Industry should employment well again with universities - Minister

Australia ranks "very, very bad" the commercialization of research and must be raised, according to Senator Simon Birmingham, minister of education and training, in a speech to the Council of Australian Research.

He said that all the rankings, especially comparisons with other OECD countries showed Australia to be "among the best in the world for the quality of research results."

"But it will be crucial over the next little while that we lift the performance of Australia in terms of cooperation with the industry and in terms of the commercialization of research. Because we rank much, much worse when it comes to cooperation between universities and industry on research enterprises, "he said.

"We must ensure that our industries and our businesses embrace the opportunity to work with our universities and our research institutes and our highly qualified researchers to work together, to work in an innovative and to ensure that, where possible, great ideas, large deep careers are ultimately translated into results that make real differences. "

He spoke in Adelaide as he announced the award of A $ 357 700 000 (US $ 256 Mio) of the funding for 899 projects as part of a larger Grants Announcement of the Australian Research Council him.

They include 635 Discovery Projects where funding will begin in 2016 and that some A $ 245 million may be committed. Others included 54 connection, infrastructure and equipment funding, ensuring projects worth around A $ 38 millions. There were 200 Discovery Early Career Researcher Awards financing part of A $ 70.7 million 10 Discovery Indigenous programs that provide funding for some A $ 4,100,000.

The Minister said: "A strong investment in quality research will boost innovation, ensure jobs of the future, improve the health of our community, protect our environment and ensuring our researchers can compete on the international stage."

There were more than 5000 applications for awards compared with 899 who were successful after it was considered by some evaluators 6300.

The announcement came as the last report Deloitte Access Economics suggests that the national unexpected productivity generated by university research has provided economic benefits to Australia worth a third of the growth in average living standards in 30 years.

Increased productivity - worth about A $ 10.0 billion each year over the past three decades - illustrate the crucial role of university research breakthroughs to transform and modernize the economy of Australia, according to the report entitled The importance of universities for the prosperity of Australia and the launch of 28 October.

Productivity boost of A $ 10 billion is in addition to A $ 25 billion that universities contribute to the Australian economy - directly and indirectly - and A $ 12 billion international education annually.

Universities Australia chief executive Belinda Robinson said convincing conclusions in the report are further evidence of the important role that universities in Australia play in stimulating economic growth and warned that to realize the enormous potential of the universities in the country, the country should ensure that properly invest in education and research.

"In the coming decades, it will be the skills and intelligence of our people that will be essential for the strength of the Australian economy," said Robinson.

"At the same time, university research and innovation will continue to be indispensable engine of technological progress - particularly as we transition to the new knowledge economy.

"For millions of people around the world rely on discoveries made in Australian universities - I think bionic ear and a vaccine cervical cancer. We believe that this is just the beginning."

Examples of some of the projects funded in a statement last week included:

• A $ 650 187 researchers from La Trobe University, will evaluate how the historic gold mining has shaped river systems, which can lead to better management of the basin and reservoir.
• A $ 250 000 researchers from the University of Adelaide to establish an advanced DNA identification and forensic science facility, which will lead to results, such as improving pest and endangered species identification and missing person and disaster victims identification.
• A $ 572 000 researchers from Australian Catholic University to identify the characteristics of schools that help indigenous students achieve their potential.
• A $ 1,000,000 for researchers at Curtin University of Technology to build the second phase of the array Murchison Wide field in Western Australia, which will double the number of antennas in the array and maximum baseline length, and improve the ability to observe the universe.

In Adelaide, Senator Birmingham said it was important for Australia to maintain and be based on its reputation for research. He stressed that the Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull emphasis is placed on "the ability to be flexible, be adaptable to respond to the changes we see in the world around us" of Australia.