problem. Sophisticated search tools can help you find and focus on what technology solutions are pre-existing and available to use for your problems.

Even if you don’t have patents, your competitors might.

Over 26,000 patents are filed in Australia every year, with over 80% filed by foreign applicants. Over 800 patents were filed for clean technology patents in 2009, with an annual growth [1] of greater than 10% p.a. Once granted, any one of these patents might be asserted against your product or process. If a patent assertion is successful, patent owners can shut you down and claim all of your profits. Even just the reasonable suspicion of patent infringement can, in certain circumstances, be enough for a patent owner to prevent you from selling your product or service [2]. It can take years and significant expenditure to overcome this. Owning your own patents can help reduce this risk, or provide a negotiating tool with your competitors. Companies that have a clear IP strategy have a reduced risk of being sued for patent infringement.

Intellectual property protection can also be obtained for trade marks, registered designs, circuit diagrams and copyright.

As with patents, the law heavily favours those that best manage and/or first apply for these other IP rights.

Three can keep a secret, if two are dead.

Trade secrets are fine if they can truly be kept secret. If you are able to copy your competitor’s products, what is to stop them from copying yours?

Want to know more? Check out www.griffithhack.com.au or ask one of Griffith Hack’s IP specialists to discuss what the patent system, and other forms of IP rights, can do for your company. Educate yourself before your competitors educate you.

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[1] Research conducted by Griffith Hack’s specialist Information Services group.

[2] Sigma Pharmaceuticals (Australia) Pty Ltd v Wyeth [2009] FCA 595 (3 June 2009)

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Conferences & Events

AIRG 2010 Winter Conference

“The National Importance of Industrial R&D:

Measuring and Communicating the Impact in Australasia”

Hotel Realm, Canberra

Thursday 2 September, 2010

The meeting will describe identified best practices in the conduct of industrial R&D in Australia and New Zealand. It will consider metrics as applied to “take-up” of Industrial R&D outputs; point to how industrial R&D is best leveraging public sector research and R&D resources; understand the primary drivers for companies to conduct their R&D in Australasia, both today and into the future; and ask AIRG members what they would like to see as a future role of government that might best assist them to sustain and grow the role of Australasian industrial R&D.

Program Summary:

Wednesday 1 September

Dinner with invited Members of Parliament

Thursday 2 September

Session One:

What are the primary drivers that cause companies to decide to conduct industrial R&D in Australasia today? Does the R&D in SMEs and its impact on the technology supply chain to larger companies have an effect? What are likely future impacts?

Session Two:

How is Australasian industrial R&D best leveraging public sector research and R&D resources?

Session Three:

What use is made of metrics as applied to the “take-up” of Industrial R&D outputs in Australian and New Zealand industrial R&D, and elsewhere?

Session Four:

Discussion including considerations of what AIRG members would like to see as a future role of government that might assist the sustenance and growth of Australasian industrial R&D, and how AIRG should advocate these positions.

Please visit www.airg.org.au or email airg@atse.org.au for further details

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Local Government Sustainable Development Conference 2010

August 24 - 25th 2010, Dockside Convention Centre, Sydney

~ PROVIDING SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT ~

The Local Government Sustainable Development Conference 2010 is the leading sustainable development conference for local government, with CEOs, Mayors, Councillors and senior managers from local councils around Australia attending each year.

The national Conference will showcase leading edge examples of outstanding environmental initiatives by Australian local governments, including the winners of the Australian Sustainable Cities Award and the International Liveable Cities Awards as well as international best practice case studies.

Topics will include:

• Climate change and energy efficiency
• Integrating sustainability into economic imperatives
• Future directions for asset management
• Practical approaches to water management
• Sustainable planning and urban design
• Waste management and resource recovery
• Land remediation
• Community engagement in environmental initiatives
• Green purchasing and procurement

Invited speakers include:

• Chris Davis, Commissioner, National Water Commission
• Cr Paul Bell, President, Local Government Association of Queensland
• Professor Peter Newman, Professor of Sustainability, Curtin University Sustainability Policy Institute
• Professor Gary Jones, Chief Executive, eWater CRC
• Kelly Pearce, Assistant Secretary, Waste Policy Branch, Department of Environment and Heritage
• Rod Welford, CEO, Australian Council of Recyclers
• Dave West, Founder, Boomerang Alliance
• Pete Williams, CEO, Deloitte Digital
• Ian Blair, Director, Quadraco Asia-Pacific
• Martin Brennan, Deputy CEO, ICLEI Oceania
• Tom Roper, President, Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council
• Wayne Wescott, Chair, Local Government Task Group, Green Building Council of Australia
• Dr Ralf Haese, Project Leader, Coastal Research and Management, Geoscience Australia
• Sean Rooney, Sustainability Program Manager, Sinclair Knight Merz
• Marcus Spiller, Director, SGS Economics and Planning
• Dan Atkins, Managing Director, Shaper Group
• Cr Angelo Tsirekas, Mayor, City of Canada Bay
• Shayne Silcox, Chief Executive Officer, City of Melville
• Bob Gaussen, Managing Director, Review Today Pty Ltd
• Percy Allan, Research Director, Review Today Pty Ltd
• Michele Leembruggen, 1200 Buildings Program Coordinator, City of Melbourne
• Colin Pitman, Director, City Projects, City of Salisbury
• Charles Turner, Manager Asset Management, Bayside City Council
• Greg Hunt, Executive Officer, South East Councils Climate Change Alliance

