RMIT collaborating with industry to deliver life-changing outcomes

RMIT collaborating with industry to deliver life-changing outcomes

RMIT will collaborate with six small-to-medium enterprises and consortiums to help solve health, social and environmental issues, thanks to the latest round of grants given under the Federal Government’s Cooperative Research Centres Projects Grants (CRC-P) scheme.

Among the areas that will be supported by RMIT researchers are projects that include:

  • advanced manufacturing in the medical sector
  • research on the production of net-zero hydrogen
  • research on the development and safety of wireless charging infrastructures for heavy-duty electric vehicles.

RMIT Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Innovation and Vice President Professor Calum Drummond (AO) said this round of CRC-Ps was open to all industry sectors, with a focus on supporting projects in line with Government priorities, including the National Reconstruction Fund (NRF) priority areas and the circular economy.

“All of the successful grants possess huge potential for tackling important issues in our society, at a commercial level," said Professor Drummond.

“One of the benefits of the CRC-P scheme is that it fosters industry partnerships and collaborations, particularly with small-to-medium enterprises and the potential benefits are societal in their scale."

“CRC-P funding aims to develop new products and services, and I’m really excited to see RMIT experts supporting industry partners to grow and enter new markets."

Key research-industry collaborations

Advanced biosensing making testing easier and more accessible

During every IVF cycle, the patient requires blood draws every two days to monitor hormone levels, in order for specialists to know when to place the embryo. 

One of the successful projects is a collaboration, led by Symex Labs Pty Ltd, that looks to replace this laborious process with a simple saliva test in the near-term and long-term with a continuous hormone monitoring patch. 

It is hoped that the saliva test can relieve some of the burden on patients of IVF while saving time and resources in the healthcare sector. 

05 March 2024

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Test tubes containing blood samples This project will look at how to replace blood draws required for IVF with simple saliva tests.

Heavy duty and high-performance electric vehicles

Electric vehicles are a crucial step on the way to the creation of a circular economy, a sustainable future, and of course, Australia meeting its net-zero by 2050 targets.

Led by AceCon in collaboration with two research partners (RMIT University and Swinburne University) and five industry firms (Sea Electric, Fleet Plant Hire, Siemens, ARRB and Net Zero Stack), this project aims to design, build, and evaluate the wireless power transfer (WPT) system tailored for heavy-duty electric vehicle (HDEV) fleets, including electric buses and trucks. 

It will advance the level of WPT technology readiness for HDEVs by achieving improving the technical quality of the product while also providing economic benefits. 

Electric vehicle plugged into charging cable Numerous industry firms will partner with researchers to investigate how to improve wireless power transfer technology.

Round like a record: vinyl and the circular economy

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) – otherwise known as vinyl – is a versatile and durable material with many applications, from records to water pipes and wire insulation, and is indispensable to modern life. 

Australians consume about 500,000 tonnes of PVC annually and produce about 200,000 tonnes of end-of-life PVC. Unfortunately, less than 5% of this is recycled. 

The project lead, JR Hammer will work with partners, including Vinyl Council Australia, CSIRO, Ouroborus, Welvic and RMIT to develop an environmentally friendly dissolution technique to separate PVC from other components in the waste matrix to produce near virgin-grade PVC for reuse in new applications.

 

CRC-P grants are matched government funding of between $100,000 and $3 million for an industry-led research collaboration and can be for up to three years.

 

Story by: Finn Devlin

05 March 2024

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