The University of Canberra has received $300,000 from the ACT government to develop new sports technology and collect data to tackle major health issues.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr used a pop-up cabinet in Belconnen on Thursday to detour past UC and announce two $150,000 grants from the government's CBR Innovation Fund.
The first project will see the establishment of the CBR SportsTek Lab in collaboration with the Australian Institute of Sport. The lab will focus on developing sports technology with potential commercial applications.
It will be part of the Research Institute for Sport and Exercise and aims to give entrepreneurs the opportunity to work with researchers to develop new ideas. Following a public-private partnership model, the SportsTek lab will also provide a showcase for sports innovation projects to the public.
Deputy vice-chancellor of research Professor Frances Shannon said the SportsTek Lab continued the ACT government's support of UC as a major regional sporting hub, following joint investments in the Sporting Commons.
She noted that the UC had recently helped develop new high-tech snowboard binding material that was being used by the AIS and could potentially have commercial potential in the multibillion-dollar snow sports market.
The second project is to develop a new ICT system to collect a diverse range of health data to use for health research.
The new system will combine publicly available information with individual health data from devices – such as smartphones and activity trackers – to develop new ways to prevent chronic disease.
Professor Shannon said data could become localised to pinpoint specific health risks, for example, suburbs or pockets of Canberra which revealed more sedentary lifestyles.
Mr Barr said Canberra's universities were critical to the economy – and the innovation fund would help cement Canberra as Australia's higher education and research capital.
''This helps creates more knowledge-based jobs in the capital as the universities continue to attract the very best researchers and students to Canberra," Mr Barr said
Professor Shannon said the UC was thrilled to have two grants funded, from a total of three submitted in the funding round.
She said it was pleasing the government was supporting innovative research that could have potentially lucrative commercial applications.
* University first preference applications have remained steady at UC on last year's performance, while they are up by almost 15 per cent at the Australian National University.
The Universities Admission Centre found applications were down by more than 2700 on last year.
While the UC lodged 1625 first preference applications compared with 1607 last year, the ANU received 3650, a big increase on 3191 last year.
UAC said there was still time to apply for university in first semester in 2016 and applications are open until Friday, February 12. But to be guaranteed inclusion in the main round of offers, potential students should apply by Friday. Most offers are made in the main round of offers which will be issued online at 6pm on Wednesday, January 20, and preferences for the main round can be changed until midnight on Wednesday, January 6.
