The Hon Julie Bishop MP - Minister for Education, Science and Training, and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women's Issues

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Media Release

New CSIRO Research Flagships for Manufacturing and Minerals

8 May 2007

BUDB 31/07

The Minister for Education, Science and Training the Hon Julie Bishop MP, today announced $34.6 million in funding over four years to further develop research into critical challenges facing Australia’s Minerals sector. This complements the $36.2 million previously announced for the manufacturing sector by the Minister, and provides a total of $70.8 million for these important research initiatives.

The additional funding, to be provided to the CSIRO as part of the 2007-08 Budget, will look at ways to assist the development of these sectors in an increasingly globalised economy.

Minister Bishop said the funding will enable the creation of two new CSIRO Research Flagships, one in niche manufacturing, primarily focussed on nanotechnology, and the other focused on material sciences, and minerals exploration.

The new National Research Flagship in Niche Manufacturing will help existing high-value segments of the manufacturing sector become more competitive in global supply chains, develop globally competitive medical products, and develop next generation fabricated devices.

"Australia’s nanotechnology capability is growing, with potential applications in health, mining, agribusiness, energy and the environment," Minister Bishop said.

"Through this initiative, Australia has an opportunity to be an important participant in the emergence of entirely new industries."

The new Minerals Down Under National Research Flagship will be developed by CSIRO in collaboration with partners such as Geoscience Australia and will potentially enable the Australian minerals industry to discover and exploit billions of dollars of new resources.

Minister Bishop said the benefits of this ambitious research would come primarily from the development of new technologies to discover, extract and process deeply buried mineral resources. These technologies will sustain a new generation of resource development projects with the capacity to contribute substantially to future economic growth.

Media Contacts

Minister Bishop’s Office: Tory Vidler 0414 228 727

CSIRO: Jamie Nicholson 02 6276 6409

Supporting Information

Why is this important?

Manufacturing

CSIRO is a world leader in nanotechnology and materials research and this expertise will be applied via the new Flagship in Niche Manufacturing to pursue technology development opportunities with a focus on manufacturing Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in medical products, fabricated devices, sensors, and new materials.

Harnessing nanotechnology offers significant potential which can be compared to the impact of electricity and the microchip.

Minerals

Many of Australia’s mineral deposits are declining in grade and new discoveries are in decline. Research investment now will help provide sufficient lead time to develop new technologies to reach and exploit deposits yet to be discovered.

The research will underpin the delivery of new exploration techniques for both soft and hard rock at depth, applicable automated intelligent mining systems and novel processing systems (leaching biological and chemical).

The new National Research Flagship will support the Australian minerals industry to exploit billions of dollars worth of new resources.

Who will benefit?

Specific industries, and the community generally.

What funding is the Government committing to the initiative?

The Government is committing a total of $70.8 million over four years - $36.2 million for manufacturing and $34.6 million for minerals.

What have we done in the past?

CSIRO has significant expertise, strong industry engagement and a successful track record of innovation in areas which will be the focus of the Niche Manufacturing Flagship.

The new Minerals Flagship will build on the current Minerals Down Under Theme within CSIRO which brings together teams in the geosciences, engineering, chemistry, extractive processing, microbiology and materials science. CSIRO scientists in these areas are in the top 1 per cent of the world in terms of citations.

When will the initiative conclude?

The initiative will be ongoing with a review in 2010-11.