

Media Release

INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH GRANTS

December 13th 2002 MIN 110/02

$2.5 million has been awarded to Australian researchers undertaking international  collaborations.

Federal Minister for Science, Peter McGauran today announced the successful  grants funded under the Federal Government’s Backing Australia’s Ability  Innovation Access Programme.

"Water is a big winner with over $1 million towards water research including  assessing and improving urban water resources and systems, an international  consortium for groundwater research and the management of safe drinking  water," Mr McGauran said.

Other successful grants included research into telecommunications, creating by-products from agricultural waste and pest control.

"In collaboration with France, Australian researchers are developing technology to  extract high value-added products, including surface coatings, gums and adhesive  films from Australian agricultural waste products, such as rice and wheat bran.

"Another project involving collaboration between the United Kingdom and the  CSIRO has seen the development of technology causing agricultural pests to  eradicate themselves. This offers significant environmental and economic  advantages over the current use of insecticides that can affect other species.

"$2.5 million will increase Australian researcher’s access to global technologies,  and provide economic and social benefits to Australia," Mr McGauran said.

The list of successful applicants is attached.



For more information: Jodie Forbes (Mr McGauran’s Office) 0419 622 915



No.

Organisation  Name Project Title

Project Summary

1 VPIsystems Verification of Photonic

Systems Simulations at  ACREO

This project will give VPIsystems hands-on  access to commercial telecommunications  equipment to verify (using careful  measurement procedures on commercial  telecommunications components followed by  comparisons of laboratory experiments with  computer simulations) software tools for  designing fiber optic telecommunications  equipment. The expected outcomes include  improved models and test cases for software.

2 CSIRO (MIT & L&W) Assessing and Improving  Sustainability of Urban  Water Resources and  Systems

This project is the Australian component of the  European Union Fifth Framework Programme  AISUWRS ‘Assessing and Improving  Sustainability of Urban Water Resources and  Systems’. The major outcome of this project  will be a methodology that will allow cities to  assess the long-term viability of their ground  water supplies for potable water use.

3 University of  Melbourne  Rapid Identification of  Plant Cell Wall Mutations

By Fourier Transform  InfraRed Resonance  (FTIR) microspectroscopy

This project will undertake collaborative  research with INRA Laboratories, Versailles,  France to gain access to the developed genetic  resources and FTIR technology in order to  advance research at the Plant Cell Biology  Research Centre (PCBRC); to further develop  the FTIR technology in collaboration with the  INRA group; transfer technology to the PCBRC:  implement the technology in PCBRC’s  basic/strategic/applied research programs and  bring researchers from France to Australia so  that they can access PCBRC’s expertise in  complex carbohydrate and proteomic analysis.

4 University of New  South Wales  Managing microbial  drinking water safety

from source to tap (EU-MICRORISK)

The objective of this project is to provide key  scientific input to the EU MICRORISK project  which is developing methods for qualitative and  quantitative microbiological risk assessment of  drinking waters. The overall outcome of the  project is a harmonised, evaluated and  validated framework for risk assessment  providing adequate information for risk  management. The outcome of the risk  assessment will be validated against the best  available knowledge of the incidence and  transmission routes of selected pathogens in a  variety of regions.

5 CSIRO Division of  Manufacturing and  Infrastructure  Technology (CMIT)

CARE-S: Development of  Decision Support Tools for  Sustainable Sewer  Network Management

This project is the Australian component of the  project Computer Aided Rehabilitation of Sewer  Networks (CARE-S), a project under the  European Fifth Framework Programme. The  project deals with problems caused by ageing,  structural failures, inflow/infiltration, exfiltration  (leaking) and insufficient capacity of sewer and  stormwater networks which can cause floods,  pollution of receiving waters, pollution of  ground water and soil, treatment plant impacts  and increasing maintenance costs. The project’s  objective is to establish a rational framework  for sewer network rehabilitation decision-making. It aims to analyse the structural and  functional reliability of wastewater networks at  minimum cost and service disruption. The  ultimate product will be a Decision Support  System (DSS) to establish and maintain  effective management of sewer networks.

6 Australian Photonics  CRC  International Photonics  Workshop / School.

Workshops with China, Korea and Singapore  will be undertaken to showcase Australian  capabilities and to access leading-edge  photonics technologies that are not available in  Australia. These technologies and research  capabilities span optoelectronic  semiconductors, advanced non-linear optical  materials, display and storage technologies and  photonic mass-manufacturing and production  technologies. The workshops will provide an  important opportunity to establish strategic  alliances with some of the world’s best research  institutions and companies.

7 University of  Melbourne  International Workshop  on Noncrystallographic

Phase Retrieval

The International Workshop on  Noncrystallographic Phase Retrieval will  concentrate on methods for solving the phase  problem for non-crystalline samples and their  applications to quantitative X-ray and electron  imaging. The workshop is intended to  strengthen the existing, and establish new,  strategic alliances between Australian and  overseas scientists, in particular with scientists  from the USA, Japan and the European Union  (the countries leading the world in the area of  quantitative imaging and microscopy).

8 Kimberley

Aquaculture  Aboriginal  Corporation

Thailand mission to  facilitate access to leading  edge technology in fresh  water prawn aquaculture

The project will undertake a mission to Thailand  to facilitate access to leading edge technology  in prawn farming with special reference to the  giant freshwater prawn or Cherabin  Machrobrachium rosenbergii.

