The NSW Government announces $119m over ten years for RNA research translation into vaccines and therapeutics

It’s state budget (tomorrow week) good news in advance and the NSW VCs Committee thinks it is a splendid commitment, “which is set to transform the state into a world-leading destination for research, development and local manufacturing capabilities.”

Presumably the fund will give the state government’s $96m RNA pilot manufacturing facility, announced last October, something to manufacture.

The state government will work with the NSW RNA Bioscience Alliance, which science minister Alister Henskens describes as “an unprecedented collaboration between all 14 NSW and ACT universities.”

As to what the science is about, the UNSW RNA Institute describes it as “at the core of our biology – the software of life – translating our DNA into the very products and processes that make us human.” And as to why the investment matters,” for all the tantalising potential of RNA science, the progress has been stymied by a bottleneck of scale and, formerly, cohesion. The wealth of RNA expertise in NSW – represented by its talent and facilities – has been kept separate by the physical boundaries of research institutions and the more abstract boundaries of research discipline.”

Meanwhile, in Melbourne

That state government announces the first round of grants from the $50m mRNA Victorian Research Acceleration Fund. There’s $2m split between 12 projects but the only recipients the government identified yesterday are, Monash U which separately partners with Alfred  Health and the Florey Institute.

The Fund’s purpose is a, “a world class mRNA industry in Victoria”  Plus, the Vics remind, Moderna is “set to establish a large-scale manufacturing facility in Melbourne.