REGISTRATIONS

Register now by going to http://www.halledit.com.au/lgsd2010 or contact Denise McQueen on 03 8534 5021 or denise.mcqueen@halledit.com.au

SPONSORSHIP/EXHIBITION

For sponsorship and exhibition enquiries, contact Brian Rault on 03 8534 5014 or email brian.rault@halledit.com.au

PLATINUM SPONSOR

SUPPORTING PARTNER

NETWORKING DRINKS SPONSOR

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Positions Vacant

Chief Research Scientist

Ongoing or 5 Year Contract

Melbourne, Australia

Remuneration Package up to $225,000 (approx)

Relocation Assistance and Visa Sponsorship available

The Bureau of Meteorology is Australia’s National Meteorological Service and is responsible for monitoring and prediction of Australian weather and climate, undertaking meteorological research, provision of weather forecasting services, water and environmental information functions and fulfillment of international meteorological obligations.

We are seeking a Chief Research Scientist for a newly created leadership role of Assistant Director (Research and Development) and to act as a Deputy Director for the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research, located in the Bureau’s Head Office in Melbourne, Australia.

The Assistant Director (Research and Development) is responsible for the planning, implementation and management of the Bureau’s Research Support Program. The successful applicant will be required to provide scientific leadership to the organisation and advice to the Bureau Executive on scientific aspects of the Bureau’s operations and act as Deputy Director of the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research, overseeing the Centre’s research programs and staff.

The salary component included in the remuneration package is $157,000 and the successful applicant can negotiate either an ongoing permanent position or a 5 year contract.

The benefits available include a fortnightly allowance in lieu of a fully serviced car, four weeks paid annual leave, cumulative paid sick leave benefits, long service leave after ten years continuous service, a contributory superannuation scheme and access to performance based pay.

Further information is available here.

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Chair of Geostatistics and Mine Planning, Sustainable Minerals Institute - University of Queensland

The Sustainable Minerals Institute is one of six research institutes within the University of Queensland. The SMI is a combined initiative of the industry, UQ and the Queensland State Government to boost capacity in research and education in sustainable development within the minerals sector. The SMI has a strong multi-disciplinary focus and offers a vibrant intellectual environment focused on analysing and applying key concepts of sustainable development to the minerals industry.

Six research centres make up the SMI and these include the Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre (located at the University Mine in Indooroopilly), the Centre for Mined Land Rehabilitation, the Minerals Industry Safety and Health Centre, the Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining, the Centre for Water in the Minerals Industry, and the WH Bryan Mining and Geology Research Centre.

The mining resources within the Sustainable Minerals Institute have been consolidated under the WH Bryan Mining and Geology Research Centre (BRC). This mining research initiative has effectively brought together significant intellectual and operational skills which offers integrated thinking across the mining value chain. The Centre’s expertise include mass-mining, blasting fundamentals, geotechnical engineering, ore body modelling, geometallurgy, optimisation in mine design and planning as well as applied blast engineering.

The BRC’s strategy is to focus on providing solutions for complex, large scale mining operations. The BRC delivers high quality research, technical innovation, and technology transfer to the mining industry.

The role

The primary purpose of this Chair position is to develop a world class geostatistics research group in Australia. This position will be co funded by the CRC for Optimising Resource Extraction and the Chair will be required to manage the geostatistics project within Programme 3; Resource Evaluation. He/She will closely interact with the BRC research team and other centres across the institute to initiate and contribute to interdisciplinary research projects. The candidate will liaise closely with industry and government partners at the local, national and international levels. The Chair is expected to initiate a range of funding applications and research projects in the field of geostatistics and related aspects. Active participation in postgraduate supervision and well as the contribution to the management and operation of the BRC are important requirements of this position.

For further information go here.

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ResearchJobs

ResearchJobs is a weekly email service that lists new positions available within the research and development sector throughout Australia. It also includes details of scholarships, awards and grants available.

The ResearchJobs email employment service is distributed every Friday and is free to receive, but there is a small cost to advertise.

With a distribution of over 13,000 emails direct to subscribers a week plus over 2,500 hits a day on the website, ResearchJobs is the best way to find the right applicant for your Research & Development job.

For further information or to advertise please contact Blake Duggin on (03) 8534 5012 blake.duggin@halledit.com.au or Jeanné Alexander (03) 8534 5024 jeanne.alexander@halledit.com.au

To subscribe to ResearchJobs go to www.researchjobs.net.au

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