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CRC Program

CSRP Newsletter, May 2009

Welcome to the May09 edition of the CSRP Newsletter. If you wish to have anything included in the newsletter, please email Lisa Laurie at lisa.laurie@csrp.com.au

[] News from the Green room

The Department of Innovation conducted general information sessions on the CRC Program in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra during May. In particular, these sessions were to cover the lessons learnt from the Application and Stage 1 Assessment processes of the 11th CRC Selection Round, including what makes an application competitive.

Mark Neville and I attended the session in Canberra, which was hosted by the CRC Program General Manager, Stella Morahan. The feedback provided on unsuccessful bids was very general in nature. Written feedback will be provided to unsuccessful bids only after the announcement of the successful bids in July. Face-to-face feedback would be provided by the CRC Committee Chair and Stella Morahan after that.

Subsequent to the information sessions, the 12th CRC Selection Round was announced by the Minister. Bids are now open for this new round and close on 14 August 2009. This is somewhat sooner than had been anticipated!

At this stage, the Executive and Governing Board are re-grouping and considering the option of submitting another bid in Round 12. In parallel, plans are being developed for the wind-up of the current program of work by June 2010.

All CSRP researchers and industry partners are welcome to provide any feedback they may have on the recent bid process.

> Please contact me either by telephone 08 6436 8734 or email stevan.green@csrp.com.au

[] Pathfinders: The innovators conference

Each year the CRC Association organises a major showcase and educational conference, which was held at the National Convention Centre in Canberra from 26-28 May. The route out of the quagmire of the global financial crisis was the focus of this year’s Pathfinders: The innovator’s conference.

As there are approximately 49 CRCs across Australia covering six industry sectors, the conference topics are always varied and of interest to delegates from a range of backgrounds. Some speakers included:

This year the conference was held in conjunction with the Australian Science Festival and had a number of events targeted at attracting school students to follow careers in science. The Hot Innovation session open to schools and the general public was moderated by Video Hits presenter "Fuzzy" as she spoke to young scientists and innovators about their careers and research and what’s hot in science right now. Students from the audience were encouraged to ask questions and did so with much enthusiasm and interest.

Congratulations to our Education Manager, Dan Churach, who won a bottle of Grange in the annual Great Grange Draw – the HQ staff look forward to sharing this with him!

> Next year’s CRC Association conference will be held in Alice Springs during May.

[] Fireproof concrete that has risen from the ashes

CSRP student William Rickard, studying at Curtin University of Technology, submitted an abstract of his work to the CRC Association’s Showcasing Early Career Scientists event for their annual conference held in Canberra on 26-28 May. Will’s application entitled “From waste to paste: Fireproof concrete that has risen from the ashes” was ranked in the top 4 of the 35 applications and he was invited to present to the conference delegates. Will’s supervisor is Prof Arie van Riessen.

[] ReSand® demonstrations

Approximately 2,500 tonnes of ReSand® has been used in trial construction of road works in Western Australia. This demonstration was very successful with good reports from the construction team and further trials have been suggested. A nutrient stripping trial facility using red mud was installed on the Perth–Bunbury Highway. Testing will be carried out this winter and next to determine its effectiveness.

[] Geopolymer Alliance prospectus

The Geopolymer Alliance prospectus was issued in May. The mission of the Geopolymer Alliance is to cooperatively develop mutually beneficial applications for geopolymer technology by bringing together research institutes, the engineering fraternity, Government authorities, industrial by-product generators, cement manufacturers, chemicals suppliers, concrete aggregate suppliers, concrete manufacturers, infrastructure owners and industry regulators.

> Download the Prospectus

[] CSRP staff rate for SDIMI 2009

The University of Queensland’s Sustainable Minerals Institute, The AusIMM and CSRP invite you to participate in the 2009 SDIMI Conference being held on the Gold Coast from 6-8 July.

As a CSRP staff member you receive a reduced registration fee to SDIMI 2009!
> Please email Lisa Laurie for the special CSRP registration form

The technical program includes the CSRP/SDIMI Sustainability Assessment Forum. The objectives of the forum are to present actual case studies on implementing sustainability initiatives, discuss the learnings from these case studies and elicit potentially feasible methods for putting sustainability initiatives into practice. The forum will be lead by a panel of expert sustainability practitioners from industry and research.

Other conference topics include # Designing for sustainable development # Innovative methods in sustainable development assessment # Mining and minerals processing in a carbon constrained world # Education and professional development for sustainability # Waste and by-products # Emerging mining countries # and much more

> Visit the conference website www.ausimm.com.au/sdimi2009/ for more information

[] Upcoming events

If you are aware of any upcoming events that would be of interest to other CSRP members, please email the details to Lisa Laurie. Listed below are some of the upcoming events and a complete list can be found in the Events section of the website.

[] New publications

It would be wonderful to keep our publications lists up to date. If you have anything that has been published as part of CSRP (including conference presentations), please send Lisa Laurie a copy of the paper and the reference for the publication. Listed below are publications received this month and a complete list can be found on the Publications section of the website.

> Email Lisa Laurie to obtain the most recent Request to Publish form, Standard Acknowledgement form or CSRP logo.

Publications

Media