Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Innovation Minister Senator Kim Carr today announced a new $249 million package designed to help Australian industries become more competitive and create new job opportunities.
The Industry Transformation Research program and cadetshippackage includes:
* More than 1,000 engineering cadetships over the next four years so students can get the work experience they need to kick-start their careers in manufacturing and other Australian industries.
* Newresearch training centres that will provide quality industrial doctoral and postdoctoral training for up to 600 PhD students each year.
* Newresearchhubs bringing researchers and industry representatives together to design and engineer commercially and technically viable solutions to some of our most pressing industrial problems.
These new measures are part of the Labor Government's commitment to a more competitive and research focused manufacturing sector creating quality jobs and building the industries of the future.
Australiais endowed with top quality researchers and top quality industry - this new alliance bringing the two together just makes good sense.
As a result, Australia's research effort will be better aligned with the needs of Australian industry.
This Government has provided researchers with the best research infrastructure the country can afford - now we can give these cadets the best training experiences too.
Manufacturers will have the benefit of additional research expertise and knowledge to tackle difficult problems in key sectors such as metals, food, energy, textiles, building and automotive.
For more information on the Industrial Transformation Research Program, please see the attached summary, or visit www.arc.gov.au.
For more information on the engineering cadetships, visit www.innovation.gov.au.