Last week (16 December) the Australian government announced the details for Selection Round 13 of the CRC Program. The Minister, Senator Kim Carr said applications from all industry and community sectors and research disciplines were invited to submit, however the two priority areas would be manufacturing innovation and social innovation. He suggested the areas closely fit the objectives of the program and are important priority areas for the Rudd Government and Australia. Below are the quotes from his media release.

“Manufacturing innovation can focus on traditional areas such as automotive, textile, footwear and clothing industries, or in new and emerging industries such as scientific and medical instruments, specialist engineering, aerospace, and advanced materials.

“Social innovation will target areas of major social challenge and will be interpreted broadly. Issues such as ageing, substance abuse, participation in education and sport are possible priority areas. Other areas include low socio-economic groups, rural and remote issues, and Indigenous Australians.

“The program will continue to support innovative research that relies on cross-disciplinary and collaborative approaches, to drive research solutions to the major challenges facing Australians today.”

As you’re aware, Round 13 is the round that we expected to re-bid for another term.

At first glance the priorities do not match our CRC well, however the Chairman and I will be discussing these ‘suggested priorities’ with our contacts in the CRC Program to further investigate the meaning for social innovation. The nominated taskforce will meet on 20 January 2010 to discuss whether or not we target Round 13 or Round 14and advise the Board accordingly.

Interestingly, Round 12 (the latest round) did not support any agriculture based CRCs, and Round 13 is suggesting a priority for manufacturing. Delaying our re-bid until Round 14 may improve our chances of success and has the advantage of giving us more time to prepare our application.

If the taskforce discussions recommend to delay the re-bid until Round 14, it will not mean we cease the current planning activities. As discussed in my Leaflet column, we will continue to build a very robust bid for another term which will be facilitated through the taskforce. As such, I encourage those that are considering new research objectives to continue their planning.

I will update as further detail becomes available.

Simon