Two bids to boost the competitiveness, productivity and sustainability of Australian industries have progressed to the next stage of the Federal Government’s funding process.
Led by the University of Adelaide’s Institute for Sustainability, Energy and Resources, the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) bids – Copper for Tomorrow and Scaling Green Hydrogen – have progressed to stage two of the selection process.
CRC grants provide funding for medium to long-term, industry-led research collaborations. The proposed Copper for Tomorrow CRC is expected to bring together industry and researchers to enable the Australian copper industry to be the solution to and for a global net zero future.
With forecasts predicting a looming supply shortfall, the copper industry needs to close the gap between copper endowment and production levels without adverse impacts to the environment and society. Known and new resources need to be developed at pace.
There is an opportunity to produce Australian copper that can be certified as low emission, low water ‘green’ copper. Australia is well placed to lead the development of these technologies and methods and take them to a global market through the nation’s mining, equipment, technology and services (METS) sector.
Only six bids have been approved by the Federal Minister for Industry and Science, Ed Husic, to go through to the next stage of the Round 24 bidding process.
The Scaling Green Hydrogen CRC aims to become the largest single initiative in the country focused on supporting the vital scaling up of the emerging Australian green hydrogen sector to allow us to realise these expectations.
The University of Adelaide said that while Australia currently relies on coal, oil and gas, the country potentially has the renewable energy to keep supplying energy to the world during and after the clean energy global transition, and that green hydrogen is a key pillar of this.
Growing a nascent industry will need complex, multisectoral and systemic cooperation.
The Scaling Green Hydrogen CRC is expected to help de-risk the transition through collaboration and government co-funding.
The university’s bid teams will submit a stage two application as part of the next step of the process. The Federal Government will announce the outcomes of the bids in December 2023.
