SmartCrete CRC has successfully allocated all its Commonwealth funding
The SmartCrete CRC Industry-Led Research Collaborations Fund provided competitive matched funding between $100,000 up to $2 million to eligible collaborations. Partnerships were required to included at least one industry or government partner and one research organisation and their research and development projects needed to create new knowledge and innovation which support the competitiveness, productivity and sustainability of Australia’s concrete sector.
About the fund
SmartCrete CRC provided matched funding for industry-led research collaborations which address pressing industry problems, deliver material change, enable innovative solutions that improve asset management, drive supply chain sustainability, open up new export markets and support a technology ready workforce for Australia’s concrete sector.
The program aims to:
Improve the competitiveness, productivity and sustainability of Australia’s concrete ecosystem
Solve industry-identified problems through industry-led, outcome-focused collaborative partnerships between industry and research organisations
Encourage and facilitate, where possible, small and medium enterprise (SME) participation
Across three research streams:
Sustainable Concrete: Improve recyclability and incorporate the waste stream into the supply chain through innovation collaborations that support the circular economy, accelerate decarbonisation and drive the development of standards
Engineered Solutions: Better engineered structures through projects and initiatives that develop new cementitious materials, drive sustainable design and construction methodologies, provide predictive service life modelling (maintenance), optimise supply chance and support standards and certification
Asset Management: Protect whole-of-life concrete infrastructure through new technology that enables health monitoring and maintenance, fast-tracks new sensor development and data analytics
Key issues to be addressed are:
Supply chain competitiveness: Capacity of the supply chain to meet market demand with direct impacts on construction costs, project viability and industry productivity.
Lack of innovation: Loss of industry productivity and pricing improvements through inactivity of innovation in concrete formulation, fit for purpose construction methods and rapid alignment of Australian Standards.
Premature asset failure: Failure to adopt real time monitoring and sensing in assets to drive human intervention through predictive asset management to improve whole of life asset performance, durability and reduce maintenance costs.
Emissions reduction: Lack of investment in industry sustainability through the circular economy to repurpose alternative materials into the local and global supply chain and to reduce carbon emissions.
Outcome
The funding program set out to:
Establish industry-research sector collaborations
Lower barriers for SME research participation
Drive collaborative research impact
Increase industry + research capability
Improve competitiveness and productivity for industry participants and the broader Australia concrete sector
