Senator Lundy today called on the Federal Government to increase the proportion of funding for Cooperative Research Centres from the information and communication technology sector. Senator Lundy was speaking at a tour of the headquarters of the Cooperative Research Centre for Robust and Adaptive Systems (CRASys) and the Advanced Computational Systems (ACSys) at the ANU.
“This campus (ANU) has the largest concentration of international researchers and students in IT&T of any other institution in Australia and has resulted in industry groups, government agencies and universities successfully being brought together for research and educational opportunities.
Chief Executive Officer of ACSys, Dr John O’Callaghan said that “as participants in ACSys, major vendors such as Sun, Fujitsu, Digital, Silicon Graphics and Storage Tek have provided world class infrastructure and this has resulted in rapid development and demonstrations of advanced information technologies to end users.”
“The CRC’s have provided opportunities and benefits for SME’s within the IT&T sector as well as allowing Australia to play an important role on the international stage. This means financial returns for Australia and a strategic investment in Australia’s industry.” Senator Lundy said
Bob Bitmead, the Executive Director of CRASys Ltd said “Our involvement with BHP and Boeing Australia has opened doorways to Australian and US companies interested in applying the results of our research to control systems in their designs. In turn, our research has created areas for future development and commercialisation.”
In highlighting the educational benefits of the CRC’s, Fulton Muir, Chairman of the CRASys Board said “the CRC experience has brought a heightened awareness of the business side of innovation to researchers. The top calibre researchers, graduate students, engineers and scientists will link into the development cycle for Australia”
“Investment in research, development and commercialisation must be restored if Australia is to participate in global IT&T development. The CRC’s are an excellent model for such development.” Senator Lundy concluded
For further information, please contact Robyn Blackwell or Kate Lundy on 6230 0411