9 Institute for

Molecular Bioscience,  University of  Queensland

Re-engineering HIV-1  Proteinase  This research project adapts a novel approach  using total chemical synthesis to study the

enzyme action of the HIV-1 PR, an aspartyl  protease essential for the replication of the  AIDS virus. It is expected that significant new  insights into the molecular basis of the  properties of the HIV-1 PR will be obtained.

10 University of Sydney Value-added materials  from Australian and  French agricultural waste

The French partner (Laboratoire de Chimie  Agro-industrielle) leads the world in developing  technology for extracting high value-added  products, like gums, surface coatings and  water-reversible adhesive films from  agricultural by-products. New technology was  recently developed between the French and  Australian partners, dramatically reducing the  amount of ethanol using selective flocculation,  making the technology leading edge. The  project will lead to new value-added products  for current 'waste' materials, which would  increase income to Australian rural industries.

11 The University of  New South Wales   Canada-Australia  workshop on synchrotron

techniques for the  minerals industry

Six Australians will be supported to participate  in a highly-focused workshop to be held at the  University of Western Ontario (UWO) in April  2003 to advance the leading edge technology  associated with the application of synchrotron  radiation spectroscopic methods to minerals  processing research.

12 Centre for  Groundwater Studies  International Consortium  for Groundwater

Research: Australia,  Germany and Canada

This project will contribute towards Australian  participation in an international consortium to  promote groundwater science within an overall  environmental framework. The expected  outcomes of the project include a better  understanding and predictive capability for  assessing risks of contamination from complex  non-aqueous phase organic liquids and for  remediation of these.

13 Australian National  University  Visit of NASA  astronaut/scientist to

Dr Chang-Diaz is the director of the Advanced  Space Propulsion Laboratory (ASPL) at Johnson

collaborate with ANU and  AUSPACE and to give  public lectures.

Space Centre (JSC) in Houston and is a very  experienced NASA astronaut. He has been  invited to Canberra to collaborate with the  plasma thruster group of 3 researchers at the  ANU and its newly developed Helicon Double  Layer Plasma Thruster. Dr Chang-Diaz's visit  will help build alliances with NASA.

14 Forest Science  Centre, Natural  Resources and  Environment

Emissions of volatile  organic compounds from  eucalypts: contributions  to climate change

This project will deliver estimates of VOC  emissions from eucalypts in their native habitat  that can then be used to scale global emissions  of VOCs from eucalypt plantations. The outputs  will be several scientific papers that will be of  immediate relevance to policy makers and land-use planners throughout the world.

15 Macquarie University QUPRODIS - Quantum  Properties of Distributed  Systems

The project is the Australian part of the  European Fifth Framework project 'Quantum  Properties of Distributed Systems' (QUPRODIS).  This project's objectives are collaborative  investigations into the fundamental physical  properties of distributed systems or 'networks',  used for computing or communication over  large physical areas. By bringing together  leading researchers in Europe and Australia,  new scientific advances will be achieved that  may lead to future computing and  communication technologies.

16 CSIRO Entomology Microbial Pest Control for  Sustainable Peri-urban  Agriculture

The project will develop novel microbial control  products and strategies based on fungal  pathogens for control of three key soil and  foliar pests in Brassica vegetable production  systems. A successful outcome to this project  will benefit Australia through increased market  opportunities for SME’s that adopt the  technology, improvements to Australia’s  research capacity and the ability to develop  novel control strategies for other pests, and the  advantages that ‘clean and green’ produce  confers upon Australia’s export and domestic  markets.

17  IPGSA  Conference   2004  18th International  Conference on Plant

Growth Substances

The 18th International Conference on Plant  Growth Substances will be held in Canberra  from 20-24 September, 2004. The conference  is the 18th triennial conference sponsored by  the International Plant Growth Substances  Association (IPGSA). Progress in understanding  the perception and action of plant hormones  and the roles played by hormones in controlling  gene expression, co-ordinating growth and  development in plants, and mediating stress  adaptation, is progressing rapidly and this  conference is the peak gathering of researchers  in these fields. It will bring together a wide  spectrum of researchers from about 45  countries.

18 Victor Chang Cardiac  Research Institute  International Society of  Developmental Biologists

Congress, 2005

The International Society of Developmental  Biologists (ISDB) Congress, Sydney 2005, will  be a high profile international conference  bringing together experts in the fields of  developmental and cell biology, and  biochemistry. It will substantially increase  access of Australian researchers and Australian  industries to global state-of-the-art  technologies in the biomedical sciences.

19  Genetraks Pty Ltd Development of Market-Driven Computational  Biology Infrastructure For  Advanced Education &  Training

Genetraks, a Brisbane-based bioinformatics  company, is currently working with four leading  US-based technology companies and the  Colorado State University to collaboratively  discover and develop bio-databases of  information for direct application to drug

development and diagnostics. This project aims  to take greater advantage of the know-how  that Genetraks is developing by widely  disseminating specific market-driven product  and service knowledge, techniques,  methodologies and know-how in bioinformatics  and computational biology within Australia.

20 University of  Melbourne  Phase imaging of cold  atoms

This project will extend new techniques in  optical phase imaging, developed at the  University of Melbourne, to the imaging of  ultracold atoms. It will demonstrate non-destructive measurements of important  parameters in a diverse range of experiments.  The project will employ the new techniques to  phase imaging of ultra cold metastable neon  and helium atom sources developed at the  University of Eindhoven.







