Ampcontrol and Tritium to compete in worldwide mining decarbonisation challenge

Power and control systems manufacturer Ampcontrol and fast EV charger manufacturer Tritium will compete in the worldwide Charge On – Innovation Challenge for solutions to decarbonise mining operations. BHP, Rio Tinto and Vale have collaborated as founding patrons of the open innovation challenge, facilitated by Austmine, and have announced the 21 companies across the globe…

Why can’t Australia make mRNA vaccines? Because we don’t make enough ‘deep technology’ companies

Why can’t Australia make the mRNA vaccines? That’s not actually the right question to ask. The crucial issue is why Australia hasn’t been producing the type of companies that can make mRNA vaccines. Why don’t we produce more start-ups like BioNTech or Moderna – the two companies that developed and brought the mRNA vaccines to market?

Toshiba shows what Australia loses by undervaluing R&D

Comment by Peter Roberts The first efforts to lift Australia’s chronically low rate of industrial R&D came in the 1980s and 1990s as manufacturing protection was wound back by the Hawke government revealing a generally low-technology sector that preferred to copy others’ ideas rather than develop ones of their own. The original support for research…

Praxis Aeronautics pioneering solar powered flight – by Kerryn Caulfield

Decarbonising airplanes and drones is a major challenge as we move towards decarbonising the economy. Here Kerryn Caulfield profiles Praxis Aeronautics, whose novel composite structural systems are making solar-powered flight a possibility. The Adelaide based startup Praxis Aeronautics specialises in the design and manufacture of solar energy harvesting composite structures, using a process that directly…

Government presses ahead with autonomous vehicles

The federal government is pressing ahead with development of autonomous vehicle capability, which could have implications for defence, backing innovation efforts by Rheinmetall Defence Australia. Autonomous capabilities were announced yesterday as a new sovereign priority defence capability at the same time Rheinmetall was awarded a grant to support R&D into autonomous technology utilising 5G and…