The Australian government handed over $76 million funding to drive partnerships between universities and industry. The boost in fund, which is AU$16 million larger than previously promised, seeks to encourage collaboration of researchers with industry.
The federal government has announced over a year ago its plan to provide AU$50 million funding as part of the government's AU$1.1 billion National Innovation and Science Agenda.
"Australian researchers have no shortage of smart ideas. But Australia needs to become better at taking research and applying it in ways that benefit the broader community, or that turns our best research ideas into new job-creating commercial realities," said Simon Birmingham, Minister for Education and Training.
"We've worked with our research sector on the new funding arrangements, creating a simple, transparent framework that gives universities flexibility in how they support research and research training," he added.
The government has also revealed its plan to hand out grants of up to AU$1 million to Australian businesses and individuals. The grant will be committed to research and development projects with global partners.
As part of the government's Global Innovation Linkages program, the funding of up to AU$1 million per project over a maximum of four years is to be matched by the Australian and global partners. The program will see AU$18 million over five years towards collaboration.
Australia's former chief scientist professor, Ian Chubb, said in a report released last year that since entrepreneurship is a human endeavor, it is inseparable from education, not independent on it. He furthered that universities should be at the core of building a culture of entrepreneurship in the country.
"In popular culture, the entrepreneur is the rogue genius who succeeds without -- or in spite of -- education. And it would be extremely convenient if that were true. If we cannot teach entrepreneurship, we can only recognize the born entrepreneurs, and get out of their way whilst they get on with the business of change," he explained.
The government has also announced that it is seeking input from industry, science, and research communities on priority research themes for upcoming selection rounds of the Cooperative Research Centers Program.
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