$25 million funding from NSW government welcomed

NICTA, Australia’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Research Centre of Excellence, welcomes the $25 million funding over five years from 2007–2012 from the NSW government.

The funding was announced by the NSW Minister for State Development Ian Macdonald.

“The ongoing support from the NSW government is critical to the development of a world-class, strategic research facility that puts Australia at the leading edge of global ICT research,” NICTA chairman Neville Stevens AO said.

According to an evaluation by the NSW Department of State and Regional Development (DSRD), in its first five years NICTA has generated an estimated $168 million in benefits for NSW.

NICTA has amassed a technology portfolio of 60 patent applications and has created four new companies with more than 50 employees.

“NICTA’s research is about problem solving based on breakthroughs in knowledge and fundamental innovation. It is ‘use-inspired’. It is not research for research’s sake,” NICTA chief executive officer Dr David Skellern said.

“We work with industry and government to identify problems that are best solved by ICT breakthroughs and apply our expertise to develop knowledge and technology to solve those problems.”

The new $25 million in funding from the NSW government follows an earlier allocation of $20 million provided by the NSW government to NICTA between 2002 and 2007. The new five-year funding agreement means the NSW government will provide a total of $45 million to NICTA over the decade from 2002 to 2012.