Cooperative Research Centre program to continue

May 20, 2015

The Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) program will continue, after the Government accepted all 18 recommendations made in the CRC review by lawyer and innovation expert David Miles AM.

The future of the program had been under question and the 2014 round closed to new applications after the National Commission of Audit recommended that the CRC program be abolished and rolled into the ARC Linkage Program.

The CRC program is a key mechanism for encouraging greater collaboration between industry and science. Over the next four years the Government has promised it will invest more than $500 million through the refocused program, which will now have a greater emphasis on putting industry front and centre, and will focus stimulating positive economic outputs.

The review recommended a number of significant changes to the program, including structuring it into two different streams—the traditional CRC stream to support medium to long term industry-led collaborations, and a CRC projects stream to support short term, industry-led research. The review also recommended that applicants should demonstrate how their proposed research will stimulate growth and lead to outcomes such as job creation, increased exports, productivity, and integration into global supply chains.

The priority public good funding mechanism will be discontinued, and a maximum time limit of 10 years has been recommended with no extension of funding available after this point. The review also recommended that all existing CRCs be reviewed and only those on track to deliver against their stated outcomes should continue for the period of their funding agreement.

Read the review recommendations in full

Photo Credit: Tim J Keegan CC BY-SA 2.0

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