• DST Group engineers retrieve a Slocum Glider as part of the buildup to Exercise Talisman Saber 2013. Trusted autonomous systems research is one of the areas funded under the new scheme. Credit: Defence
    DST Group engineers retrieve a Slocum Glider as part of the buildup to Exercise Talisman Saber 2013. Trusted autonomous systems research is one of the areas funded under the new scheme. Credit: Defence
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Twenty two Australian universities will share $5.7 million in project funding to develop defence capabilities in areas such as trusted autonomous systems, cyber security, quantum technologies and space capabilities.

The funding, allocated under the $730 million Next Generation Technologies Fund, will allow Defence to draw on the expertise in Australian universities to initiate research into emerging technologies of interest.

Investment in the priority areas include:

  • trusted autonomous systems – $2 million
  • multidisciplinary material sciences – $960,000
  • cyber security – $710,000
  • advanced sensors and directed energy capabilities – $780,000
  • quantum technologies – $490,000
  • enhanced human performance – $390,000
  • space capabilities – $186,000

In a highly competitive field, a total of 428 project proposals were received from 31 universities across Australia.

“There have been 59 successful projects to date and each will receive an average of $100,000 to fund their proposals and delivery over the next 12 months,” Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne said.

Victorian university researchers from Deakin, La Trobe, Melbourne, Monash, RMIT will undertake 18 projects with a total funding of $1.7 million.

A further 14 projects will be undertaken by researchers at universities in SA – University of Adelaide, Flinders and UniSA valued at $1.3 million.

Researchers at six universities in NSW from Macquarie, Newcastle, Wollongong, Sydney, Western Sydney and UNSW will undertake 10 projects with a value of $965,000.

ANU and ADFA in Canberra will receive $720,000 to undertake research on eight projects while Queensland researchers at Griffith University, University of Queensland and Queensland University of Technology will undertake five projects valued at $496,000.

Edith Cowan and Curtin University researchers in WA will work on three projects with a funding of $283,000 while the University of Tasmania has been allocated $97,000 to work on one project in enhanced human performance.

For more information visit: www.business.gov.au/cdic.

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