The sixth round of Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) Projects has awarded 19 industry-led partnerships over $40 million in funding.
To date, the Australian Government has invested over $202 million into CRC Projects, which support up to 3-year collaborations between industry, researchers and community organisations.
In the seventh round of CRC-P grants funding will be prioritised for projects relating to critical minerals.
Critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt, and titanium form a major part of mobile phone chips, electric vehicles and other commercial technologies, and demand is growing rapidly, according to Minister for Resources and Northern Australia Matthew Canavan.
Australia was well positioned to become a world leader in this developing market, Mr Canavan said.
For example, lithium has tripled in price since 2010 on the back of a battery boom.
In December, an inaugural COAG Resources meeting agreed to develop a critical minerals work program.
Applications for Round 7 close at 5:00pm AEDT, 28 March 2019, with funding outcomes expected to be announced in June 2019.
The grants are delivered under the CRC Program, and since 2016 complement the medium to long-term funding (up to 10-years) of CRCs.
In addtion to the shorter time-frame, CRC Project grants differ from CRC grants in their focus on small-to-medium enterprise (SME). Thus, supported projects must involve at least one SME, and overall have to benefit SMEs by increasing their capacity to grow and adapt in changing markets.
Project participants have to at least match the funding they seek. As a result, the scheme's sixth round investment of over $40 million translates to a combined total value of projects of over $127 million.
An example is a low-cost solution for regional communities to transform inefficient sewage treatment ponds into self-contained environmental assets. The technology will recover water and valuable nutrients with minimal odour and greenhouse emissions.
Led by the Central South East Queensland Distributor Retailer Authority, the six partners in the project, which also include the University of Queensland and the University of Western Australia, were awarded $1.4 million with a total project value of $5.2 million.
(a complete list of successful projects can be found here)