“The ARC Industry Fellowships and the Industrial Transformation Research Program have together revolutionised how we, as university researchers, can engage with industry. It is catalysing the development of some exciting technologies that are helping people.” – Professor Madhu Bhaskaran

At the ARC Research Hub for Connected Sensors for Health (the Hub), we’re tapping further into our collective, collaborative efforts of academia and industry, working side-by-side to advance Australia’s medical devices and technologies industry. Two priorities we seek to achieve are to drive problem-solving solutions for industry and train a highly skill workforce; a new example of the significance of leveraging and expanding our partnerships has been in the recent funding round of the Australian Research Council (ARC) Industry Fellowships Program.

With three of our partners, Hub investigators received one Industry Laureate Fellowship and two Early Career Industry Fellowships. This is the second round of the Industry Fellowships Program, which aims to facilitate the transition of academic researchers into industry careers and industry-based researchers into university settings.

A focus on increasing two-way mobility to address industry challenges and opportunities

The program focuses on increasing two-way mobility and skill-building in research collaboration, translation, and commercialisation and driving research collaboration, translation, and commercialisation outcomes across various industry settings.

Our awarded fellowships are a testament to the tangible outcomes of the partnership between academia and industry. The two Early Career Industry Fellowships out of 50 funded grants, and our Industry Laureate, one of only eight funded grants across the entire country. This success demonstrates the magnitude of the impact the collaborations between Universities and industry in the Hub is having.

“The success of the work we are doing in the Connected Sensors Hub really strengthened my interactions with our industry partner which I feel led directly to them supporting me to apply for the Industry Laureate.” – Scientia Professor Justin Gooding

Scientia Professor Justin Gooding, in collaboration with industry Partner Nutromics, was awarded the prestigious Industry Laureate. Their project is focused on a groundbreaking biosensing technology that can continuously monitor multiple biomarkers. This technology has the potential to revolutionise environmental monitoring, food processing, biosecurity, infection detection, and more. The use of electrochemical biosensors that employ DNA binding molecules has recently made it possible to achieve this goal. Working together to solve surface chemistry challenges will allow continuous sensing to be commercialised for the target market of wearable biochemical sensors. Nutromics will also develop a facility for other companies to commercialise DNA sensors for different applications so as to make Australia a world leader in wearable sensors.

The two Early Career Industry Fellowships were awarded to Postdoctoral Fellows Drs Shanmuga Sundar Dhanabalan and Md Ataur Rahman at RMIT under the leadership of Professors Madhu Bhaskaran and Sharath Sriram, with our Industry Partners Vlepis and nthalmic.

Dr Md Ataur Rahman’s project with Vlepis is focused on cyber-secure, battery-free, and wireless wearable patch technology. The aim is to investigate wearables’ technological and manufacturing challenges and integrate prominent high-frequency electrical, optical, and chemical signals on a single tiny patch. The project is expected to benefit national security and defence, agriculture, manufacturing, and human and animal health sectors with remote area accessibility.

Dr Shanmuga Sundar’s project, along with nthalmic and Sleeptite, focused on innovative materials and manufacturing for flexible pressure sensing systems. The project aimed to develop a flexible pressure sensing system using soft electronics technology with high sensitivity, fast response time, and high stability through advanced design and materials technology. The project is expected to generate new knowledge in soft electronics and sensors using innovative materials and an efficient manufacturing approach.

The three industry partners involved in these awarded grants are all within 10 years of inception. It’s exciting to see new companies play a crucial role in driving growth and thinking of innovation as a joint venture, furthering the focus of two-way mobility.

Our industry partners

Nutromics‘ story began in 2017 in Melbourne, Victoria, with a vision: to create a world with zero preventable deaths due to a lack of continuous diagnostic monitoring. Co-founders Peter Vranes and Hitesh Mehta met when they were searching for an enabling technology that would help them move towards a proactive healthcare system. They realised the key to unlocking this future was real-time, continuous diagnostic monitoring.

Vlepis, based in Sydney, NSW, started in 2018 under the leadership of co-founder Bill Dimopoulos and has since been actively building collaborations with industry and universities. Vlepis offers state-of-the-art sensor technologies and consulting advisory services that assist in developing and delivering smart physiological data.

nthalmic, also based in Sydney, NSW, was founded in 2019 by founder and Chairman Ravi C Bakaraju and includes a team of scientists, engineers, and clinicians. It is already making significant strides in delivering eye care products. In the last two years, nthalmic has filed 24 provisional patent applications in the ophthalmic technology.

The synergy between these collaborations is an example of how the Hub is uniquely placed to bring together academia and industry, fostering an environment for innovation and groundbreaking research. As we celebrate the achievements enabled by this collaboration, we look forward to even more groundbreaking research that will be transformative in advancing Australia’s global competitiveness.

If you’re interested to learn more about the Hub or want to work with us, reach out to us here.