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Deakin University well placed to assist
Geelong Workforce
Deakin University stands ready to assist Geelong
deal with the issues associated with recent job losses in the region,
Vice-Chancellor Professor Sally Walker said.
“Deakin
University’s major research and development strategy in Geelong
has been to house researchers and industries together under one roof,”
the Vice-Chancellor said.
“This approach has attracted a number of local and international
business partners including Ford, General Motors, CSIRO, Barwon Health,
MG Dairy, ChemGenex, Quickstep, FTS Technologies, Hard Technologies, VCAMM
and Interpath.
“We believe that by developing a ‘Silicon Valley of the Southern
Hemisphere’ we can increase those partnerships and create many new
manufacturing jobs.” Professor Walker said the recent signing of
a Memorandum of Understand with India’s largest biotechnology company,
Biocon, provided an excellent example of what can be achieved.
“We are looking to collaborate with Biocon on a number of matters
including the possible building of a commercial mammalian cell production
facility on the Geelong Campus at Waurn Ponds,” Professor Walker
said.
“One of the great advantages for us at the Campus is that we have
the space to expand. There is ample room for the existing GTP, the Geelong
Technology Precinct, to grow.
“This mammalian bio-processing facility will be developed in partnership
with the Victorian and Federal Governments, and if our 'bid' is successful
will bring many new bio-manufacturing jobs to Geelong. This is one of
several opportunities we are examining.
“We are also cooperating with Biocon to create a mirror site of
the GTP in Bangalore. The Deakin India Research Institute has attracted
considerable attention in India. If we are successful with the India Institute
and our plans to expand the GTP at Geelong, jobs for another 250 research
and technical staff and higher degree by research students will be created
in Geelong over the next three to five years.
Professor Walker said the model of university-industry cooperation is
well known internationally with the best example being Silicon Valley
in San Francisco, with its deep connections to Stanford University.
“Deakin is on the way to creating an Australian version,”
Professor Walker said. “We have the existing GTP, with its many
partnerships with industry, and we also have our new Medical School on
the Geelong Campus at Waurn Ponds.
“An expanding GTP will be at the heart of this Silicon Valley style
development providing the physical facilities to attract both world-class
researchers and industries to work with them.
“We are particularly proud of the research model we have developed
at Deakin which makes us so attractive to industry.
“We operate from concept to commercialisation, that is we can take
an idea and with our industry partners, take it right through to the stage
where is it ready for the market.
“This is made even smoother by our researchers working together
across Faculties to come up with solutions to the problems that industry
partners might encounter.”
Professor Walker said that the existing GTP was now full, with more companies
seeking to re-locate.
“I will soon be taking a proposal to the University’s Council
to spend $10 million on the facility over the next 3 years in response
to this demand," she said.
“Bringing forward this spending, with appropriate State Government
funding, would fast track the gap which we have identified in finding
facilities for businesses to relocate their operations to Geelong.
“These are vital steps towards creating jobs in sustainable, modern
manufacturing industries.”
Hear Professor Sally Walker talking about Deakin’s future on ABC
Radio National’s Perspective Program.
Click here: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/perspective/stories/2007/1997684.htm
Biotech partnerships key to new jobs
Professor
Andrew Parratt provides a shining example of how Deakin University is
already working with the Geelong community to help create industries and
jobs for the 21st Century.
As well as being the director of BioDeakin, Professor Parratt is also the head of BioGeelong, the umbrella organisation that includes not just Deakin University but other scientific and medical bodies like CSIRO and Barwon Health.
“Obviously Deakin University is well placed to take a leading role in helping develop biotech opportunities in the Geelong region,” Professor Parratt said.
“But the university is not the only player in Geelong’s already substantial biotech industry.
“The 300 bioscience researchers in the Geelong region bring in excess of $15 million into the local economy through their wages alone.
“There is tremendous room to expand on this for the benefit of not only organisations like Deakin, CSIRO and Barwon Health, but the whole community.”
