Eight universities are shortlisted for one of the Commonwealth’s four research commercialisation “trailblazer” grants

The trails each of the winners will blaze lead to commercialising research of one of the six “critical national manufacturing priorities,” which are;  resources tech and critical minerals processing, food and beverage, medical products, recycling and clean energy, defence and space.

This is one of two major initiatives in the government’s plan to focus on research with commercial applications, the other being directing the Australian Research Council to engage with industry in choosing projects.

The four winners will receive $50m over four years plus CSIRO support.

The eight selected from 21 starters are,

Curtin U (resource tech)

Deakin U (recycling and clean energy)

Charles Sturt U (food and beverage)

Uni Adelaide (defence)

Uni Melbourne (medical products)

UNSW (recycling and renewable)

University of Queensland (food and beverage)

Uni Southern Queensland (space (as in off-planet) tech

The programme guidelines reserve one spot for a regional and suggest there will only one programme per  priority.  Which might make things tough for Charles Sturt U – up against Uni Southern Queensland in the regional space and Uni Queensland in the food priority. Deakin U and UNSW are also competing in the recycling NMP.