Vic govt announces $57m in infrastructure grants
Thursday, 14 April, 2005
A tissue engineering centre, a tumour tissue banking facility and a biopharmaceutical formulation facility are three of 17 projects that will share a total of $57 million in major infrastructure grants, announced today by the Victorian government.
Acting Victorian premier John Brumby announced the third round of his government's competitive Science Technology Innovation Infrastructure Grants program at the new Australian Tissue Engineering Centre today.
The centre is based at the Bernard O'Brien Institute for Microsurgery and received $5.2 million towards establishment of a $11.6 million GLP-compliant drug testing and tissue engineering facility.
Other grants included:
- $6 million for the new $12 million Centre for Medical Bionics, matching the commitment made by Prime Minister, John Howard earlier this week. Members of the centre include PolyNovo Biomaterials and the Bionic Ear Institute
- $7 million for the $16 million Victorian Tissue Bank Initiative, a dedicated tumour tissue banking facility
- $2.7 million over three years towards the establishment of a Biopharmaceutical Formulation and Finishing Sciences service for liquid pharmaceutical products to enter into international standard clinical trials. Total project value is estimated at $6.6 million
- $4.95 million for the new $18.25 million Australian Centre for Healthcare Innovation which aims to streamline the development of new healthcare technologies
- $3.5 million towards the $9 million Small Scale Technology Cluster
- , of which Biota (ASX:BTA) is a member.
- $3.5 million towards the $8.25 million Innovative Foods Centre
- $2 million for the new $6.34 million Retinal Vascular Imaging Centre which hopes to use retinal imaging for the early detection of heart disease and stroke
The first two rounds of the program funded 32 initiatives including Neurosciences Victoria, Clinical Trials Victoria, the Alfred Medical Research and Education Precinct (AMREP), the Bundoora Plant Science Facility and the Victorian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics, the Victorian Bioinformatics Consortium, and the Victorian Microarray Technology Consortium, among others. The program has facilitated more than $600 million in new private and public investment on the back of the $120 million investment from the government.
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