Professor Parratt said one of the reasons he chose to work at Deakin was the university’s unique model that involves multi-disciplinary research approaches and industry partnerships.
“At Deakin our researchers don’t just stick rigidly to their chosen subjects,” he said.
“They look to colleagues in all sorts of different areas to help them find solutions.
“Deakin is always looking for partnerships outside the university, with business, with the community, with fellow research bodies.
“So I was pleased to be offered the chance to be chairman of BioGeelong as part of this policy of bringing everyone together. Chairing BioGeelong has allowed me and the group to expand our horizons on collaborations and new partnerships.
“Geelong is too small for us all to be going off doing our own thing.
EVENTS
Smart Geelong Network Research and Learning Expo -
18 to 26 August 2007, including Researcher of the Year Awards Dinner celebrating
the achievements of Geelong's most talented researchers. The guest speaker
is Professor David Stokes, Deakin University's Deputy Vice-Chancellor
(Research).
To find out more: www.smartgeelongnetwork.com.au
or call 5226 7707
Research Services Division:
Geelong Campus at Waurn Ponds
Pigdons Road, Geelong, Victoria 3217 Australia
Telephone: +61 3 5227 2673 Facsimile:
+61 3 5227 2175
Email: dvc-research@deakin.edu.au
www.deakin.edu.au/research
Deakin Research Updates - back copies
Back issues of Deakin Research Updates are available at: www.deakin.edu.au/research
Independence a fundamental part of fight against obesity
Professor Boyd Swinburn is proud that not only is Deakin University’s research into the causes of and cures for the obesity epidemic groundbreaking at the global level, it is also fiercely independent.
“I am happy to say that at Deakin our public health research is not funded by any vested interests,” said Professor Swinburn, who holds the Chair of Public Health in Deakin’s School of Exercise and Public Health.
“So when we speak we are able to do so with a clear conscience and that’s actually quite rare.”
Professor Swinburn’s latest project, in partnership with Monash University, is a National Health and Medical Research Council funded, five-year project to look at what are the legal and regulatory options for reducing childhood obesity.
“We also looking at ways of reducing the inequalities in the fight against obesity,” he said.
“Kids from lower socio-economic situations have a greater propensity towards obesity than those from higher socio-economic ranges.
“If you run programs that are educational, they are more likely to be picked up by the higher SES groups but create a bigger divide with the lower groups.
“The good thing about policy options, legal and regulatory, is that they apply to everyone.
“There is now no doubt that legislation is going to have to be part of the solution.
“Industry is not going to pull back on things like advertising junk food to kids unless it is regulated. That is absolutely clear.
Cool in the hot sun – Tong Cheng manages it all
Woollen clothes that change colour in the sun – even under the strobe lights at the disco – as well as providing protection from UV rays, now there’s a fashion statement ready to be heard right around the world.
As the news spreads, it’s certain to give Deakin researchers their day in the sun – or under the spotlight, too, especially Tong Cheng, a PhD student at the Centre for Material and Fibre Innovation, who has developed for the first time a way of colouring wool with photochromic dye.
Photochromic products, which are incompatible with wool when applied by traditional dyeing methods, undergo a colour change when exposed to UV radiation.
Tong Cheng, under the supervision of Deakin’s Drs Tong Lin and Rex Brady, has created a polymer that holds the photochromic dye and is then applied to the surface of wool fibres without taking away any of the charm and comfort of wearing natural woollen garments.
“It is impossible to notice the difference between normal wool fabric and fabric coated with the polymer,” Tong Cheng said.
“The fabric maintains its softness and drape and the colour is preserved when washed.
“We could soon be seeing woollen
T-shirts that only reveal their patterns when worn outside or in a disco
with black lights. Having patterns appear this way also opens up novel
marketing and fashion opportunities.”
All up a brilliant innovation, according to Dr Rex Brady.
“Tong Cheng had to solve some very challenging technical issues to get to this stage,” he said.
Deakin looks ahead!