Australian research infrastructure gets two-year respite
- PDF / 182,776 Bytes
- 1 Pages / 585 x 783 pts Page_size
- 100 Downloads / 190 Views
Australian research infrastructure gets two-year respite Long-term uncertainty remains
U
ncertainty loomed over scientific research funding in Australia early this year. A controversial higher education reform legislation held up in the country’s Parliament had put at risk funds of AUD$150 million (USD$116 million) for the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS), an umbrella covering 27 projects, many of which support materials research. It was not clear whether much of this infrastructure, employing some 1700 staff, would remain open past June 30 of this year. Relief came in mid-March when Education Minister Christopher Pine committed one year of funding for NCRIS to last through 2016. Further good news arrived on May 12 when the 2015 Australian federal budget was released: the lifeline for NCRIS was extended with an extra year of funding, taking the total amount to AUD$300 million. “This news is quite encouraging,” said Paul Dastoor, a physics professor and director of the Centre for Organic Electronics at The University of New Castle in Australia. “We’re anticipating that it will be enough to maintain research across all of our activities. One of the key things that the scientific community
needs is stability. It is key for materials research in particular to have continuity of funding.” Many of the research projects funded by the NCRIS are materials-related. One is the Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF), which provides microand nanofabrication facilities for users to process materials such as metals, composites, ceramics, and polymers, and transform them into structures with applications in sensors, medical devices, and nanophotonics and nanoelectronics. For example, the New South Wales Node of the ANFF provides facilities and staff specializing in high-resolution electron-beam lithography, which Australian researchers are using to develop a silicon-based quantum computer. The Australian Microscopy and Microanalysis Research Facility, which also falls under NCRIS and has nodes in various universities across the country, provides a national network of equipment, instrumentation, and expertise in cutting-edge optical, electron, and x-ray microscopy and microanalysis techniques. Researchers in materials science, metallurgy, energy, and engineering have all benefited from this facility. The steel company BlueScope Steel Ltd, for example, recently used the Facility’s expertise in atom probe tomography, a characterization tool that helped them analyze the nanostructures of their thin, strip-cast steels in order to refine it and make them stronger without losing ductility. A few other materialsrelated research activities supported by the NCRIS include basic experimental research in fusion energy at the Australian Engineers making quantum devices at the Australian National Fabrication Facility at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. Plasma Fusion Research
548
MRS BULLETIN
•
VOLUME 40 • JULY 2015
•
www.mrs.org/bulletin
Facility based at The Australian National Unive
Data Loading...
