MEDIA RELEASE  Minister for Employment , Education,  Training and Youth Affairs

V154/96

Senator the Hon . Amanda Vanstone  Senator for South Australia"  "

13 November 1996

NEW SPECIAL RESEARCH CENTRES WILL BOOST RESEARCH

Australia's capacity for high quality research has been boosted with the announcement of eight new  Special Research Centres, the Federal Minister for Employment, Education, Training and Youth  Affairs, Senator Amanda Vanstone, said today.

Senator Vanstone was announcing the results of the 1996 Australian Research Council's Special  Research Centre selection round in Sydney.

"The Federal Government \'I,ill provide $5.7 million a year over the next nine years to set up eight  new centres - an average invesffi1ent of over $7 million over the period for each centre; ' Senator  Vanstone said.

"Support for these projects recognises the role that larger , long-term packages of funding play  \\

"Their funding underlines the Government's long-term commitment to ensuring research  capabilities within Australian universities are at the forefront of international research .

"The new centres will be based at the Australian National University and the Universities of  Adelaide, Newcastle, Sydney, Tasmania and Western Australia.

"They will cover research ranging from offshore drilling technology to theoretical atomic physics  and from mineral geology to the ecological impact of our coastal cities.

"The Special Research Centres have been established to allow concentration of research workers  and resources and to pursue research of outstanding quality within an international context.

"The Government's continued support for the programme will ensure continued a

"The intensive selection process and comprehensive major reviews every three years will guarantee  a continuing Government commitment to high quality research."

Canberra Office  Parliament House, Canberra ACT 2600  Tel: (06) 277 7460 Fax (06) 273 4116

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Adelaide Office  100 Pirie Street, Adelaide SA 5000  Tel: (08) 2231757 Fax (08) 223 1750

Senator Vanstone said the Government had demonstrated its clear commitment to research-"  excellence and was not driven by demographics, university size or age or by sectoral is~ues :  ~

. "We have now added eight new centres to the long list that has led to our bionic ear technology, our  leadership in astrophysics , ocean flow monitoring systems, new genetically engineered plants,  Australia-Asia cultural and business linkages and value-added mineral products," she said.

The Special Research Centres Program was established by the Fraser Government under the name  of the Centres of Excellence Program.

"The strength of the new Coalition Government's commitment to research can be seen in its  decision to provide an additional $130 million to research at a time of severe budgetary constraint ",  Senator Vanstone said.

The criteria for the Special Research Centres are:

" conducting research likely to lead to a significant development of knowledge;

" providing high quality , internationally-competitive environments for postgraduate research.  education and postdoctoral training ;

" acting as major linkages to international centres and programs;

" promoting interaction between universities, government and the private sector; and

" promoting research in areas of national importance that will enhance Australia's future  economic, social and cultural well-being.

The first Special Research Centres were established in 1982. Since then, the Commonwealth has  provided $130 million for the program as well as about $63 million for the other component of the  ARC Centres Program, the Key Centres of Teaching and Research.

See attached list for details of the Special Research Centres.

Further information: Christian Kerr, l\'linister's Office, 08 8237 7946

SUMMARY OF SPECIAL RESEARCH CENTRE PROPOSALS

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Centre for Cross Cultural Research -Australian National tTniversity ~  The Centre for Cross-Cultural Research will conduct an ambitious and original research program in  the humanities, focussing on the comparative cross-cultural history and visual ethnography of  identities in Australia and the Asia-Pacific region and researching cultural events for the Sydney  Olympics.

A core of longer-term appointments and an active program of visiting fellowships will involve  many scholars from within Australia and elsewhere in large-scale collaborative projects centred on  the production of major printed and multi-media reference \vorks.

This will be the first Centre in the Asia-Pacific region to provide graduate and postdoctoral training  in visual research methods.

Centre for Ore Deposit Research -University of Tasmania  The Centre \\-111 focus on the development of fundamental and strategic research programs into the  fonnation and location of ore deposits in volcanic arc and rift tectonic settings.

The research will involve innovative science using a multidisciplinary team approach concentrating  on the relationships between magmatism, volcanism, sedimentation, fluid processes and mineral  deposit formation, and its ultimate outcomes will be designed to give Australian mineral exploration  a competitive advantage in Australia, the Western Pacific and South East Asia.

