Australia is home to just 0.3 per cent of the world’s population, yet we are responsible for more than 3 per cent of global research and at a higher quality than the OECD and the world averages.
Underpinning our world-class research and at the heart of its success, is the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS).
Australia’s long-term, collaborative strategy to fund research infrastructure is well regarded worldwide, and it’s a major reason why we punch well above our weight in the international research space.
NCRIS is co-funded by Commonwealth, state and territory governments, industry, universities and research agencies, and strategically invests in cutting-edge infrastructure, technology and resident experts to enable world-leading research and development for the benefit of all. There is also a new website, Research Infrastructure Connected, to make this network easier to navigate.
NCRIS funds and supports access to a large range of infrastructure, including supercomputers, powerful microscopes, observatories, accelerators, a biocontainment facility, plus data and databases used to predict the weather, study the landscape and oceans, discover more about Australia’s natural biodiversity and so much more.
The infrastructure is open both nationally and internationally, including to academics, industry, government and citizen scientists. In 2022-23, about 100,000 researchers used NCRIS facilities – 90,000 Australians and 10,000 from overseas. Over 4,000 research publications referenced NCRIS and the facilities it supports.
Enabling successful, real-life outcomes that can have a positive impact on the lives of Australians, the importance of NCRIS-funded research infrastructure cannot be overstated.
In agriculture, for example, researchers at the Australian Plant Phenomics Facility (APPF) have discovered new salt-tolerant genes that can help increase wheat grain yields in Australia’s salty soil. The Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF), one of nine original research infrastructure centres established under NCRIS, helped develop and commercialise a solar cell technology that could revolutionise energy capture by printing affordable “solar sheets” that can be installed on nearly any surface using adhesive tape. And at the Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre, supercomputing experts have partnered with clinicians in pioneering virtual tools to more accurately detect and better treat coronary artery disease before fatal heart attacks occur.
These examples highlight some of the most influential and ground-breaking success stories made possible by NCRIS maximising Australia’s NRI investments.
International Conference on Research Infrastructures (ICRI)
Australia is hosting ICRI 2024 in Brisbane from 3-5 December. ICRI is a prestigious international event, and Brisbane will be the first city in the Asia Pacific to host. ICRI 2024 will highlight the essential role of research infrastructures in addressing global challenges and provide a platform for high-level discussion between research infrastructure policymakers, operators and users, and research stakeholders from around the world.
All ICRI 2024 sessions can be viewed for free online – for more information, visit ICRI 2024.