Australia funds proposals for new defence materials

The Australian Department of Defence has chosen seven research proposals from Australian organisations as it looks to develop new materials for military platforms.

The proposals were submitted in response to a joint call by Australia’s Defence Science and Technology Group, the UK’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, as well as Defence and Security Accelerator.

Chosen from a total of 70 proposals (32 from Australia and 38 from the UK), the seven chosen proposals will receive AU$900,000 ($628,708) from the Next Generation Technologies Fund. The UK also selected seven other proposals, supplying them with funds totalling at £562,700 ($714,744).

The research proposals cover new adhesives for joining high temperature structures, the bonding of ceramic armour for greater protection against projectiles, and processes for integrating and repairing different types of composite. They were submitted by the University of Southern Queensland, the University of New South Wales, RMIT University, Deakin University, CSIRO and QinetiQ Australia.

‘These proposals will enable Defence to solve growing scientific challenges by developing versatile new materials that will lead to improved performance and increased durability for our platforms,’ Chief Defence Scientist Professor Tanya Monro said.

This was the first synchronised bilateral call for proposals between the UK and Australia under the Small Business Innovation Research for Defence initiative.

‘The experience has given us valuable insight and a wider perspective on problems shared by our two countries’, Professor Monro added. ‘This process could become standard to facilitate future international calls for high-quality, impact-focused research and increased collaboration with our allies. An opportunity exists for Australia and the UK to jointly progress some of these projects to the next stage.’