ERA heads field for $21m grant

ERA heads field for $21m grant

The Western Australian Energy Research Alliance is believed to be the recipient of the State Government’s largest science grant, worth $21 million.

Ten groups have been competing for the major research facility program, and a Government spokesman said an announcement was due in two or three weeks.

The ERA, headed by one of Western Australia’s most acclaimed scientists, CSIRO Petroleum chief Professor Bev Ronalds, is focused on applied research for the oil and gas industry.

It stands apart from other applicants on at least two grounds – it is already up and running, and it has already obtained multi-million dollar support from the corporate sector (see story below).

The aim of the major research facility program is to foster the development of at least one world-class scientific research centre in WA.

“In the past our State has suffered from a lack of large international class research centres and the Government is determined to establish one or more centres of this calibre in WA,” Premier Geoff Gallop said at the launch of the program last year.

The budget for each of the proposed research centres must be at least $60 million over five years, with the State government providing about one quarter and business, research and the public sector providing the balance.

The 10 applicants collectively provide a fascinating insight into some of the key opportunities facing WA and the prime scientific talent in the State.

They also reveal a high degree of collaboration between WA’s publicly funded universities and other research groups such as CSIRO.

The applications have been assessed by members of the Premier’s Science Council, including Lions Eye Institute chairman professor Ian Constable, WA’s chief scientist Dr Bruce Hobbs and former Sons of Gwalia chairman Peter Lalor.

They focus on areas as diverse as plant biodiversity, Wheatbelt desalination, mining, genomic medicine, marine science, and e-science.

One of the most innovative proposals was Electron Science Valley, which promoted itself as “the gateway to a far reaching strategy to position WA as the place to be for scientists and entrepreneurs who believe in the vision of nano-scaled science solutions and consumer products”.

Edith Cowan University professor Kamran Eshraghian, who was project leader, recently retired from his position as head of the school of engineering and mathematics.

In technical terms, ESV is “the revolutionary integration of microelectronics, nanochemistry, photon and bio based sciences, and nanotechnology to enable novel materials with extraordinary new properties that will underpin the realisation of new components and systems”.

The goal of ESV is to create “intelligent nano products”, which would lead a shift away from silicon chip technology.

“While scaling of silicon technology goes a long way towards reducing the size and power requirements of components, ultra-low dissipation and nano-scale components require an entirely new approach from system architecture down to the actual circuit technology driven by new materials,” the ESV application said.

One potential use of ‘nano chips’ is in wearable personal health monitors, which could allow real-time tracking of patient health outside of hospitals.

A second ‘e-Science’ application is from the Australian Centre for eScience (ACeS), which proposes using high-speed communication networks and high-performance ‘grid’ computing technologies to link large and complex databases around the world.

Curtin University associate professor Merv Lynch described grid computing as being “beyond the worldwide web”.

“The worldwide web contains information, but not the data structures.

“You need to go beyond that and build data in a seamless, secure and efficient way,” he said.

Projects currently under consideration for ACeS includes a bioinformatics and bioprospectivity project that would involve collecting information on plant species into a single database and a virtual observatory.

Professor Lynch said the virtual observatory “means that you could have the world’s astronomical data as though it is sitting on the desktop”.

The Centre for Wheatbelt Desalination aims to research inland groundwater chemistry and develop desalination technology to solve water issues in the Wheatbelt and contribute to regional development.

Partners of the centre include CSIRO, UWA, Curtin and Murdoch universities.

“One thing that we are really excited about is, if we can crack this problem and show a triple bottom line, or even a single bottom line, the opportunity for this kind of technology is huge,” CSIRO Healthy Country principal research scientist Dr Tom Hatton said.

“It becomes an export technology for the State.”

The Biodiversity Conservation Research Institute (BCRI) proposes to build a “one-stop shop” for biodiversity conservation and restoration science and to prevent what it terms the “national crisis in biodiversity decline”.

It aims to deliver science-based solutions for resolving conflicts between biodiversity and economic and social development through a combined research skill base of 90 scientists.

The centre would be split across several sites and consist of four nodes including Plant Conservation, Fauna Conservation, Landscape Conservation and Bio-informatics.

The WA Marine Sciences Institute (WAMSI) would develop a world-class marine science research facility to underpin the sustainable development of the marine environment and resources.

On the agenda for the centre is research and development into the export status of WA’s commercial fisheries and improvements in sustainable management in the offshore oil and gas industry.

The aim of the centre is for research outcomes to provide a science base for management strategies and risk-based assessments of marine developments to allow the State to improve its management of future uses of the marine environment.

The backers of the Institute for Minerals Integration assert that Australia’s mining industry is not realising its full potential because there is “remarkably little technical interaction” between researchers working on different components of the industry.

It aims to be the catalyst for a “revolutionary advance across the entire minerals industry” by boosting collaborative and integrative research, bringing a wider range of disciplines into minerals research and strengthening the mining industry’s science base.

Participants include three universities - Curtin, Murdoch and UWA – plus CSIRO Exploration and Mining and Fractal Technologies.

The proposed Centre for Genomic Medicine is backed by about 70 of the State’s medical researchers, including the head of the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, professor Fiona Stanley.

It aims to make WA a leader in genetic discoveries and substantially boost the amount spent on medical research in WA, from its current level of $35 million a year.

The centre would for the first time bring together genetic and health databases in WA to allow medical researchers to find new genes and better investigate treatments for illnesses including asthma, heart disease, cancer and mental health disorders.

Backers of the centre believe it would attract investment by international pharmaceutical companies wishing to carry out clinical trials, as WA is one of the few places in the world to have access to such extensive databases.

The Australian Centre for Health and Food aims to address what can be changed in foods to give benefits to health.

“What we are wanting to do is take the kinds of food we can grow in WA and develop functional foods that truly give benefits to health,” CSIRO Centre for Environment and Life Sciences chairman Dr Mick Poole told WA Business News.

Partners of the centre include CSIRO, the Department of Agriculture, UWA, Murdoch and Curtin universities.

TOP 10 BIDDERS (and project leaders)

• Australian Centre for e-Science- A/Prof Merv Lynch, Dept of Applied Physics, Curtin University.
• Australian Centre for Health & Food - Dr Mick Poole, chairman CSIRO Centre for Environmental & Life Sciences.
• Biodiversity Conservation Research Institute - Dr Steve Hopper, chief executive Botanic Gardens & Parks Authority.
• Electron Science Valley - Prof Kamran Eshraghian, head, School of Engineering and Mathematics Edith Cowan University.
• Institute for Minerals Integration - Dr Steve Harvey, deputy chief CSIRO Exploration & Mining.
• Centre for Wheatbelt Desalination - Dr Tom Hatton, principal research scientist, CSIRO Healthy Country
• WA Energy Research Alliance - Prof Beverley Ronalds, chief, CSIRO Petroleum.
• WA Centre for Genomic Medicine - Prof Peter Klinken, director, WA Institute for Medical Research.
• WA Centre for Information & Communications Technology - Prof Kevin Fynn, chief executive, WA Telecommunications Research Institute.
• WA Marine Science Institution - Dr John Keesing, research director, CSIRO Marine Laboratories.