Year: 2011

Rabbits cost Australian agriculture over $200 million a year and impact on 156 threatened native species.  This war has challenged farmers and researchers for generations and the battle continues.

One of the success stories in the battle has been the Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre (CRC).

At the CRC Association Conference, the Invasive Animals CRC will be presented an Award for Excellence in Innovation for its part in bringing together farmers, the community, school students and researchers in a campaign against rabbits.

The Invasive Animals CRC public awareness programs work to alert the community to the dangers posed by rabbits, and provide resources to keep the rabbit population to a manageable number.

Through websites, the media, national story-telling competition and toolkits, the CRC has constructed partnerships with community, industry and landholders, unlocking the power of Australians to work together.

The public awareness programs include RabbitScan, which helps landholders map rabbit hotspots on their property, and pinpoint the areas where they have rabbit control programs in place.

feral.org.au is a key to the CRC’s fight against the rabbit. It is an interactive, online resource provising a central reference point for pest animal research.  People can search for maps, fact sheets, articles and photos, any information relevant to their own region.

Mr Andreas Glanznig, CEO of the Invasive Animals CRC, says a key project of the CRC, RHD Boost, aims to identify new and more effective Rabbit Haemorrhagic Disease Virus (RHDV) strains and potentially save the Australian economy $1.4 billion over 15 years.

“There seems to be a rising genetic resistance to the original calicivirus and we’re screening new candidates which work better in cooler, wetter regions,” he says.

“We need a broad range of programs in place if we are going to bring rabbits under control.”

The Award will be presented by Professor Margaret Sheil, CEO of the Australian Research Council, at the annual conference of the CRC Association.  The Awards Dinner is on Wednesday 18 May at the Brisbane Convention and Entertainment Centre.

Further information

Mr Andreas Glanznig
CEO Invasive Animals CRC
phone 0417 020 174

Ms Tracey Lianos
Communications Manager, Invasive Animals CRC
phone 0412 261 711

Drivers of trucks, dozers, graders and excavators will soon be wearing a new ‘SmartCap’ which detects their level of fatigue.

Fatigue related incidents on mine sites are a major cause of injuries and deaths, and cost the industry hundreds of millions of dollars in lost production and accidents each year.

Invented by Dr Daniel Bongers at the Cooperative Research Centre for Mining (CRCMining), the cap is fitted with sophisticated sensors with the ability to read the brain’s neural activity and detect the level of fatigue in the wearer. Fatigue levels are recorded on a display in the cabin of the vehicle, and can be relayed back to a base station.

The SmartCap System has won a CRC Association Award for Excellence in Innovation for CRCMining.  It will be presented at the Association’s Annual Conference on Wednesday 18 May in Brisbane.

The cap looks and feels like a typical baseball cap but is fitted with sensors uniquely capable of reading neural signals through hair.  A detachable lightweight processing card fits under the brim.

The invention was the result of collaboration between mining companies, fatigue and sleep experts and mining industry funding bodies.  CRCMining used its unique position to bring these research parties together.

Global mining operations represent a market for 9,700 SmartCaps, with the potential expanding to 1.2 million heavy trucks.

CRCMining CEO Professor Mike Hood says that the System could in time be fitted to normal cars.

“The many advantages of the SmartCap include the fact that it is lightweight, mobile and highly accurate at detecting fatigue in drivers,” he says.  “This means the technology is easily adaptable to a passenger car environment.”

The Award will be presented by Professor Margaret Sheil, CEO of the Australian Research Council, at the Annual Conference of the CRC Association.  The Awards Dinner is on Wednesday 18 May at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Further information/interview

Andrew Long
Communication Manager, CRCMining
0421 084 735

A new approach to the design of glasses and contact lenses for people with myopia (short-sightedness) will have huge benefits for the 3.6 million Australians with myopia.

Studies in Sydney with 12 year old children showed that myopia progressively worsened when correcting myopic eyes with traditional negative powered correcting lenses even though they give clear central vision.

