Senator Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, today launched a $100 million collaborative research facility that will provide Australia's researchers with laboratories and expert support to undertake world-leading research into micro and nano-fabrication.
The new Australian National Fabrication Facility brings together state-of-the-art equipment distributed between seven university-based centres around the country.
During the launch Senator Carr electronically unveiled a microscopic image of a microstructure plaque measuring 20 microns or 20 millionths of a metre.
"This facility represents a major step forward in Australia’s capacity for research in nanotechnology and micro-fabrication," Senator Carr said.
"It will enable researchers from institutions and industry to engineer and manipulate matter and materials at tiny scales all the way down to billionths of a metre, producing some features as small as a few dozen atoms.
"It will boost national research capacity in many other disciplines that depend on these building block technologies. This type of infrastructure is essential to support the national innovation system maintain Australia’s competitive position internationally; but it also links centres of expertise and opens their research to industry," Senator Carr said.
The Australian Government has provided $41 million in funding to the facility through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy.
"Micro and nano-fabrication offer important technologies that will contribute solutions to national and global challenges including safe drinking water, better health diagnostics and energy storage," Senator Carr said.
The facility has 17 member institutions and has attracted co-investments from the Victorian, New South Wales, Queensland and South Australian governments to assist in establishing nodes in their states.
"This collaborative approach exemplifies a very important idea – that innovation is not only about applying new knowledge through proprietary ‘production chains’ but cultural change that embraces collaborative solutions to meet individual needs.
"I urge researchers and industry to seize this opportunity and make full use of it."
For more information about the facility, go to www.anff.org.au.
A copy of Senator Carr's speech is available here.
Media contact: Patrick Pantano, Minister's Office, 0417 181 936