Soil CRC at Innovation Showcase

Richard Doyle – Program 2 Leader

Last week, a small team from the Soil CRC headed to our nation’s capital to showcase our collaborative soil research at the Cooperative Research Australia Innovation Showcase.

The Soil CRC highlighted the cooperative research and innovation between our eight university partners, 20 farmer groups, four state government agencies and seven industry partners. Soil CRC Program Leader, Associate Professor Richard Doyle from the University of Tasmania, shared highlights from the projects in his Program which focuses on measuring soil performance. He generated much interest with prototypes of the eNose, the Bilby^TM and lab on a chip technology. While still only prototypes, they give a snapshot of the possibilities for soil metrics in the future.  

The Showcase featured 30 stalls of innovation from across the environmental, agricultural, manufacturing, mining and infrastructure, health and medical services, social and economic development sectors. Most of the exhibits were from CRCs, with a smattering of universities and CRC spin off companies. The Showcase was open to the public and parliamentarians from all parties were invited.

Held in the Great Hall of Parliament House, the Showcase was officially opened by the Minister for Science and Technology, Melissa Price MP. She highlighted the long-standing, bi-partisan success of the CRC program which is celebrating 30 years this year. Minister Price reiterated the Government’s ongoing commitment to industry-research collaboration through the CRC program.

The Showcase marked the opening of Cooperative Research Australia’s Collaborate Innovate Conference. Among the many insightful presentations, a standout was Soil CRC researcher Dr Chloe Lai from the  University of Southern Queensland. She took part in the Industry-Research Collaboration in 2051: Voices from the Future panel, sharing her vision of a future where soil science plays a vital role in addressing climate change and food security. You can read more from Chloe here.