Funding extended for NICTA

The Federal Government has signed an agreement to provide a further $249.5 million to the National ICT Australia (NICTA) over the next five years.

The funding is an extension to the Government's commitment of $129.5 million announced in 2001 under its Backing Qaustralia's Ability initiative.

Announcing the funding, the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator Helen Coonan, said she expected to see NICTA "increasingly interacting with industry and applying its research to benefit all Australians".

Examples of NICTA’s research include:

• The Smart Transport and Roads (STaR) project to develop new technologies for streamlining traffic flows, making roads operate more efficiently, providing more reliable travel times, fuel savings and reducing environmental harm.
• The Water Information Network (WIN) project to develop an ICT infrastructure of networked sensors and actuators that communicate over a wireless network to, first, provide irrigation water when and where it is needed on the farm and, second, manage irrigation on the scale of an entire water catchment.
• In collaboration with the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, developing an IT methodology for discerning biologically meaningful and medically useful knowledge from micro-array profiles of tissue, with a focus on cancer diagnosis and treatment.

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Intelligent Island initiatives announced

Two major Tasmanian information and communications technology (ICT) initiatives have been announced under the $40 million Intelligent Island program. The $40 million Intelligent Island program is funded by the Australian Government from the second part-sale of Telstra and is administered by the Tasmanian Department of Economic Development.

The first of the new initiatives is the Market Access and Partnership Program (MAPP) which will provide up to $18 million is to assist Tasmanian ICT companies with ICT product development, encourage partnerships for businesses development, provide companies with opportunities to access business and management skills and increase access to external markets.

Eligible Tasmanian ICT companies will be able to compete for grants from between $200,000 and $2 million. A portion of the funding is also available for projects that will benefit the Tasmanian ICT industry as a whole.

Under the second initiative, CSIRO will establish a $30 million Tasmanian ICT centre, with $15 million coming from the Intelligent Island program and an additional $15 million cash and in-kind contribution from CSIRO. The funding is subject to the successful negotiation of a funding agreement.

Tasmanian ICT companies interested in submitting for MAPP funding should visit here to obtain a copy of the guidelines and an expression of interest form. Expressions of Interest must be received by Wednesday 21 June 2006.

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Federal Government funds US Studies Centre

The Prime Minister, John Howard, has announced that the Federal Government will contribute $25 million towards the establishment of a United States Studies Centre at an Australian university.

The centre, a joint initiative with the American Australian Association, will offer a range of postgraduate research studies, facilitate professional academic exchange, undertake research and produce scholarly articles and reports..

Mr Howard said the Centre will increase the awareness of the study of American politics and government, promote collaborative research between institutions in Australia and the United States and operate as a think-tank for the Australia-America relationship.

The Australian Government’s contribution will be subject to sufficient funds being provided by the private sector and/or the state or territory in which the Centre is located. The Australian Government will work with the American Australian Association to select the most appropriate location for the Centre.

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MOU for counter-terrorism R&D

The Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Dr Shergold, and the Assistant Secretary of Defence, Thomas O’Connell, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding between their departments to facilitate collaborative research and development for counter-terrorism between Australia and the United States.

This arrangement will allow the Australian research community to collaborate with the US through the Technical Support Working Group. The objective will be to develop counter-terrorism technology, eliminate unnecessary duplication of work and obtain effective outcomes through research and development.

Australian and US researchers will test and evaluate existing and newly developed prototype technology in the laboratory and in operational settings.

Joint collaborative activities will focus on developing technologies and capabilities that will help deter, detect and identify terrorists, neutralise their weapons and reduce the probability of terrorist incidents.

The arrangement will be managed in Australia through the National Security Science and Technology Unit within the Department of the Prime Minster and Cabinet.

The arrangement is in addition to the Agreement between the Government of Australia and the Government of the United States of America on Cooperation in Science and Technology for Homeland/Domestic Security Matters that was signed on 21 December 2005.

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Funding for automotive R&D projects

Eight automotive projects have been awarded grant funding totalling $101 million under the second round of the Australian Government’s Automotive Competitiveness and Investment Scheme’s Motor Vehicle Producer Research & Development Scheme.

