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Australian innovation has global implications. The Australian Research Council is the primary source of advice to the Government on investment in the national research effort, and is dedicated to research excellence.
The Australian Research Council (ARC) is dedicated to research excellence. A unique organisation, the ARC builds linkages between the research community, government and industry to ensure support for the highest quality research proposals. Its mission is to advance Australia's capacity to undertake quality research that brings economic, social and cultural benefit to the Australian community.
Established as an independent body under the Australian Research Council Act 2001, the ARC reports to the Minister for Education, Science and Training. Under Backing Australia's Ability, the Australian Government's innovation action plan, ARC funding increased by $2.2 billion, doubling the funds available under the National Competitive Grants Program by financial year 2010/1.
The world-class calibre of researchers who apply for ARC grants come from a wide range of disciplines, institutions and sectors. Over the years, the ARC has funded thousands of highly innovative projects involving individuals, teams, and inspired national and international research collaborations.
The ARC fosters excellence, partnerships and the highest ethical standards in research and research training in all fields of science, social sciences and the humanities. ARC-funded projects often have a daily impact on our lives, without us even knowing it.
For example, ARC-supported research has led to development of the Cochlear bionic ear, Radiata's high speed wireless communication technology, the VentrAssist™ rotary blood pump, robotic wheelchairs and submarines, more energy-efficient long-haul train travel, unmanned aerial vehicles and artificial intelligence used by defence and security professionals, new materials, and many, many medical and scientific breakthroughs. The following are just three examples of recent successes backed by ARC funding.
Timing is key to
navigation
Institution: University of Western Australia
ARC funding: A$1.2 million, 2003-2007
Result: World's most accurate timepiece
An Australian research team is building a range of
‘clocks' which herald revolutionary
improvements in global communications and navigation.
Led by University of Western Australia's
Associate Professors Andre Luiten, Michael Tobar and
Eugene Ivanov, the team is renowned for building the
world's most accurate timepiece, a
microwave-actuated sapphire clock that is 1,000 times
more accurate than the closest competitor worldwide.
The European Space Agency has invited the team to participate in the Atomic Clock Ensemble in Space mission scheduled to take place during 2006-2008. The clock will travel on the International Space Station and be used in an experiment with a French-built atomic clock to measure time to pinpoint accuracy.
The delivery of precision timing at the level of 100 trillionths of a second will offer significant improvements to navigation. Using Global Positioning Systems, it is possible to locate a point on the earth's surface with accuracy to within metres. However, the new clocks are expected to be able to locate a point with accuracy to within millimetres.
Because the optical clock is governed by quantum principles of the microscopic world and the sapphire clock by ordinary physics, the two timepieces will enable the researchers to test some fundamental assumptions about nature. For example, they will consider whether the speed of light is constant (some astronomers have recently suggested that it is starting to slow), and whether the charge of an electron varies. The results could radically change the way we perceive the universe.
Left-hand photograph (above: The heart of the new UWA clock, a fist-sized sapphire crystal, works best at -267°C
World's
fastest scramjet
Institution: Centre for Hypersonics, University of
Queensland
ARC funding: A$1.8 million, 2004-2008
Result: High-speed travel
Australia's hypersonic scramjet engine will be flight tested in 2004 at speeds that, if ever applied to aircraft, could radically cut the time of long distance air travel. Sydney to London, for example, would take only a couple of hours.
In a major advance for the nation's aerospace program, Professor Allan Paull and his team at the Centre for Hypersonics at the University of Queensland are pushing research boundaries in the area of high speed travel.
The team will test new concepts expected to lead to greater flexibility in operational engines and work speeds in excess of 3,000 metres per second. Flight testing negotiations with several international agencies are in train.
Hypersonics is a growing area of research in Australia, attracting investment from international agencies and companies. Australia is a world leader in scramjets, launching the first ever successful test flight in 2002. NASA has an edge in flight control and scramjet development at the lower Mach numbers (the ratio between the airspeed of an object and the speed of sound), but Australia has the edge at higher Mach speeds.
Right-hand photograph (above): Launching the HyShot Scramjet rocket at Woomera, South Australia
Hardier
crops
Institution: Australian Centre for Plant Functional
Genomics, University of Adelaide
ARC funding: A$10 million, 2003-2007; Professor Mark
Tester – ARC Federation Fellowship worth
approximately A$230,000 a year, 2003-2007
Result: Development of drought-, salt- and
disease-resistant crop strains
Australian scientist Professor Mark Tester is
investigating the effects of random gene activation
in specific cell types of cereal crops that survive
in poor soils, to develop hardier crops and plants
with altered concentrations of nutrients in their
leaves and grain.
Australia is a leading global player in the important emerging field of plant functional genomics, which may unlock our ability to grow crops in drought conditions and saline or acidic soils. Professor Tester, a pioneer in this field, recently returned to Australia from Cambridge University in the UK to join the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics (ACPFG). The ACPFG, at the Waite Campus of the University of Adelaide, is a close partnership between the Australian government, several universities, state governments and industry. Research conducted by the ACPFG will directly benefit Australia's A$8 billion agricultural industry, in particular grain growers. Professor Tester's work on salinity tolerance will build on work at Cambridge on sodium transport at the cellular level, and his research into cereal crops could help overcome harsh growing environments in Australia and result in increased longevity and net productivity grains for Australian crop plants.
Middle photograph (above): Professor Mark Tester and his salt-tolerant crop
Published in Innovation Australia (2004), Stroudgate Australasia in cooperation with Invest Australia and the Australian Trade Commission, Manly, Australia.
