Bulletin

Issue: August 2004

News

Work begins on new AgriBiosciences Centre

Australian agricultural industries may expect significant benefits from research to be carried out at the new $19.5 million Victorian AgriBiosciences Centre (VABC) to be built at La Trobe University.

Australian agricultural industries may expect significant benefits from research to be carried out at the new $19.5 million Victorian AgriBiosciences Centre (VABC) to be built at La Trobe University.

La Trobe and CRI Australia have entered into a development agreement for the new Centre on the La Trobe University R&D Park at the Bundoora Biotechnology Precinct.

The agreement follows the establishment of the VABC Consortium, a collaborative venture between La Trobe University, Victoria's Department of Primary Industries' (DPI) Plant Biotechnology Centre which is located at La Trobe University, Monash University, RMIT and Florigene Ltd, a division of Suntory.

When the facility is completed, expected in May 2005, it will accommodate more than 200 research personnel.

La Trobe University is providing $12.7 million for the construction of the building to house the Centre with other contributions coming from the Victorian Department of Innovation Industry and Regional Development ($5 million) and the Victorian Department of Primary Industries ($2.5 million).

Two La Trobe academic staff members are on the Centre's five-member Management Committee. They are Professor German Spangenberg, Research Director, Plant Genetics and Genomics of Primary Industries Research Victoria, DPI, and Director of the Plant Biotechnology Centre, who will chair the committee, and Professor Roger Parish, Head of the University's Department of Botany. La Trobe R&D Park Director, Ms Sue Bell, is also a member.

Professor Parish said that research in the new Centre would range over many areas of plant industries, including research aimed to improve the productivity of such crops as wheat and canola. Other research would attempt to identify genes responsible for traits which render crops and pasture plants more resistant to environmental stresses such as drought and cold.

Professor Parish said that other important research would aim to improve resistance of crops and pasture plants to fungal and viral diseases and to attack by insect pests.

Professor Spangenberg said that the establishment of VABC will significantly enhance the science and technology base and innovation capability in the agricultural biotechnology sector. The VABC will act as a Victorian science and business incubator providing integrated key platform technologies for academia and industry.

He said the Centre will co-locate academic and commercial R&D groups fostering an environment that promotes effective interactions, networks and the incubation of spin-off companies.

La Trobe University, through its Institute of Advanced Study, will provide opportunities for tenants to collaborate with visiting scholars and to access overseas speakers for seminars, forums and conferences.

The facility will occupy approximately two hectares of the 50 hectare La Trobe R&D Park. It will consist of a two-storey state-of-the-art research facility, with approximately 5,500 square metres of floor space as well as a number of other R&D capabilities.

These include several unique initiatives, including a 'Research Hotel' with PC2 standard laboratories. CRI Australia will procure and manage the design and construction of the development.

Ms Bell said the agreement with CRI marked a watershed in the trend to successfully combine research, academic and industry requirements into facilities that satisfied high-end research needs as well as the commercial demands of industry.

'Not only will this development offer research facilities, it will operate as a business incubator, offering accom-modation, and business infrastructure to commercial start-up businesses in the plant bioscience field,' she said.

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