The grant recipients are:

• Ford Motor Company of Australia Ltd, $47 million for two projects. The new Ford Territory model powered by state-of-the-art alternative fuel engine technology; and the E8 Platform Expansion;
• GM Holden Ltd, $48.3 million for four projects involving hybrid power train development; fuel economy and alternate fuels; human machine interface development; and a global smart architecture and design process;
• Toyota Motor Corporation Australia Ltd, $5.15 million for the SCON vehicle development project;
• Mitsubishi Motors Australia Limited, $1.1 million for the power train optimisation project.

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WA Government to join Construction CRC

The WA Government has announced it will become a partner in the Cooperative Research Centre for Construction Innovation.

The Government will provide $300,000 a year in financial support, and in-kind support worth a further $100,000.

Housing and Works Minister Michelle Roberts said that well as working with the Cooperative Research Centre, the State Government, through the Department of Housing and Works, would also work with Curtin University.

The university will be the primary focus of Cooperative Research Centre research in WA.

Issues being examined by the Cooperative Research Centre for Construction Innovation include:

• achieving better value in project delivery, particularly in terms of time and cost;
• increasing efficiency and effectiveness in construction procurement;
• developing effective interaction and communication between industry and clients;
• improving knowledge management and knowledge flow in the industry;
• developing ways of improving whole-of-life-cycle costs and sustainability; and
• developing better tools for managing construction risk.

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Grants for international travel: International Science Linkages Programme – Science Academies Programme

The Australian Academy of Science is inviting applications from professional scientists to visit Europe, North America (USA, Canada & Mexico), and North East Asia (China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan, between 1 July 2007 and 30 June 2008, to collaborate with researchers in those countries.

Proposals in any fields of natural science, basic and applied, including mathematics and engineering science, will be considered.

Applicants must propose a collaborative research project, or a specific activity, which has been developed in consultation with host scientists. Under this scheme, applicants can request travel support to access international leading-edge small to medium research facilities and equipment.

Support will not be provided for costs associated with the use of these facilities or when the primary purpose of the visit is to attend a conference. The duration of the visits must be between two and six weeks.

This project is supported by the International Science Linkages - Science Academies Programme established under the Australian Government’s innovation statement, Backing Australia’s Ability.

Information, deadlines and application forms are available on the website at: http://www.science.org.au/internat/index.htm

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Public Inquiry: Review of enforcement of Plant Breeder’s Rights

The Advisory Council on Intellectual Property (ACIP) seeks expressions of interest from individuals and organisations to take part in a review of enforcement of plant breeder’s rights in Australia.

Please contact the ACIP Secretariat as soon as possible to register your interest.

Terms of Reference:
To inquire, report and make recommendations to the Australian Government on issues relating to the enforcement of plant breeder’s rights in Australia and to consider possible strategies to assist Australian plant breeder’s rights holders effectively enforce valid rights. The review should include a consideration of whether any practices and procedures relating to the enforcement of plant breeder’s rights (PBR) are appropriate to be referred to the Federal Magistrates Court.

Timeline:

• ACIP expects to circulate an Issues Paper in early October 2006.
• Request for written submissions in early December 2006.
• ACIP expects to hold consultations in early 2007.

Interested parties may wish to be involved in some, or all, of these activities. This is an important opportunity for users of plant breeder’s rights to contribute to the discussion and review of enforcement provisions.

CONTACT DETAILS FOR ACIP SECRETARIAT:
email: cameron.stack@ipaustralia.gov.au
telephone: (02) 6283 2804
facsimile: (02) 6285 1048
writing: Secretary ACIP, PO Box 200, WODEN ACT 2606.

The review updates are available here

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Mergers and Acquisitions experts to gather in Sydney

Following the success of Mergers & Acquisitions (M & A) 2005 which attracted over 170 senior executives from Australian and international corporates, M & A 2006 will explore recent key developments of the Australasian market including: the new ACCC merger guidelines; vendor due diligence; environment, health and safety issues; human capital management; and key success factors of cross-border M & A with a particular focus on the New Zealand market.

