Cooperative Research Centres (CRCs) are an Australian Federal Government program and are key bodies for

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

scientific Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

research Research is "creativity, creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular att ...

. The Cooperative Research Centres Programme was established in 1990 to enhance Australia's industrial, commercial and

economic growth Economic growth can be defined as the increase or improvement in the inflation-adjusted market value of the goods and services produced by an economy in a financial year. Statisticians conventionally measure such growth as the percent rate of ...

through the opined development of sustained, user-driven, cooperative public-private research centres that achieve high levels of outcomes in adoption and commercialisation. The program emphasises the importance of collaborative arrangements to maximise the benefits of research through an enhanced process of utilisation, commercialisation, and

technology transfer Technology transfer (TT), also called transfer of technology (TOT), is the process of transferring (disseminating) technology from the person or organization that owns or holds it to another person or organization, in an attempt to transform invent ...

. It also has an education component with a focus on producing graduates with skills relevant to industry needs. Most CRCs offer scholarships for postgraduate students. The CRC programme is administered by the Commonwealth Department of Industry and Science. Reviews of the CRC programme have been regularly undertaken. In 2012, an independent impact study found that from 1991 to 2017 CRCs generated a net economic benefit of $7.5 billion. This equates to an annual contribution of $278 million, or around 0.03 percentage points to GDP. The Cooperative Research Centre Association (CRCA) was established on 1 December 1994 to promote the CRC program while also acting as a conduit for information sharing and learning between CRCs. Over time the role has evolved to the extent that today the CRCA is recognised as the principal non-Government advocate of the CRC Program.

History

Since the commencement of the CRC Programme in 1991, there have been 14 selection rounds. Selection rounds were conducted in March 1991, December 1991, December 1992, December 1994, and then at regular two-year intervals: 1996 through 2006. Following the review of the Programme in 2008, the 11th and 12th selection rounds were both held in 2009. Selection rounds are now annual. A number of websites of the previously funded CRCs are archived in perpetuity on the

National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...

's Trove online library database aggregator.

Retired programs

SERC

The Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Space Environment Management was administered by the Space Environment Research Centre (SERC). Based on Mount Stromlo, Australia, SERC operated from 2014 to 2021 and conducted research into practical global efforts for space debris management, mitigation and removal. SERC Participants included EOS Space Systems, Lockheed Martin, Optus Satellite, Australian National University, RMIT University and NICT (Japan).

Bushfire CRC

The Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre was an Australian-based organisation which conducted research into the social, environmental, and economic impact of bushfires. Although the CRC has completed operations, a legacy of a decade of research content is still online and accessible. Funded originally by a grant from the Australian government's Cooperative Research Centre in 2003, the Bushfire CRC was funded to 2014 to address key issues raised by recent major fires. The Bushfire CRC was made up of all the fire and land management agencies in

and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, CSIRO, the

Bureau of Meteorology The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM or BoM) is an executive agency of the Australian Government responsible for providing weather services to Australia and surrounding areas. It was established in 1906 under the Meteorology Act, and brought together ...

, the Attorney General's Department and several other fire related organisations. A small executive office was maintained in

East Melbourne East Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne local government area. East Melbourne recorded a population of 4,896 at the 2021 ...

. The organisation participated in the Cooperative Research Centres Association (CRCA). The work of Bushfire research was carried forward within the expanded research portfolio of the

Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC The Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre, commonly abbreviated to Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC, from 2013 to 2021 drew together all of Australia and New Zealand's fire and emergency service authorities, land management a ...

, from 2013 to 2021, and now with Natural Hazards Research Australia.

CSSIP

The Cooperative Research Centre for Sensor Signal and Information Processing (or CSSIP) was an organisation established under the Cooperative Research Centres program. It operated from 1992 to 2006, performing research, development, and education within several

Information and Communications Technology Information and communications technology (ICT) is an extensional term for information technology (IT) that stresses the role of unified communications and the integration of telecommunications (telephone lines and wireless signals) and computers, ...

areas: CSSIP's education arm was assigned to

NICTA NICTA (formerly named National ICT Australia Ltd) was Australia's Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Research Centre of Excellence and is now known as CSIRO's Data61. The term "Centre of Excellence" is common marketing terminology u ...

in mid-2005.

Spatial information

The CRC for Spatial Information (CRCSI) was a research organisation funded by Australia's Cooperative Research Centre Programme (CRC) and by participant contributions. The CRCSI was founded in 2003 with the successful re-bid announced in August 2009. The programme ended in June 2018.ANZLIC News
, "The CRC for Spatial Information wins rebid". 10 August 2009. The CRCSI conducted research and development projects that involved collaboration between government, corporate, and academic resources. The CRCSI ensured Australia and New Zealand remained relevant in a spatially-connected world. The CRCSI was responsible for innovative research; the application and commercialisation of spatial information technologies by building

collaborative partnerships Collaborative partnerships are agreements and actions made by consenting organizations to share resources to accomplish a mutual goal. Collaborative partnerships rely on participation by at least two parties who agree to share resources, such as ...

.CRCSI website
/ref> A study commissioned by the CRCSI and ANZLIC in 2008 found that the spatial information industry contributed between $6.4 and $12.6 billion to Australia's

GDP Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjective nature this measure is ofte ...

in 2006-2007 alone.Sandra Ross
"Landmark study qualifies economic benefits of spatial information"

Computerworld ''Computerworld'' (abbreviated as CW) is an ongoing decades old professional publication which in 2014 "went digital." Its audience is information technology (IT) and business technology professionals, and is available via a publication website ...

. 14 March 2008. CRCSI has offices in Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Wellington in New Zealand. The CRCSI research delved into key industry sectors, including: agriculture, natural resources and climate change; defence; built environment; and health through the delivery of spatial information across positioning, rapid spatial analytics and spatial infrastructures.CRCSI Information, 2015
/ref>

Notes and references

External links

* {{coord, 35, 16, 54.54, S, 149, 08, 01.91, E, display=title, region:AU_type:landmark_source:GNS-enwiki Research institutes in Australia