FOURTH RESEARCH AND INNOVATION EXPO TO BE THE BEST

The fourth annual Smart Geelong Network’s Research and Innovation Expo is shaping up to be the best yet!

This year’s Research and Innovation Expo will be staged over a week, from 11 to 17 August, in Geelong and will feature more than twenty separate events with the final event being a gala dinner when the Researcher of the Year awards will be presented.

This Expo, which has been supported by the Chamber since its start in 2005, enables the Geelong-based research and learning institutions to properly showcase their advances in these important areas and the community will again be invited to see them first hand at a number of different venues throughout the region over the week.

The range and complexity of the sixty projects judged last year under the Researcher of the Year awards again clearly demonstrated that the Geelong region is at the forefront of a number of key research and development areas.

The Researcher of the Year Award has already established itself as prestigious through its three winners to date. The inaugural winner was Dr Katharine Bossart, of CSIRO Livestock Industries, in 2005 for her work in controlling two killer viruses responsible for fatal disease outbreaks in humans and animals in Australia and overseas. Katherine was followed in 2006 by Ken Atkinson, of CSIRO Textile and Fibre Technology in Belmont, who won the overall award for his research and successes in Australia and USA with carbon nanotubes to create a range of futuristic materials.

Last year’s Researcher of the Year Award winner was Associate Professor Mark Kirkland, of Barwon Biomedical Research at Barwon Health, for his research with reprogramming stem cells and his successes clearly demonstrated that he is at the cutting-edge of stem cell research.

This year’s awards has nine separate categories – Animal Health, Biotechnology, Health and Lifestyle, Smart Technology, Safer Communities, Save the Planet, Teaching and Learning and two Early Researcher awards – all with prizes of $5,000 each plus one highly commended award of $4,000.

The overall winner will again receive an additional award of $10,000, given by G-Force Recruitment, and will be named the Geelong region’s Researcher of the Year.

Prizes total $59,000 which have been generously given by the ten sponsors – CSIRO AAHL, Department of Innovation, Industry and Regional Development, Pathcare – St John of God, Deakin University, Geelong Independent, TAC, GHD Ltd, Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, CSIRO TFT, the Geelong Chamber and G-Force Recruitment.

Applications have been invited for all categories and they close on 28 July. All award winners will be announced at the gala dinner being held on 16 August at the Mercure Hotel function room and the public is invited to attend.

With the early interest shown in the awards to date, 2008 could see a record number of entrants in the nine categories.

Late last year, Deakin University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sally Walker, claimed that the Geelong region will be recognised as Australia’s Silicon Valley.

With the high standard of research and innovation already taking place within the region and the huge opportunities for growth in this sector, this claim is likely to be true!