CapitalConnect Director, Simon Davis, said the Conference would analyse recent trends within the M & A sector including novel forms of bid consideration presented by Marie McDonald from Blake Dawson Waldron, legal M & A advisor to Alinta in its bid for AGL.

Nick Peterson from Macquarie Bank, lead advisor on the Dyno Nobel acquisition, will share lessons on recent cross-border M & A transactions, while Joseph Skrzynski from CHAMP Private Equity, Simon Moore from The Carlyle Group and Anthony Kerwick from Pacific Equity Partners will discuss the changing landscape of the Australasian market with the rise of private equity firms and hedge funds.

In addition to these high-profile executives, M & A experts from the ACCC, Takeovers Panel, Freehills, A.T. Kearney, Bain & Company, JP Morgan, UBS, ERM, Ernst & Young and Deloitte as well as other entities will present.

Two half-day intensive workshops on “Capturing value through managing human capital in M & A transactions” will be conducted by M&A HR consultants, Mercer Human Resource Consulting and a number of leading experts will present on “The New Zealand M & A market”.

The Conference is being produced by capital market advisors, CapitalConnect, and is supported by the Commercial Law Association and the Australia-India Business Council.

For information about Mergers & Acquisitions 2006 being held in Sydney on June 7-9, telephone (03) 8534 5000. The conference registration form can be accessed here.

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Writing Clear Science Workshops (SA, VIC, NSW, QLD & NT)

www.writingclearscience.com.au

Writing Clear Science teaches writing and research skills to science students and science professionals.

Writing Clear Science workshops include short lectures, followed by one-hour interactive writing exercises. These workshops help you overcome your writing obstacles, improve your writing productivity and enhance your research skills. We teach the skills necessary to produce high quality science projects, reports, articles and theses.

Three-day workshops are now open for bookings in SA, VIC, NSW, QLD & NT. Enrolments are available for Day 1 only; Day 1-2 only, or for Day 1-3.

Day 1: The Nuts & Bolts of Writing
Day 2: Writing Reports & Manuscripts
Day 3: Writing Your Thesis

Calendar:
Melbourne:
Tues 4th - Thurs 6th July 2006
Tues 26th - Thurs 28th September 2006
Adelaide: Mon 19th - Wed 21st Jun 2006
Sydney: Wed 19th - Fri 21st July 2006
Brisbane: Tues 8th - Thurs 12th August 2006
Darwin: Thurs 7th – Sat 9th September 2006

Course Outlines

Day 1: The Nuts & Bolts of Writing

• Developing Good Writing & Summarising Skills
• Structure: Developing a Good Framework for Your Writing
• Writing Style: Tone, Word & Sentence Punctuation
• Writing for Different Audiences

Day 2: Writing Reports & Manuscripts

• Structuring Your Report
• Essential Research Skills
• Publishing Your Science
• Different Report Styles

Day 3: Writing Your Thesis

• Designing & Writing Your Thesis
• Research Design Overview
• Thesis Construction and Continuity of Chapters

For further information, to download course outlines, venue details & registration forms, go to www.writingclearscience.com.au. Email info@writingclearscience.com.au. Phone 0416-097979

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Are you a professional involved in running Biomedical Research Projects?

The School of Enterprise, University of Melbourne, is pleased to announce our Specialist Certificate in Biomedical Research Management.

Numbers are limited, so be quick!

With the longer term of creating clinical outcomes for projects in human and animal health, including medical devices and dentistry, this course has been designed for professionals who are involved with running biomedical research projects, those seeking a more senior project management role on such projects and research managers who would like to transfer their project management skills to biomedical projects. This may include staff working in CCRE’s, research organisations, universities, start-up companies, as well as research fellows and postgraduate students.

Specialist Certificate in Clinical Research (Neuroscience)

The 25 points Specialist certificate is a Masters level award and is achieved by completion of the two four day subjects, Methodology and Disease Applications Part 1 & 2, with associated assessment. It provides full credit into the Masters program in Clinical Research.

