The Chief Executive of CSIRO, Dr Malcolm McIntosh, has announced a series of demonstration projects to be undertaken by large research teams at CSIRO with the goal of building a better future for Australia.
More than $20m generated from the sale of CSIRO assets and internal savings has been allocated to major projects to demonstrate the outcomes of CSIRO research. They include a revolutionary energy system, next generation telecommunication technology, sustainable city water, feral pest control and leading-edge gene technologies.
"We called for the most imaginative and far-sighted proposals our scientists could come up with, and sought the help of our Sector Advisory Committees in the process," Dr McIntosh explained. "This produced a list of 41 projects, almost all of which were worth pursuing."
From this list the CSIRO Executive selected the most promising, based on their scientific potential, the benefit to Australia and the ability to deliver results in a relatively short time.
In the field of sustainable energy, CSIRO proposes to invest $4.8 million to develop and demonstrate a revolutionary concept for the production of distributed electric power -a solar-fossil fuel hybrid system that runs with up to double the efficiency of today's coal-fired generators.
The system will combine CSIRO's leading-edge work in ceramic fuel cells with microturbines and solar power and a way to ensure virtually zero emissions of carbon dioxide. The project will go ahead subject to the findings of a 6-month feasibility study.
Another major project involves the development of a new generation of advanced indium phosphide integrated circuits for use in telecommunications and for application in radioastronomy. Millimetre-wave electronics, photonics (or light wave systems) and digital circuits will be combined on the same chip, bringing together optical fibre and radio technologies.
This research will enhance CSIRO's existing effort in millimetre-wave radio systems, a field in which the organisation is already a recognised world leader.
CSIRO's Australia Telescope will serve as a high-profile test-platform to demonstrate the uses and advantages of the new technology.
In a program likely to impact on the lives of most Australians, CSIRO will work with water agencies and industry on a fundamental rethink of the design, technology and management of urban water systems which could save our cities up to $300 million a year in water costs.
The goal is to devise ways to save water, lower energy use and reduce adverse environmental impacts in the urban water and wastewater system. It will also examine ways to extend the life of the nation's $60 billion investment in water infrastructure to avoid dramatic hikes in the cost of replacement, and to make it environmentally more sustainable.
CSIRO biologists are planning a revolutionary way to control pest animals through the so-called "sterile feral" project, designed to make pest animals and fish infertile in the wild.
The program aims to develop populations of animals which can be farmed safely but which become sterile if they escape and new ways to protect valuable domestic broodstock. Possible spinoffs could be better ways to curb populations of existing pests like carp, cane toads, starfish and rodents.
In the field of gene and molecular technologies, CSIRO has decided to invest $7.8 million of additional resources in three areas of particular opportunity:
Dr McIntosh says that the Special projects have been selected because they are at the cutting edge of knowledge in various fields, and offer significant payoff for Australia in the short-to-medium term.
The projects also reinforce the commitment of CSIRO to basic and strategic, knowledge-generating science, he says.
More information:
Dr Malcolm McIntosh, CSIRO ph 02 6276 6621 (bus)
Dr Andrew Pik, CSIRO, ph 02 6276 6034(bus), 02 6297 6870(h)
Julian Cribb, CSIRO National Awareness , ph 02 6276 6244 (bus),
02 6286 6022 (h), mobile 0418 639 245