Centre for Multiphase Processes -University of Newcastle  Multiphase processes are found in all Australian manufacturing and added-value industries, ranging  from mineral processing to water and effluent treatment and food processing to phannaceutical  production.

Increased knowledge of multi phase processing will reduce costs to Australian industry, and help  tackle a number of environmental problems, making industrial effluents and gaseous emissions  cleaner and helping with the removal of blue-green algae from contaminated water supplies.

The Centre will bring together a large group of active and committed researchers with multi " disciplinary skills, enabling it to become a national focus of research excellence in this important  area of knowledge, and a national resource of expertise for industry and the community.

Centre for Subatomic Structure of Matter -University of Adelaide  The vast bulk of the visible matter in the universe seems to be hadronic -made of strongly  interacting particles such as neutrons and protons. Energy released in reactions involving hadrons  powers supernova explosions, nuclear ioeactors and, of course, our own sun.

We do not yet have a satisfactory understanding of the structure of these hadronic systems, and the  Centre for Subatomic Structure of Matter will focus the research efforts of the very best theoretical  physicists in Australia to develop, in collaboration with colleagues around the world, new insights  and a deeper and more fundamental understanding of the structure of hadronic matter.

Centre for Integrated Dynamics and Control -University of Newcastle  The success of industry and manafacturing is predicated on the ability to control physical processes.  This is achieved by employing many technologies ranging from mathematical modelling through to  computer systems. electromechanical machinery. scheduling systems and chemical processing.

Currently there is a great disparity in the approaches to these fields. even though industrial arid  manufacturing performance relies on their simultaneous application . The Centre for Inte,graled  D ynamics and Control \vill prlwide significant industrial :md manufacturing performance-advances  by working on approaches to control and scheduling that unify the use of disparate technologies and  so improve the performance of industry in key areas including product quality. plant efficiency,  safety, productivity , waste minimisation , pollution control and operational flexibility.

Such improvements have been estimated by industry audits to be worth $1 billion annually to  Australian process industries alone.

Ecological Impact of Coastal Cities -University of Sydney  Most of Australia's major urban centres are on the coast, causing problems for the natural  environment and a large range of unique species of animals and plants. Management of these  problems is dependent on proper understanding of coastal ecological processes that maintain  diversity and interactions among species.

The Centre for Ecological Impacts of Coastal Cities will carry out integrated research necessary to  understand how disturbed coastal habitats will change.

This will allo\-v experimental development of theories to understand ho\-Y' marine species interact.  how they respond to pollution , fishing, urban development, creation of new habitat and disturbances  due to recreational use of the coast, greatly increasing our capacity to develop coastal regions with  minimal environmental damage.

Tectonics Research Centre -University of Western Australia  Continents have moved over the surface of the Earth for at least three billion years, forming  supercontinents, dispersing and then forming other supercontinents. The Tectonics Centre aims to  discover those supercontinents of which Australia has been a part.

The Centre will map the distribution of the dispersed pieces in Asia, Africa, America and other parts  of the world. Integrated structural geology, basin analysis , geophysics, palaeomagnetism, and  modelling experiments will be used to determine the configuration and geological history of these  ancient supercontinents, and produce an interactive computer-based geotectonic model of  supercontinent assembly and dispersal.

The results will improve our understanding of how the Earth has developed through time, as well as  providing a conceptual framework for exploration models for mineral and petroleum resources.

Centre for Offshore Foundations Systems -University of Western Australia  The vast majority of Australia's hydrocarbon resources lie beneath the oceans, requiring  sophisticated engiileering design and construction to develop them.

One of the greatest challenges is the engineering of foundation systems for structures to develop  these resources, many of which dwarf onshore buildings. Around Australia , this challenge is  exacerbated by the poor soil conditions , which have necessitated costly remedial measures such as  the massive diagonal strutting of platforms in Bass Strait and deep under-reamed bell foundations  on the North-West Shelf where foundation costs on a major platform can be in excess of$500  million.

The Centre for Offshore Foundation Systems will develop quantitative links between the micro " mechanics and engineering response of carbonate soils. and the resulting beha\'iour of foundation  systems, providing the fundamental understanding for safe and economic design of future offshore  facilities.