Cost: $1975 + GST (Short Course)
$1975 (award course)

When: July 24th, 25th, 27th & 28th & August 28th, 29th, 30th & Sept 1st

Where: The University of Melbourne, University House, Parkville

NEED TO KNOW MORE? Check out more information here

Express your interest in this course or related courses by contacting;
Brad Atkins on (03) 9810 3185 or email b.atkins@soe.unimelb.edu.au

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Postgraduate Certificate in Entrepreneurship

Macquarie Institute for Innovation is offering a Postgraduate Certificate in Entrepreneurship to help aspiring entrepreneurs improve their prospects of success.

The Certificate provides an introduction to entrepreneurship in knowledge-based innovation - from idea, to start-up, to growth and success.

Certificate offered on a full-time basis on campus.

The program entails:

INOV 802 Intellectual Property Creation, Strategy and Management
INOV 803 Resourcing Entrepreneurial Activities
INOV 804 Technology-based Entrepreneurship
INOV 805 Life Science Entrepreneurship
INOV 806 Social Entrepreneurship
INOV 807 Foundations of Venture Creation

For further information please contact Macquarie Institute for Innovation on (02) 9850 4800 or visit our web-site www.mii.mq.edu.au

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ISI Web of Knowledge(SM): Getting the right answers, quicker

ISI Web of Knowledge is a single, integrated research environment that helps you easily search a broad variety of evaluated, high quality content in the sciences, social sciences, arts and humanities. In one search – through one interface -- you can access data from journals, conference proceedings, patents, books, and Web sites. And tools such as CrossSearch(SM), cited reference searching, and the Analyze Tool help you search, sort, and analyze the data the way that works best for you.

If you research –You’ll be able to easily explore multidisciplinary information and follow links to additional data; gaining speed with no compromise in the quality or accuracy of results.

If you publish – You’ll easily find high impact articles upon which to base your articles – increasing the quality and credibility of your published work, resulting in more publication in more prestigious sources.

If you teach – Your students will be assured of using the highest quality resources – finding valuable information in sources they may not have the knowledge and experience to seek on their own. They can begin with basic methods of searching, and move on to more precise methods as their experience grows.

For more information see website here, or contact Thomson Scientific directly via email or +61 2 8587 7948 or 1 800 007 214 (from Australia)

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Ernst & Young R&D Services

Would you like to receive a tax break or grant from the government to help your R&D investment stretch further? Do you need government R&D assistance but you are too busy to pursue it? We can help you. Ernst & Young helps hundreds of Australian companies to access substantial R&D benefits each year. We have extensive experience helping companies to access:

• R&D Tax Concession and R&D Tax Offset (cash rebate),


• R&D grants, 


•  Export incentives, and


• other State and Commonwealth grants.

Ernst & Young Australia boasts one of the most experienced and multi-disciplined Innovation & Incentives practices in Australia. Comprising specialists with hands-on expertise in developing technology and leveraging government assistance, Ernst & Young’s team is dedicated to helping clients gain maximum value from their R&D investments. Ernst & Young can help you to select the type of R&D assistance that best suits your company, considering your circumstances, your industry and your R&D projects.

For more information on how Ernst & Young can help, please contact an office near you or visit our website at http://www.ey.com.au

Perth: Robin Parsons (08) 9429 2251
Melbourne: Steven Batrouney (03) 8650 7571
Melbourne: Alun Needham (03) 9288 8099
Sydney: Mark Tafft (02) 8295 6987
Brisbane: Murray Graham (07) 3011 3264
Adelaide: Chris Sharpley (08) 8233 1685

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Looking to advertise a new R&D position, scholarship or call?

ResearchJobs is an email and website based service that lists advertisements for vacant research related positions, scholarships, fellowships, and calls for proposals within the research and development, scientific and acedemic industries.

See here

It is distributed straight to the desk top of over 11,000 researchers and management professionals within universities, CSIRO, research agencies and institutes, government departments and the private sector.

ResearchJobs:

• weekly electronic advertising medium for R&D and scientific positions vacant and scholarships
• email document that is sent to over 11,000 subscribers
• website that has been averaging over 1000 visits per day for April 2006
• ad length 200 words, $1 plus GST extra for ads over 200 words
• cost for both website and email document is $180 plus GST per ad for one week, $300 plus GST for two weeks, $400 plus GST for three weeks.

