Cooperative Research Centres

Information about the Cooperative Research Centre program, including centres involving WA researchers and investment.

Page index

What is a Cooperative Research Centre (CRC)?
The Cooperative Research Centre Program
Cooperative Research Centres involving WA researchers and WA investment

What is a Cooperative Research Centre (CRC)?

The Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) Program was established by the Federal Government in the early 1990s to bring together researchers and research users. The aim was to strengthen collaborative linkages between Australian industry and the Australian research community.

CRCs undertake research driven by the needs of industry and then transfer the resulting knowledge and technology to industry.

CRCs are joint ventures between universities, other research organisations, government agencies and industry. The particular research areas pursued by each of the current CRCs are wide ranging and the industries they serve are varied.

The CRCs also have a significant role in postgraduate research training and education for industry personnel. They produce graduates in tune with industry needs, and those graduates who move into industry careers are an effective means of transferring the science and technology of their CRC.

The Cooperative Research Centres Program

The Cooperative Research Centres Program was established to bring together researchers and research users. The program emphasises the importance of collaborative arrangements to maximise the benefits of research through an enhanced process of utilisation, commercialisation and technology transfer.

The following list of Cooperative Research Centres in WA provides a brief summary of the work currently being undertaken at the various centres. Please contact the appropriate centre for more information. A link has been provided.

The program is administered by the Commonwealth Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research. For more information visit www.innovation.gov.au/.

Cooperative Research Centres involving WA researchers and WA investment

A brief summary on each Australian Cooperative Research Centre involving WA researchers and WA investment is provided below.

Australian Biosecurity Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Emerging and Infectious Diseases

The Australian Biosecurity CRC’s mission is to protect Australia’s public health, livestock, wildlife and economic resources through research and education that strengthens the national capability to detect, diagnose, identify, monitor, assess, predict and respond to emerging infectious disease threats which impact on national and regional biosecurity.

Its objectives are to:

Develop more cost-effective tools and systems for disease detection and surveillance, and to expand our knowledge of the potential for emerging infectious disease threats to establish and spread within Australia
Transfer knowledge and technologies to the livestock, public health, environment and community sectors by enhancing national and international collaborative linkages and networks across research, government and industry sectors, contributing to more effective surveillance and response systems within Australia and the Asia-Pacific region
Equip researchers, professionals and members of the community within Australia and the Asia-Pacific region with appropriate knowledge and skills for responding to emerging infectious disease threats, in accordance with community and industry needs and expectations
Exploit the commercial potential of tools and systems for disease detection and surveillance, and education and training products.

For more information visit www1.abcrc.org.au/.

Centre for Sustainable Resource Processing

The objective of the Centre for Sustainable Processing is to find technological solutions for progressively and systematically eliminating waste and emissions in the minerals cycle, while at the same time enhancing business performance and meeting community expectations. Key themes are effective resource utilisation and materials efficiency, minimising energy consumption and Greenhouse gas emissions, reducing process waste and enhancing co-product values, reducing water consumption and impacts, and improving the control of minor elements and their dispersion.

For more information visit www.csrp.com.au/.

Cooperative Research Centre for Australian Sheep Industry Innovation

The Sheep CRC supports industry to transform wool, meat and the sheep that produce them in an exciting seven-year program of research, development, extension and education, running from 2007 to 2014.

The Sheep CRC provides innovative new technologies, practices and products to advance the profitability and sustainability of the Australian sheep industry.

For more information visit www.sheep.crc.org.au/.

Cooperative Research Centre for Coal in Sustainable Development

The Cooperative Research Centre for Coal in Sustainable Development (CCSD) completed its term on the 30th June 2008.

For more information visit www.ccsd.biz/.

Cooperative Research Centre for Plant-based Management of Dry Land Salinity

Through an improved understanding of the way natural and agricultural ecosystems work, the CRC provides new plant-based land use systems that lessen the economic, environmental and social impacts of dryland salinity and thereby help to sustain rural communities. Its goals are to:

Direct and influence plant-based research delivering agricultural production and processing systems that cope with, arrest and reverse dryland salinity, improve water quality and sustain rural communities
Create awareness, will and capacity to adopt plant-based solutions to dryland salinity for economic, environmental and social benefit to Australia
Provide an expanding pool of graduate researchers capable of solving the complex natural resource management issues facing Australia
Achieve effective collaboration among CRC researchers that transcends geography, agency, discipline and sector, interacts purposefully with industry and the community, and takes a lead in the effort to optimise the use of Australia's intellectual and research resources.

