Mice and men winners in NCRIS projects

The successful projects under the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) have been announced, including the establishment of a national mouse phenomics network, a plant phenomics network and a national medical imaging facility.

Federal minister for education and science Julie Bishop said the government had allocated $500 million over five years for investment in science infrastructure under NCRIS, in addition to $640 million in cash and in-kind contributions from the state and territory governments, universities, the CSIRO and private institutions.

The federal government's $500 million for NCRIS was allocated in 2004 under its Backing Australia's Ability program.

"The infrastructure will support emerging industries, such as nanotechnology and biotechnology products, underpin mature industries and help to address national challenges, such as generating sustainable energy and managing our natural resources," Bishop said.

However, Bradley Smith, executive director of the Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies (FASTS), said the funding was not exactly 'new' money.

"There has been a clawback of $56.6 million from the Systemic Infrastructure Initiative and $50 million from the Major National Research Facilities (MNRFs) programs," Smith said. "That's $106.6 million and for the first year of NCRIS they have allocated $103 million, which is actually less."

"There is also the $640 million they have leveraged from the states and the universities. When NCRIS was set up its policy was that it not be used to leverage funds from the universities. I'm concerned that this leveraging requirement on universities is getting completely beyond their capacity."

NCRIS is divided into nine different research capability areas. One area, Integrated Biological Systems, will see the establishment of an Australian Phenomics Network of mouse production and phenotyping facilities. It will be led by Monash University and the ANU, in partnership with WEHI, the QIMR and the Menzies Research Institute.

In addition, $7.5 million has been committed to establish an online Atlas of Living Australia, a biodiversity search engine providing access to information held in biological collections in museums and public research institutes across the country.

A national plant phenomics facility will be established at South Australia's Waite campus of the University of Adelaide and CSIRO/ANU in the ACT.

Under the Evolving Bio-Molecular Platforms and Informatics area, a new co-ordinating body called BioPlatforms Australia will oversee $50 million from NCRIS for genomics, proteomics, metabolomics and bioinformatics.

The money will be divided between existing facilities and programs in these areas to build on entities such as the Australian Genome Research Facility, the Australian Proteome Analysis Facility and the various nodes at the universities and CSIRO.

In bioinformatics, $3.5 million has been committed to Murdoch University's Centre for Comparative Genomics to provide co-ordination and linkage across the specialist areas in the various bioinformatics facilities.

Microscopy and microanalysis is a big winner, with almost $100 million being allocated in capital expenditure by the state and federal governments, universities and research agencies to support four complementary national facilities: a National Microscopy and Microanalysis Research Facility, a National Deuteration Facility, a National Imaging Facility and the Australian Synchrotron.

The National Imaging Facility will receive $7 million to establish a national network of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) facilities at the University of Queensland, University of NSW, University of Sydney, University of Western Sydney, University of Melbourne, Monash University and the University of Adelaide.

The National Microscopy and Microanalysis Research Facility will receive $19.2 million for a national network of advanced microscopy and microanalysis instrumentation. ANSTO will receive $3.3 million to establish a facility at its Lucas Heights site near Sydney to advance deuteration, a technique which improves capacity to characterise biological and chemical samples, particularly using the neutron radiation produced by the OPAL reactor.

NCRIS will provide $18.2 million to help complete the first of nine beamlines at the soon to be commissioned Australian Synchrotron, initiated and championed by the Victorian government.

The biotechnology products area will receive $35 million to produce biotechnology products in pre-commercial quantities in three areas: recombinant proteins, human cells and biofuels.

An Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF) will be established with funding from several state governments, the CSIRO and a number of universities and industry partners. The ANFF will be headquartered in Melbourne and comprise seven nodes around Australia each offering specialist fabrication services, including rapid prototyping of nano- and micro-devices.

The facility will support the work of around 125 research groups nationwide and will see an estimated total investment of $63 million for equipment and clean-rooms.

Under the Networked Biosecurity Framework, $8.5 million will go to an upgrade of the Australian Animal Health Laboratory (AAHL), run by CSIRO in Victoria. The funding will go to construct 2000 square metres of additional PC3 and PC4 (pathogen containment) laboratory space for its use by researchers within both human and animal sectors.

Astronomy will get $45 million, an Integrated Marine Observing System will be established and receive $55 million, and geoscience will receive $42.8 million.

The other three fields - platforms for collaboration, terrestrial ecosystem research and population health and clinical data linkage - are still in the planning stage.