Photo: Government of South Australia

Australia revealed its biggest investment in space R&D in the country’s history, with the launch of a multi-billion smart satellite research hub led by the University of South Australia. The Co-operative Research Center for Smart Satellite Technologies and Analytics (SmartSatCRC) is a $245 million national research center involving 84 research and industry partners and a $55 million commitment from the federal government. The SmartSatCRC aims to develop new generation satellite technologies to help Australia secure its defense, telecommunications, and monitoring technologies for the future.

Described as “a game changer” by SmartSatCRC CEO designate UniSA Professor Andy Koronios, the project is projected to take Australia’s space industry from $3 billion to $12 billion by 2030, generating an extra 20,000 jobs. Additionally, the bid was developed by UniSA in partnership with Nova Systems.

“Australia has had a strong pedigree and a long history in space with excellent scientific capabilities in instrumentation and communications technologies but until now, the research has not been brought together to build a new industry for Australia, and to capitalize on the exponential growth of the global space economy,” Koronios said. “Our goal in bringing together the bid for SmartSat, was to show the huge potential and capacity there is in Australia to make an impact globally by developing leapfrogging technologies in areas where we have some of the best expertise on the planet – Artificial Intelligence (AI), advanced communications, and remote sensing analytics.”