A test bed for innovation in Newcastle

Tuesday, 21 March 2023

As the number one collaborating university in the Department of Industry, Science and Resources’ Innovation Connections program, the University of Newcastle's researchers have delivered 167 projects with SMEs over the past eight years, equating to more than one new project per month and injecting around $15.5million of funding into local industry innovation.

Professor Vijay Varadharajan
Professor Vijay Varadharajan

Innovation Connections is a free service facilitated through CSIRO that assists SMEs in establishing their research priorities, connecting with the research sector, and funding collaborative research projects.

For Mr Warwick Dawson, Pro Vice-Chancellor Industry and Engagement at the University of Newcastle, the University’s top performance is thanks to the region’s unique set of attributes, plus Innovation Connections playing a pivotal role in enabling them to actively collaborate.

“The University of Newcastle and the regions we serve have always been looking ahead. With roots in steel and coal, our communities have become resilient evolvers, keen to embrace new industries and new possibilities, including renewable energy. This foresight has helped our regions become places where people of all ages and backgrounds want to live, work and play,” Mr Dawson said.

“But we cannot go it alone. We need to collaborate with industry to take our research expertise and translate it into new products, services and processes that deliver positive impacts for our communities. The Innovation Connections program has been hugely valuable in that process – and we keep coming back to it again and again.“

Professor Vijay Varadharajan, Global Innovation Chair Professor in Cyber Security, is one researcher at the University of Newcastle who has been involved in six Innovation Connections projects so far. He believes knowledge and technology transfer to SMEs is critical to enhancing capabilities in regional areas.

“Innovations Connections is an excellent initiative that provides the opportunity for industry partners and academia to come together to solve practical problems they are facing. This is even more important when it comes to the SME sector, which is both resource poor and time poor,” Professor Varadharajan said.

“In the Hunter region in particular, there is a growing number of SMEs who are developing new products and services across different sectors, all who could strongly benefit from our cybersecurity expertise via these types of programs.”

Thanks to Innovation Connections, a local IT company Strategic Group partnered with Professor Varadharajan and the team at the Advanced Cyber Security Engineering Research Centre (ACSRC) at the University of Newcastle, to develop a novel approach for centralised and secure data collection, maintenance and management of a fleet of IoT devices in smart infrastructure environments.

The research outcome has given Strategic Group a significant edge in its capacity to service its customers' needs in this emerging and growing market.

“To be able to conduct research into a solution which can offer the wider business community a safe and secure way to manage a range of different IoT devices and third-party software has been extremely exciting for our team,” Strategic Group’s Director of Business Development Aron Robertson said.

“We were grateful to work with the University of Newcastle. Having access to their world-class facilities gave our team access to research and development technologies that we would not normally have, and bolsters the credibility of the professional services that we can offer our customers,” he concluded.

SMEs interested in collaborating with University of Newcastle researchers on Innovation Connections projects can contact our Knowledge Exchange and Enterprise team at kee@newcastle.edu.au

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