University of Queensland (UQ) researchers have discovered how to produce single titanium oxide crystals. These miniature crystals have large amounts of reactive surfaces and could revolutionise the collection of solar energy. These same crystals can be used for hydrogen production and solar decontamination of pollutants.

Professor Max Lu, from UQ's Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN), collaborated with Professor Sean Smith's Computational Molecular Science group at AIBN, who conducted key computational studies and helped the experimentalist researchers to focus on specific surface modification elements for control of the crystal morphology.

The work was also attributed to a long-term international collaboration with Professor Huiming Cheng's group from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Source: UQ News Online

Skilling for Innovation aims to assess the extent to which skills shortages are impacting on Australian businesses, as well as the strategies firms are using to increase the skills of current employees. The survey also takes an in-depth look at the links between the skills of a company and their focus on innovation to drive business success.

This study identifies that skill shortages are restricting the ability of Australian businesses to be innovative. Of the 68% of business citing skill shortages, almost two in every three businesses said it was restricting their ability to be innovative.

Currently there is estimated to be a shortage of around 180,000 to 240,000 full-time employees in Australia. The majority of these shortages are for technicians and tradespersons, but there are also significant shortages for managers, professionals and engineers, along with labourers and process workers.

The Federal Government is undertaking a review of Australia s innovation system, and these findings imply that any new program arrangements recommended must give significant weight to building capabilities and skills within Australian industry.

Source: Australian Industry Group

The world is becoming more networked with the passing of each day. Not only are the number of interconnections amongst individuals, businesses, and governments increasing, but there is also increased recognition of connectivity as a key component of public infrastructure in general.

Those are the opening two sentences from the Global Information Technology Report 2007-2008 released recently by the World Economic Forum (WEF). So Australia is ranked 14th out of 127. Not a bad result for the an island nation slightly smaller than the continental United States with population of only 20 million.

The top ranked country was Denmark and all the Scandinavian countries took places in the top 10. Top 10 countries outside Scandinavia were Switzerland 3rd, United States 4th and Singapore 5th with the Netherlands 7th, Iceland 8th and the Republic of Korea 9th. View the complete Network Readiness Index.

Through a recent acquisition of Multi-Carrier Communications, Inc., Oregon based RIM Semiconductor has purchased an exclusive worldwide license and research program for a unique broadband signal processing technology jointly developed at two Australian universities. The technology transfer was negotiated by UniQuest and UTEK Corporation, the previous owners of Multi-Carrier Communications, Inc.

Researchers at the University of Queensland and the University of Sydney have developed a signal processing technology that enables faster Internet speeds over extended distances. Identified as a “low complexity method” which enhances the capacity of copper wire-based broadband services, the technology has particular applications where high-quality broadband transmission of multimedia files is required.

Senator Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, has announced Advanced Engine Components Ltd as the recipient of a $236,466 Commercial Ready Plus grant to develop components for heavy vehicle natural gas engines. Australia has vast quantities of natural gas reserves and natural gas engines are much more environmentally friendly than their diesel equivalents.