The University of Melbourne and NICTA have had their ICT research and development war chests topped up with additional funding as part of efforts to foster closer collaboration between Australia and China.
As part of the Australia-China Special Fund for Scientific and Technological Cooperation — which is part of the International Science Linkages program — the University of Melbourne received $79,732 for joint research with the South West Jiaotong University on a "Z4 sequence design for wireless communications".
NICTA picked up $85,000 for its work on "graph-based representations of remotely sensed data for geoindexing applications" with Chinese partner, Zhejiang University.
In total, 17 organisations from a wide range of industries shared $1.5 million in Federal Government grants.
In a statement, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator Kim Carr, described international engagement of this kind as "paramount to the nation's competitiveness".
“Each of the projects announced today will contribute towards Australia’s collaboration with China and our standing as a world-leader in innovation," he said.
“Like Australia, China is investing heavily in science and research — recognising its crucial role as a driver of innovation and productivity.
“Engaging with Chinese partners enables Australian researchers to access international networks, technologies and infrastructure and realise greater benefits from their research efforts.”
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