For more information visit www1.crcsalinity.com/index.php.

Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information

The Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information’s (CRCSI) vision is to be a world leader in spatial information applications that are affordable, useful and readily available to all, at any time and in any place.

The purpose of the centre is to create new wealth and benefits for the participants of the CRCSI, and for the nation, through research, innovation and commercialisation; educational activities; and through powerful collaboration that builds institutional capacity.

The CRCSI uses the collective wisdom of a broad base of participants to accelerate the industry wide growth; generate intellectual property; seek efficiency gains for government; inform environmental management; and best position the research and education programs of universities and other institutions.

For more information visit http://spatialinfocrc.org/.

Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre (CRC)

The Desert Knowledge CRC is a research and brokerage institution that links researchers with 28 partners. The Desert Knowledge CRC focuses these research efforts on creating useful outcomes with commercial application for desert people, communities and its partners. These partners provide in-kind and cash support to the Desert Knowledge CRC.

The Desert Knowledge CRC exists to:

Provide sustainable livelihoods for desert people that are based on natural resource and service enterprise opportunities that are environmentally and socially appropriate
Encourage sustainable remote desert settlements that support the presence of desert people, particularly remote Aboriginal communities, as a result of improved and efficient governance and access to services
Foster thriving desert regional economies that are based on desert competitive advantages, bringing together Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities, government and industry
Apply social science insights into governance, human capacity and the design of appropriate institutions to all these outcomes.

For more information visit www.desertknowledgecrc.com.au/.

Parker Cooperative Research Centre for Integrated Hydrometallurgy Solutions

The Parker Centre has made important research advances in many aspects of hydrometallurgy. The outputs of the centre’s work have been applied widely throughout Australia and overseas.

The centre brings together a world-class team of researchers with diverse yet complementary skills, talents and backgrounds who carry out fundamental and applied research on behalf of the minerals industry, at laboratory and pilot scales and also at operating sites.

For more information visit www.parkercentre.com.au/.

Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre (formerly the Pest Animal Control CRC)

The centre aims to counteract the impact of invasive animals through the development and application of new technologies and by integrating approaches across agencies and jurisdictions.

In the context of the CRC, 'invasive' refers to terrestrial and freshwater vertebrates, including overabundant natives. The centre’s key objectives are to:

Develop new tools and strategies to control invasive animals (including birds and freshwater fish)
Develop new services and remove impediments to empower communities to take greater and more effective action against invasive animals
Advance understanding of the nature and behaviour of Australasia’s invasive animals to maximise delivery from the above objectives
Provide partners with mechanisms for national and international business collaboration, to facilitate route to market for products and services
Build greater capacity to anticipate, detect, prevent, limit or manage the impacts of existing or new invasive animals.

For further information visit www.invasiveanimals.com/.

Predictive Mineral Discovery Cooperative Research Centre

The purpose of the predictive mineral discovery CRC is to generate a fundamental shift in exploration practice and cost-effectiveness by developing a vastly improved understanding of mineralising processes and a four dimensional understanding of the evolution of the geology of mineralised terrains.

The objectives of the CRC are to:

Contribute to the resolution of the key areas of uncertainty in current models for the formation of major economic mineral deposit types within mineralised terrains that have a high exploration priority
Build 3D and 4D images and histories of well known mineralised systems
Create a computational environment to simulate the 4D evolution of mineral systems with the goal of developing predictive capabilities for the location and quality of superior ore deposits
Create a commercial computational, visualisation and communications environment to allow companies to manage exploration and operational activities more efficiently
Transfer these concepts, skills and technologies into the mineral exploration industry to assure a long-term competitive advantage to the industry.

For more information visit www.pmdcrc.com.au/.

Sustainable Tourism Cooperative Research Centre

The Sustainable Tourism CRC was established to underpin the development of a dynamic, internationally competitive and sustainable tourism industry. Its vision is innovation driving a dynamic, internationally competitive and sustainable tourism industry.

The mission of the CRC is the development and management of intellectual property (IP) to deliver innovation to business, community and government, enhancing environmental, economic and social sustainability of tourism – one of the world’s largest, fastest growing industries.

For more information visit www.crctourism.com.au/default.aspx.