SABC in top 50

The Western Australian State Agricultural Biotechnology Centre (SABC) at Murdoch University has been included in the list of 50 major scientific research facilities in Australia.

SABC Director Professor Mike Jones said the Centre was the only one in Western to make the list, and was one of only 16, nationally, in the category of biological and biomedical sciences.

The SABC was classified in the following terms:

Major Centre in Western Australia in Agricultural Biotechnology. State of the art facility for research in plant, animal and microbial biotechnology. Multi-user R&D facility. In addition to core R&D in Plant and Animal Biotechnology, also incorporates AgWEST Biotechnology Services Lab, Rumen Biotechnology Group, Centre for Necrotrophic Fungal Plant Pathology, Centre for High Throughput Agricultural Genetic Analysis and incubation of companies: Grain Biotech Australia, Biotest, Biowest and ID+PLUS

The 'top 50' list was compiled after a survey last year, carried out under the guidance of a Working Group from the Government's Coordination Committee on Science & Technology (CCST). This committee is an inter-agency group with representatives from all Federal Government departments involved in science and technology.

It was the first time such a survey had been conducted of Australia's public research organisations and universities, which receive the bulk of their funding from the Commonwealth. The information on centres will be used for government policy development and for general information and awareness.

Major research facilities were defined by the Working Group as significant nodes of scientific instrumentation, information, expertise or collections of specimens, and with a replacement value exceeding $5m.

The survey, which identified facilities and collected data on sources of funding, user profiles and scientific capability levels, initially found a potential pool of about 100 facilities in Australia that approached the definition of a major research facility.

More rigorous examination reduced this number to 50 facilities, representing national research infrastructure of nearly two billion dollars in current replacement value.

The survey team's report noted: "Major research facilities are clearly key nodes in Australia's innovation system — as well as in the international scientific network. Their role in cross-sectoral research collaboration may well be highlighted from any surveys in future years that track this aspect."

A web site with a full list of centres can be accessed at: http://www.science.gov.au/ccst/index.html