Three new Cooperative Research Centres will launch with $158 million in federal co-funding announced Thursday to start producing regenerative therapies, advance 3D printing and innovate in the care economy.
The three centres are the Solutions for Manufacturing Advanced Regenerative Therapies (SMART) CRC, the Additive Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre (AMCRC), and the Care Economy CRC.
They emerged from a highly competitive 25th round of the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) program that funds medium- and long-term industry led research.
The Smart CRC led by former South Australian chief scientist and biotechnology expert Dr Leanna Read to manufacture cures for cancer, heart diseases, arthritis and other age-related ailments with regenerative therapies.
It received a federal grant of $65 million over ten years and expects to attract $173 million in cash and in-kind contributions from 63 project partners.
The AMCRC received $58 million over seven years to improve the adoption of additive manufacturing around the country. Australian manufacturers are leaning into the technology, but the rollout has lacked the coordination of other nations.
Its bid was backed by the peak manufacturing industry association, the Australian Manufacturing Technology Institute Limited, and more than a dozen research organisations. The bid was led by Simon Marriot, an executive with expertise in advanced manufacturing environments.
A third centre, the Care Economy CRC received $35 million over 10 years to bring together stakeholders to customise and commercialise new technologies, data solutions and workforce innovation. Its bid team was led by Carmela Sergi, an executive who has worked across the pharmaceutical, medical technology and health service sector.
The grant decisions were made before the government was placed into caretaker mode last month but only announced Thursday by Industry and Science minister Ed Husic.
“Bob Hawke set up CRCs to team up our world-class know-how with the best brains in business,” Mr Husic said in a statement.
“For decades they’ve delivered great results for Australians and for our economy, which is why we’re expanding it with $158 million to deal with the challenges of the future.
“Being able to make our own life-saving treatments onshore is hugely important to our nation. Our new CRCs will also promote better aged care and tap into the huge potential of 3-D printing for manufacturing – building a future for all Australians.”
A review of the CRC program in 2021 found it had delivered “excellent” outcomes, including $32.5 billion of economic impact from $4.8 billion in government investment.
Advocacy group Cooperative Research Australia (CRA) is pushing for an expansion of the program to drive more private sector R&D, and on Thursday welcomed the three new centres.
“Together, they have unlocked close to $475 million in business R&D investment and bring together more than 220 industry partners with research organisations,” CRA CEO Jane O’Dwyer said.
“The flipside is that limitations on the program mean there is significant potential capacity and commitment to industry-research collaboration across other critical sectors that we may not be able to harness.”
Applications to the current Round 26 of the CRC Program close on April 29.
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