Our members

Changes boost university-industry linkages

21 October 2020

A greater focus on industry-engaged research funded through the Australian Research Council (ARC) grants program was announced today by Education Minister, […]

A greater focus on industry-engaged research funded through the Australian Research Council (ARC) grants program was announced today by Education Minister, Hon Dan Tehan MP. This is an important recognition of the vital role that universities and businesses will play in Australia’s COVID-19 recovery.

“This is not just industry-engaged research,” said ATN Executive Director, Luke Sheehy, “it is research that is grounded in the needs of our diverse communities, who will play a vital role in the COVID-19 recovery.”

ATN has always been a leader in industry engagement and collaboration. Throughout this year, ATN universities have been working with their industry partners, in particular small and medium enterprises (SMEs), to keep vital research projects and partnerships going.

“Our research partners, like many other businesses, have taken a hit this year, but ATN universities realised the importance of supporting them through this crisis so that we can build community and business recovery,” said Luke Sheehy.

The ARC’s Linkage Program encourages researchers and businesses to collaborate to build our innovation ecosystem and improve the transfer of skills, knowledge and ideas. This complements other business investment measures like research and development tax incentives and innovation vouchers.

The renewed focus on industry-engaged research backs up the Government’s support for university-industry partnerships to produce better equipped graduates through the $900 million National Priorities and Industry Linkage Fund (NPILF).
“We are pleased that the Government continues to recognise the importance of university-industry linkages to both research and learning through schemes such the Linkage Program and NPILF,” said Luke Sheehy.

ATN recognises the importance of applied and solution-focused research, and also recognises that this relies upon groundbreaking discovery research also carried out at ATN universities. The $1.0 billion boost to research funding announced in the Budget will keep our vital research going and maintain our research workforce.