Last week we presented our strategic plan to the Commonwealth. They have encouraged the Centre to look at our current and future projects more critically and to develop critical mass around core science and engineering and in doing so, create equity and assets that ensure sustainability beyond Commonwealth funding. As many people are aware with the current structure of the CRC, we have industry partners and research partners.
For every dollar the industry partner contributes the CRC contributes a dollar of Commonwealth money and the research partner makes in kind contributions. What will change will be that the Centre will bring expertise to build a cluster of companies and bring in other participants that can use the core intellectual property that the centre will develop.
The centre will own the IP and the centre will license the IP to various industry participants in the cluster so that at the end of the Commonwealth funding, there is a company that has assets. The company will attract capital to continue to grow. We also plan to bring much greater focus around the five major research programs: advanced materials, next generation processes, knowledge based manufacturing, renewable energy and innovation management, developing a core of expertise within the centre.
