May 28 2007
The Australian Institute for Commercialisation (AIC) and the Australian Nano Business Forum (ANBF) recently joined forces through a Memorandum of Understanding agreement to raise industry awareness of the potential applications and capabilities of nanotechnology. The AIC and ANBF will work together to provide practical information and education to businesses across range of industry sectors that could benefit from the application of nanotechnology in their business.
To complement this awareness raising, hands-on assistance and funding for commercialisation services can be made available through the AIC’s TechFast ® program to help interested SMEs identify, assess and potentially adopt nanotechnologies and other relevant knowledge with the potential to improve products and processes.
AIC Chief Executive Officer, Dr Rowan Gilmore, said that the agreement will benefit all types of different businesses, the nanotechnology research community, as well as the growing number of specialist nanotechnology companies in Australia. “The AIC and ANBF will work together using specific mechanisms to identify and assist those businesses that will derive economic benefit from the adoption of micro and nanotechnologies,” Dr Gilmore said.
“There are a significant number of Australian businesses that could benefit from nanotechnology. Together with the ANBF, the AIC’s TechFast program will provide a practical solution to help industry better understand nanotechnology applications relevant to them, and then facilitate and subsidise the adoption process,” he said. “In essence this agreement will enable the TechFast program to identify industry solutions faster and offer a greater range of support to the SME.”
ANBF Chief Executive Officer, Ms Tina Rankovic, welcomed the agreement with AIC as a timely collaboration in the evolution of Australian nanotechnology. “This initiative is a very practical way for the ANBF to deliver benefits to a large proportion of its membership base. By working with the AIC, we hope to assist companies improve their speed to market of nano-enabled products”, said Ms Rankovic.