Innovation funding to support METS

The Australian mining equipment, technology and services (METS) industry has been identified as one of five growth sectors in the government’s Innovation Statement, opening up the sector to an AUS$1 billion fund aimed at creating an ‘ideas boom’.

“The Prime Minister’s pledge to invest more that AUS$1 billion in new spending over four years to foster an innovative, risk-sharing culture in Australia will contribute significantly towards growing the Australian METS industry, said Elizabeth Lewis-Grey, Chair of the METS Growth Centre (METS Ignited).

“The Australian METS sector is a home-grown, global innovation leader, employing 360 000 highly-skilled manufacturing, technology, digital and research people and offering high-value job and career opportunities for the future,” continued Lewis-Grey. “The sector already exports AUS$15 billion of goods and services each year but our goal is to double that figure by 2030.”

The Innovation Statement was also welcomed by Queensland Resources Council’s (QRC) CEO, Michael Roche, who also criticised those that saw mining as “yesterday’s hero” and incompatible with innovation.

“Mining is a living and breathing exemplar of innovation and ideas,” said Roche, noting that between 1994 and 2011 there had been 6539 mining-related inventions filed for patent, while the industry spent AUS$3 billion per year on R&D.

‘Far from being yesterday’s hero, there is no industry sector more fundamental to the future […] especially in terms of generating new thinking and ideas,’ Roche concluded.

Edited from by Jonathan Rowland.

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcoal.com/mining/09122015/innovation-funding-to-support-mets-3259/