Federal Government funds program to develop advanced scientific probes
Two University of Queensland academics have been awarded $1.8 million, the only grant made to Queensland under a new Federal Government program to commercialise Australia's "smarts."
Professor David Doddrell and Dr Ian Brereton of the University's Centre for Magnetic Resonance have received the grant to develop super-sensitive chemical analysis probes for use in medicine, materials science and pharmaceutical research.
The grant was made in the first round of the Industry Research and Development Board's R&D Start program which awarded 16 projects a total of $44 million nationally.
It was awarded to Professor Doddrell and Dr Brereton's two-person company Spin Systems Pty Ltd, formed two years ago to undertake and commercialise research in collaboration with German manufacturing company Bruker and UniQuest Ltd, the University of
Queensland's technology transfer company. The original intentionwas to take advantage of the Government's syndicated R&D programwhich has since been substantially altered.
Professor Doddrell said because of the Federal cutbacks in mechanisms for funding R&D in universities, new mechanisms had to be found, and the R&D Start program was a sensible way to tap into additional funding sources.
"We have been much encouraged by Vice-Chancellor Professor John Hay's expressed wish that University academics should find new ways of doing things in a changed higher education environment,"
he said.
"We have done exactly that, using a model espoused within U.S.Ivy League universities where companies contribute to the research of a University.
"In Australia, universities can access industry R&D funding only through limited mechanisms such as collaborative Australian Research Council grants or through the Co-operative Research Centres.
"The greatest reservoir of scientific thinking in this country resides in universities and CSIRO and we are finding alternative ways to fund that expertise."
Professor Doddrell said the majority of probes produced in the new project would be manufactured in Brisbane and exported to Bruker for world distribution. Bruker has asked for exclusive
rights to market the technology internationally. The German company is one of the two dominant players in the NMR market.
Spin Systems will subcontract a significant part of the work to the University's Centre for Magnetic Resonance, which has successfully completed several major research projects funded by R&D syndicates. This research has led to the establishment of a
probe manufacturing facility at the Centre which has achieved overseas probes sales of $2.5 million in the past three years.
The Centre for Magnetic Resonance is considered to be the largest and best-equipped NMR research laboratory in Australia and has more than $20 million worth of capital investment in state-of-the art NMR spectrometers.
Professor Doddrell said the proposal had been successful because of its scientific quality. It involved researchers with a proven record in commercially-oriented R&D and the resulting products also had a direct route to the market place.
He said the work had significant national benefits. Spin Systems would develop a new probe manufacturing facility in Brisbane,providing an additional five or six jobs. Manufacture would also
give local sub-contractors the opportunity to provide probe components.
Local researchers in Australian companies and institutes would have the advantage of being the first to use the new technologies, giving them an initial advantage over their international, colleagues in the NMR field, and confirming Australia's place as an innovator in this field.
"One of the main applications of this technology is pharmaceutical research, and it will help place Australia at the forefront of this industry," Professor Doddrell said.
The project would develop a suite of three novel high frequency Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) probes with the potential to reduce data acquisition time and improve research results through increased sensitivity.
Professor Doddrell said the three new radio-frequency probes would represent a significant breakthrough in NMR, and all three would have a marketing advantage over competitors in the field.
The Federal Government's R&D Start program was announced in last year's Budget to assist Australian industry to undertake research and development projects with high commercial potential.
Some 64 of the 100 applicants for program grants previously were submitted to the Board under the R&D syndication program and could not proceed under the legislation as amended in December, 1996.
Acting chair of the IR&D Board Dr Terry Grant said the grants were larger than the Board's normal practice, but smaller than the tax benefits previously provided by the R&D tax concession under syndication.
For further information, contact Professor Doddrell, (telephone 07 3365 4097, email: d.doddrell@cmr.uq.edu.au) or Dr Brereton
(telephone 07 3365 4245, email:i.brereton@cmr.uq.edu.au).
03/04/97
