| | From Oz to Europe (and back again) 
I want to start by thanking all of our newsletter readers that contacted me after the release of the July newsletter either asking for assistance, congratulating us on a story or asking us to share information. It’s a great privilege that we at Future Materials and the Australian Nanotechnology Alliance (ANA) can act as a conduit sharing information and resources; but what I like best is the networking that I’ve started to note between our readers and the story participants.
Our newsletter is now distributed by email to over 10,000 people. This is mainly in Australia but our international links are growing, and it really is fantastic to get Australian research successes into the big picture. And it’s the big global picture that I want to touch on in this editorial.
In October a delegation of 11 leading Australian researchers is visiting Europe to undertake high level meetings aimed at reinforcing and leveraging strategic research links and relationships between the European Union and Australia. Two Future Materials’ board members and a foundation member of the ANA are on that delegation.
Travelling to Brussels for the meetings will be Future Materials’ Professor Jim Williams (ANU), Professor Robert Lamb (Australian Synchrotron) and the ANA’s foundation member Professor Max Lu (University of Queensland). The Australian delegation will be lead by Professor Chennupati Jagadish (ANU). I’m hopeful that I will also be joining the mission to learn how the EC has successfully implemented a range of measures that encourage research, industry and government collaboration in what they term the knowledge triangle.
I am looking forward to learning more on the EC’s knowledge sharing, technology transfer and collaboration. Australia is keen to learn from four EC framework projects which examine (a) complex electronic systems; (b) transportation; (c) climate and energy; and (d) regenerative medicine. These four areas have close parallels to Australia’s competitive advantage sectors. A better appreciation of how they are working in Europe will assist us in developing and improving our own strategies. Added to this, the issues the EU had to deal with in terms of encouraging communication and collaboration between research and industry will provide important lessons for Australia.
From international networking back to collaborations on home-soil, I’m always blown away by research applications developed by local companies. Consider, for example, the recent Sydney Executive Series industry participants Cap-XX (June) and RPO (July). Australia undoubtedly has enormous potential to keep building in this space. Despite a range of challenges from regulation through to manufacturing, it’s clear we have an exceptional R&D capacity here in Oz.
In terms of the Future Materials/ANA Executive Series this month, we have a Melbourne based event looking at defence and aviation. Also, shortly the excellent presentation given by Dr Sam Behrens’ from CSIRO’s Newcastle based Energy Technology Centre will shortly be on line and you can hear Sam talk about energy harvesting from infrastructure surfaces. Check our event file in this newsletter and come along if you can for great discussion on knowledge transfer and new ideas. And, keep in mind the great refreshments supplied by the Executive Series sponsor Davies Collison Cave.
In this newsletter you will also note that we have restarted our podcast series with a number of informative interviews. We have commenced a “conversation” series with CAST CRC and you will hear from Sue Keay in the inaugural interview. A further presentation from Philip Valencia of CSIRO and his work on wireless sensors. You can download the episodes on the ANA website, or subscribe to the podcast with iTunes to keep up to date with the latest episodes.
All in all it’s another big month, so keep your feedback coming and if you have an interesting story you’d like to share, let me, or David Salt who writes this newsletter, know.
Remember, I’m just an email or phone call away (07 33653829 or c.gerbo@uq.edu.au.)
Carla Gerbo
National Co-Ordinator - Future Materials
Director & CEO - Australian Nanotechnology Alliance |
