Just ahead of caretaker kicking in, the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources announces the $60m Global Science and Technology Diplomacy Fund

The two-stream project was announced in last year’s budget, but is happening now.

There’s funding for collaborative research with international partners in four fields, advanced manufacturing, AI and quantum computing, hydrogen production and RNA vaccines and therapies. There appears to be $42m in total. Partner countries differ across the four streams but the US is in all except hydrogen and the UK in manufacturing and AI. China is in none of them.

The Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering and the Australian Academy of Science share $18m to manage the fund. They will use it on international collaborations so Australian businesses, entrepreneurs and researchers can “capitalise on international opportunities” in research and commercialising, “cutting-edge products and services.”

The overall fund consolidates China and India research collaboration, covered by a previous programme.