NSW Cooperative Research Centres set to receive major boost
Five Cooperative Research Centres (CRCs) are set to receive a share in nearly $3 million from the NSW Government if they are successful in their bids for Commonwealth grants. Announcing the funding, the Minister for Science and Medical Research Frank Sartor said the five centres will directly attract $135 million in research funding to NSW and will increase the skills base of the State by supporting up to 250 PhD scholarships and high skill jobs each year.
The centres will be funded under the NSW Government’s Science Leveraging Fund, which was established by the NSW Government to increase the success of NSW CRC applications to the Commonwealth, thereby attracting research centres that show strong benefit to NSW research and industry.
The five Cooperative Research Centres that are set to receive State Government support (if they are successful in their Commonwealth funding bids) are:
“These innovative research centres bring together universities, industry and government agencies to solve environmental and health questions and to drive economic growth,” said Mr Sartor. “They will play an important role in underpinning NSW strengths as a global leader in financial services, biotechnology, healthcare and sustainable agriculture. The breadth and depth of the research activities that will occur in these CRCs ranges from biotechnology applications to improve the quality and yield of wool, meat and milk, to the development of technology used by banks and stock markets to increase safety and fraud protection of major international trading systems,” said Mr Sartor.
“I am glad that NSW Government will have the opportunity to support these Centres. The Science Leveraging Fund will add real value to their activities, with one CRC planning to use the funding to increase its NSW-based PhD students by 30 graduates over the first three years,” said Mr Sartor.
Earlier this year, the NSW Government also awarded four of these CRC consortia (Capital Markets CRC, Smart Services CRC, Sheep Industry Innovations CRC and The Hearing CRC) with $30,000 grants to assist them in the preparation of business cases and applications to the Commonwealth for CRC funding.
“I am glad that our previous support has helped these Centres reach the final stage of the application process and wish them every success in the future,” said Minister Sartor.
(Dec 2006) | 