Myopia affects 1.45 billion people worldwide, and its prevalence is increasing rapidly.

The Vision Cooperative Research Centre (Vision CRC) will be presented with an Award for Excellence in Innovation for its coordination of an international project to improve treatment of myopia.  The project involved partners in the USA, UK, China, India and Australia.

The old approach to correcting myopia relied on measuring the performance of the eye at just the very centre of the retina, the fovea.  This gave clear central vision to the wearer of the corrective lenses, but ignored the fact that with myopes the peripheral image was behind the retina.

This provoked the eye to grow which led to worsening of the myopic condition, found Professor Earl Smith from the University of Houston, a partner in the Vision CRC.

A new approach based on these findings, and trialed in clinical studies with children in Australia and China, created new glasses and contact lenses that bring the peripheral image closer to the retina while maintaining clear central vision slows the progress of myopia.

Vision CRC leader, Assoc. Professor Padmaja Sankaridurg found that lenses employing the new technology also improved peripheral vision. The spectacles are available now commercially through CRC partner, Carl Zeiss Vision, whose Australian manufacturing facilities are based in Adelaide.

Professor Brien Holden, CEO of Vision CRC, says Australians are likely to benefit from the lifestyle and eye health benefits that arise from better eye products such as these. “Less myopia and less severe myopia would reduce the risk of serious eye diseases such retinal detachment, glaucoma and cataract.

“Australia will benefit from a royalty stream estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars over the next 15 years from these products,” he says.  “Our first major CRC product, high oxygen permeable soft contact lenses, sells over $2billion per year globally and has earned Australia over $150 million in royalties and $100 million in research fees. Products that slow the progression of myopia could revolutionize vision care”.

The Award will be presented by Professor Margaret Sheil, CEO of the Australian Research Council, at the annual conference of the CRC Association.  The Awards Dinner is on Wednesday 18 May at the Brisbane Convention and Entertainment Centre.

Further information

Professor Brien Holden
CEO, Vision CRC
or
Stephen Davis
Communication Manager, Vision CRC
0450 661 695

A new system linking field officers with international experts has enabled a dramatic speed-up in the identification of exotic insects and diseases which may pose a threat to crops and the environment in Australia.

The Remote Microscope Network (RMN) allows agricultural officers equipped with microscopes to link with experts, both national and international, over the internet.

Together they can examine the insect or specimen closely, manipulating it under the microscope while discussing its identification.  The system is coupled with a comprehensive diagnostic information database, allowing comparison with images and information about the suspect.

The RMN has won an Award for Excellence in Innovation for the Cooperative Research Centre for National Plant Biosecurity (CRCNPB).

Invasive insects and pests have the capacity to cause millions of dollars of damage to Australian crops such as wheat and cotton.  It is very important to make a quick and accurate identification of any suspects.

Until now identification in the field has been a slow and cumbersome process.  It often involved sending the sample to a capital city and waiting for the results, which could sometimes take several weeks.

The Remote Microscope Network is used in conjunction with the Plant Biosecurity Toolbox (PBT), which includes high quality images as well as information about the distribution.  Together they enable field officers to identify pests quickly and accurately, and respond to any threats.  This could save millions of dollars in eradication costs and lost market access for Australian producers.

Dr Simon McKirdy, CEO of the CRCNPB says the project pioneered the use of existing technologies to develop a new and innovative approach to diagnostics for the plant health community.

“We’ve added a new innovative tool to our system which is very cost effective and efficient, and decreased the response time when dealing with potentially harmful pests and diseases,” he said.  “Now relevant diagnostic information is available to field officers around Australia and our near neighbours.”

The Award will be presented by Professor Margaret Sheil, CEO of the Australian Research Council, at the annual conference of the CRC Association.  The Awards Dinner is on Wednesday 18 May at the Brisbane Convention and Entertainment Centre.

Further information

Dr Simon McKirdy
CEO, CRCNPB
02 6201 2412
0421 638 229

Max Knobel
Communication Manager, CRCNPB
02 6201 2882
0402 327 087