For further information see here, email scott@halledit.com.au or call Scott McKinnon on 03 8534 5000

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AusIndustry supports Norwood’s R&D program

Norwood Immunology Chief Operating Officer Dr Suzanne Lipe, is passionate about her work involving ground-breaking medical research to help people fight cancer.

Melbourne-based Norwood Immunology has partnered with US company, TAP Pharmaceutical Products, to bring its technology to the US market. Together Norwood and TAP plan to use TAP’s drug, Lupron®, to dramatically improve a patient’s compromised immune system to help fight a range of diseases.

Norwood Immunology was the driving force behind the discovery that Lupron® could stimulate T-cell production in the adult thymus
gland.

That research was assisted by Norwood Immunology's registration in AusIndustry’s R&D Tax Concession program.

“The excellent quality of medical research in Australia is a credit to Federal and State Governments, which contribute much of the funding for this work. But it is the important role played by AusIndustry, which has been invaluable in moving that research from the proof-of-concept stage to commercial viability,’’ Dr Lipe said.

“Support from AusIndustry has enabled Norwood Immunology to think globally and form a strategic alliance with licensing partner TAP, a significant player in the key North American market.’’

The Norwood Immunology technology is based on more than 15 years of research by Associate Professor Richard Boyd and his team at Monash University in Melbourne.

Norwood Immunology has entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with Monash University for the intellectual property rights in
the immunology field.

Exhausting research pays off

Dr Lipe said the work will not result in a treatment to eliminate disease, but it has the potential to assist the immune system in the fight against cancer, autoimmune diseases such as MS, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and HIV. It also has a role in improving organ and stem cell transplants.

“Medically it’s very exciting because the technology enables the immune system to function optimally. Our work is all about helping people
fight disease,” Dr Lipe said.

She said that significant medical breakthroughs were exciting because of the amount of trial and error in the research.

“Of 5000 chemical compounds that enter preclinical testing only five make it to human testing, and only one of these ever gets approved.It can cost up to $500 million to take a drug to the market,” Dr Lipe said.

“That is why government and investor support is critical in getting projects such as ours through this development stage.

“The experience with this project has been positive, the possibilities look encouraging and hopefully our success will boost confidence in Australia’s biotechnology industry.’’

Two major US cancer centres were impressed and committed to Phase II clinical trials in patients undergoing autologous bone marrow transplantation. One of these centres will measure the enhanced immune response in patients treated with a melanoma vaccine. Other studies involve cancer and vaccines against viral diseases.

Norwood Immunology and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston joined forces in another significant collaboration to study a preclinical model of organ transplant tolerance.

This project follows similar R&D Tax Concession ventures started in 1999-2000 between AusIndustry and Norwood Immunology’s parent company, Norwood Abbey. That project developed the Epiture Easytouch, a laser-assisted delivery device, to eliminate pain compared with traditional needle technology.

Contact: Dr Suzanne Lipe
Chief Operating Officer
Norwood Immunology
63 Wells Road Chelsea Heights,
Victoria, 3196, Australia
T: +61 (3) 9782 7333
F: +61 (3) 9782 7334
E: norwood@norwoodabbey.com.au
www.norwoodabbey.com

The R&D Tax Concession is a broad-based tax concession which allows companies to deduct up to 125% of qualifying expenditure incurred on research and development activities when lodging their corporate tax return.

A 175% Incremental (Premium) Tax Concession and R&D Tax Offset are also available to Australian businesses in certain circumstances.

The R&D Tax Concession aims to increase the amount of industrial research and development in Australia to develop innovative products, processes and services.

The R&D Tax Concession is part of AusIndustry’s range of more than 30 business products.

These include innovation grants, tax and duty concessions, small business services, and support for industry competitiveness worth nearly $2 billion each year to about 10,000 small and large businesses.

AusIndustry is the Australian Government’s business program delivery division in the Department of Industry, Tourism and Resouces.

Visit here for more information. In the top left-hand corner click on AusIndustry products, which has an alphabetical listing of all AusIndustry programs.

Alternatively, you can contact the AusIndustry hotline on 13 28 46 or by email to hotline@ausindustry.gov.au.

To view the AusIndustry eBulletin see here

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