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The first recipients to benefit from the new Australian government program Research Connections have been announced.
Research Connections has been formed to help small and medium businesses to work with the research sector to develop new ideas.
Included in the 10 recipients is Australian biotech company Sirtex Medical Ltd. Sirtex will work with the University of Sydney to undertake research into treatments including brain cancer, based on early stage research developed from its liver cancer treatment.
Industry and Science Minister Ian Macfarlane said Sirtex, a single-product company, would match the $50,000 funding from the Research Connections element of the government鈥檚 $484.2 million Entrepreneurs鈥� Infrastructure Programme to help to broaden its product base.
鈥淩esearch Connections helps small and medium business collaborate with researchers to develop new ideas with commercial potential and is an essential element of helping Australian industry to become more productive and competitive,鈥� Mr Macfarlane said.
鈥淩esearch Connections facilitators are assisting businesses like Sirtex identify critical and strategic research needs and opportunities, then provide pathways for researcher-business cooperation and engagement on new products and processes.
Dr Steve Jones, Sirtex鈥檚 global head of research and development, said Research Connections assistance would offset concerns about the early-stage, high-risk nature of the research.
鈥淭he funding through Research Connections will help get our research moving forward, and that is extremely useful for us, because it鈥檚 one thing having this fantastic product, but another to have a commercially viable application for it,鈥� Dr Jones said.
鈥淲e have quite an extensive R&D programme, and we collaborate as much as possible with external universities and high profile research organisations rather than trying to do everything in-house.鈥�
Other companies who have benefited from the new scheme include:

• Immuron Limited, which will work with Monash University on聽new non-antibiotic strategies to manage the incidence, severity and recurrence of Clostridium difficile gut disease.


• Marinova Ptd Ltd will work with the University of Tasmania to聽evaluate the effectiveness of Maritech Synergy extracts in normalising the inflammation of the gut.


• Boron Molecular Pty Ltd will work with CSIRO to test applicability of flow technology for large scale synthesis of Pinacolborane, a building block in the manufacture of boronic acids.