Innovation Minister Kim Carr launched the $36.2 million CSIRO National Research Flagship for Future Manufacturing recently at the Flagship’s recently refurbished Flexible Electronics research facility at CSIRO’s Clayton laboratories.
During the launch, Carr said that the manufacturing industry needs to focus on high technology, high-skill and high-wage manufacturing, and that the Future Manufacturing Flagship will address that focus. CSIRO Deputy Chief Executive Alastair Robertson said the organisation’s advances in the commercial development of flexible, large area, cost-effective, reel-to-reel printable plastic solar cells, supports this approach.
“Developed with our partners in the Victorian Organic Solar Cell Consortium, flexible plastic solar cells will be much cheaper and more efficient to produce, and have the potential to replace silicon in the next generation of solar collectors,” Robertson said in a statement. “This is the kind of transformational, environmentally responsible technology the new Flagship has been established to create to support sustainable manufacturing into the future.”
Flagship Director Clive Davenport said innovation is the key to positioning Australian manufacturing to meet the challenges of the future.
“In partnership with industry we will focus on emerging manufacturing opportunities in flexible electronics, clean tech manufacturing, biomedical manufacturing and nanosafety, helping the Australian manufacturing sector address major national challenges in energy, health, climate and waste,” Davenport says.
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