CANBERRA, Australia -- The following information was released by the office of the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research of Australia:
University of Sydney
Sydney, NSW
[Check against delivery]
It is a pleasure to be here today to mark the start of a new era for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Ultrahigh Bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS).
Last year, I announced a $24 million grant to make this project possible.
It is just one of the 4,900 research projects we will support in 2011 through the Australian Research Council's National Competitive Grants Program.
In the current financial year alone, we will invest more than $700 million through that scheme.
We are proud to support the pursuit of excellence in our universities and research institutions.
But this is not a free pass. It carries with it the great hopes and expectations of the Australian people.
We ask our researchers to combat disease. We ask them to help us save the planet. We ask them to create the high-tech, high-wage jobs of tomorrow.
We ask them to help us build a richer, a fairer and a greener Australia.
So when Ministers come to look at these research projects, we ask a simple question. What do the Australian people get for the money they put in?
Through CUDOS, they have already paid for a revolution in telecommunications.
They have received photonic chip devices that could boost internet speeds one thousand times over.
They have supported technology that will underpin future upgrades to the National Broadband Network, ensuring we can meet the sixty per cent annual growth in global bandwidth demand.
They have invested to minimise the energy demands of our broadband infrastructure.
And they have aided the development of the tools we need to compete in a low-carbon, high-tech century.
With the support of this new grant, CUDOS will take that game-changing research to new levels.
They will attract new talent from amongst the world's best and brightest. They will invest in young Australians aspiring to match that high standard.
And through their work, our businesses and researchers will have the tools to do things that lie today in the realm of science fiction.
We will build more powerful weapons to defend us from cyber attack.
We will uncover chemical traces of terrorism, biological infiltration and disease that we cannot see today.
We will boost the performance capabilities of our computers beyond the dreams of the electronic age.
We have every reason to believe that incredible promise will be realised.
Photonics is a field of genuine strength for this nation, as the inaugural Excellence in Research Report has confirmed.
An amazing ninety-one per cent of our research in photonics-related fields meets or exceeds the global standard.
CUDOS unites the research strengths in seven Australian universities - and it also taps the strengths of leading international institutions, including Oxford and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
It works directly with small start-ups and major transnationals to get its ideas off the drawing board and into the market.
The motto CUDOS has adopted for their work is 'faster, smaller, greener'.
It is an apt description of the power of the technology.
But as a Minister in a Labor Government, I will always see it in different terms.
It is part of our mission to build a richer, fairer and greener Australia.
And that is why I am proud to stand by our investment in this world-class research asset.
It is an investment in the future of all Australians.
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