Joseph Brookes

Legislated standards for artificial intelligence could force tech giants to provide local companies with access to compute power, Innovation minister Tim Ayres confirmed Thursday, opening the door to a world first scheme in Australia. Set to be introduced to parliament next year, the AI standards will flip non-binding government ‘expectations’ into an enforceable regulatory framework for data centres, hyperscalers like Microsoft and AWS, and AI infrastructure specialist ‘neoclouds’.

Startups developing ultrasonic technology to de-stress fish, de-carbonise boating and accelerate housing construction are among 22 firms to share in $1 million from the NSW MVP Ventures program announced Tuesday. One of the recipients, Newcastle based Aquacultr Group, is using its grant to commercialise ultrasonic technology that its founder Matt Goddard says can limit the manifestations of stress in fish farms. “The primary focus of the company is to develop a technology using ultrasonic sound that reduces fish stress,” Mr Goddard told InnovationAus.com.

The University of Sydney on Monday invited potential partners to explore a new venture fund to commercialise more of its deep tech and BioTech breakthroughs as spinout companies, forecasting its ventures will need more than $200 million in coming years. A co-investment platform, hybrid, or other approach will also be considered, but the sandstone university has flagged it wants venture capital firms with a track record of raising and managing institutional capital -- and a pick to be made by the end of 2026. The University of Sydney already has its own $25 million pre-seed fund, but it is being outpaced by a pipeline of investible research, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), Professor Mike Ryan said.

New analysis shows the the gap between Australian and US labour productivity can be largely accounted for by a stark difference in intellectual property investment in just two sectors, and domestic hurdles in diffusing innovation. While Australia’s other market sectors have mostly matched the US in IP investment rates, the US commands a four fold lead in manufacturing and information sectors by doubling down on areas like R&D and software. “Together, these [manufacturing and information] sectors account for around 30 per cent of US market-sector output but explain nearly all of the cross-country divergence in labour productivity growth since 2000,” an e61 policy paper by Gianni La Cava says.

Australian researchers will be able to apply for grants from the world’s largest innovation funding program from early next year, the government has signalled, after official negotiations on Horizon Europe wrapped up on Tuesday. Industry and Science minister Tim Ayres said the talks were a major milestone in Australia’s attempt to follow around 20 other...

Around 310,000 people had support payments unlawfully cancelled under the government’s welfare compliance system after automation errors present for years prevented them from being able to reconnect, according to advocates. In the latest turn in the integrity scandal around Australia’s automated welfare compliance scheme, the Senate on Wednesday heard evidence that these warnings are largely correct and could result in almost 100,000 people needing to be compensated. The Department of Employment and Workplace Relations’ (DEWR) has previously only confirmed around 10,000 people needed to be compensated for invalid government decisions to cancel support payments over incomplete "mutual obligations" and “unemployment failures”.

Research groups have hailed a long awaited national strategy for health and medical research as a “pivotal moment” for the sector after pushing for a more holistic approach from government since the pandemic.The new decadal plan launched by Health minister Mark Butler on Friday arrives with new funding for indirect research costs and a bold vision in Australia becoming the “healthiest nation” on earth through research and innovation.The new mission-style approach will guide around $2 billion in annual funding from 2030, as the Albanese government unshackles the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) and speeds up clinical trials.

Australia’s automated welfare system remains an “unquantifiable” liability, with the government bracing for compensation claims for invalid decisions stemming from a malfunctioning IT system and failures to administer social security policy. Budget papers this week showed the contingent liability to the Commonwealth — first acknowledged by the government last December — is still in place, despite years and millions of dollars being spent on a fix. But significant new funding in Tuesday’s budget won’t go to more repairs of the so called Targeted Compliance Framework (TCF), an administrative scheme that in practice automates welfare suspensions and cancellations.

Australia’s flagship commercialisation program for startups and SMEs is on hold after almost $50 million in uncommitted grant funding was clawed back in this week's budget to help pay for a science and research package. The move — part of savings booked but not detailed in budget papers — comes less that two years after the Industry Growth Program began funding commercialisation work, and is on top of $800 million in cuts to university research commercialisation also in Tuesday's federal budget. The IGP pause and doubts about future funding rounds arrived without notice to local firms, including those that had been finalising bids.

The tax office is returning to the market for the first time in five years for a “liveliness” solution and other biometric tech to build out the government’s digital identity service for millions of Australians. Suppliers of ‘liveness’ detection — which can assure an actual person is present during verification and not a deepfake — are being sought as part of a potential procurement for the expanding scheme. The Australian Tax Office’s current liveliness solution was procured from UK firm iProov in 2021, before a wave of AI powered hyper realistic deepfakes disrupted anti-spoofing techniques.