The Prime Minister's Science, Engineering and Innovation Council (PMSEIC) met at Parliament House in Canberra on Thursday 17 June 2004, having been postponed from an original date of 1 June 2004.
The meeting was chaired by the Prime Minister, the Hon John Howard MP.
The Minister for the Environment and Heritage, the Hon David Kemp MP, advised Council on follow-up activities in relation to the Recycling Water for our Cities report from the PMSEIC meeting in November 2003. The Minister for Science, the Hon Peter McGauran MP also advised Council on follow-up activities in relation to the Science Engagement and Education and Closer Australia - US Engagement via a Free Trade Agreement: opportunities for research and innovation reports that were presented at the previous PMSEIC meeting.
The Hon Dr Brendan Nelson MP and the Hon Ian Macfarlane MP made presentations on the 2004/05 Budget in relation to innovation and science as well as on key features of the recently announced Backing Australia's Ability - Building Our Future through Science and Innovation 
There were three reports from working groups. Edited versions of two of the reports presented to the meeting are available below. The reports were prepared by independent working groups for PMSEIC and the views expressed in them are those of members of the groups, not necessarily those of the Australian Government. The group that was looking at Growing Technology-based SMEs is expected to continue its work so that report will not be available until completed.
A regular item on the PMSEIC agenda is "Exciting Science" which focuses on a cutting edge science with relevance to Australian society. For this meeting Dr Calum Drummond, Federation Fellow, Vice President Research, cap-XX Pty Ltd and Senior Principal Research Scientist, CSIRO Molecular Science provided a presentation on his work with cap-XX Pty Ltd - one of the world's leading manufacturers of Supercapacitors. This provided a practical example of an exciting Australian SME with the potential to expand into a major international enterprise over the next few years.
Dr Drummond's presentation is also available below.
The next meeting of PMSEIC is scheduled for December 2004.
- Future Opportunities for Australian Astronomy
- Science and Technology in Sport
- Exciting Science: Supercapacitors (Dr Calum Drummond)