Prime Minister Scott Morrison will visit the Hunter on Wednesday to announce a $50 million investment in a new business and research partnership that the government expects will create 1,600 jobs over the next four years.
The University of Newcastle and the University of New South Wales will work with 27 industry partners, including 23 small businesses to develop world-leading technology in solar, hydrogen, storage and green metals, and rapidly deploy new technology solutions.
The partnership is the third project to receive funding through the Trailblazer program, which is designed to focus Australia's research power on national manufacturing priorities.
"Our economic plan is supercharging Australia's research and development, creating more jobs and helping to build a strong economy and a stronger future," Mr Morrison said.
"We are investing in new clean energy technology to turbo charge our significant investments in hydrogen to create jobs around Australia, particularly in the Hunter."
Acting Minister for Education and Youth Stuart Robert said the university partnership and its industry collaborators had promised more than $220 million in co-investment, matching public funding by around 4 to 1.
"The co-investment of industry partners, and especially by the 23 partner small businesses, shows that Australian industry is hungry to collaborate with universities to unleash a new wave of innovation," he said
"This project will help harness the cutting-edge clean energy research being done in our top universities, including in hydrogen, solar, and green metals.
"This Trailblazer funding means more jobs right here in Australia, a stronger research and development sector and a stronger economy.
The Trailblazer's set of clean energy technological advances include:
- Meet the need for lightweight hydrogen storage that can deliver for transport and fuel replacement needs
- Extend the success of Green Steel technology to other metals such as aluminium
- Develop Australian-first zero emissions aviation in a form suitable for regional aircraft
- Develop ultra-low-cost solar with cutting-edge engineering
- Build the first at-scale printed solar manufacturing plant, providing the step-change needed to vault the technology to full commercialisation
The UNSW - University of Newcastle partnership was selected as a Trailblazer from a two-stage competitive assessment process where universities were required to submit expressions and interest and then more detailed business cases.
The Morrison Government has invested $362 million in the Trailblazer Universities program - an initial $243 million announced in November last year
This is part of the Government's $2.2 billion University Research Commercialisation Action Plan, which will focus the considerable research power of our universities on Australia's National Manufacturing Priorities.
