Cooperative Research Centre

Cooperative Research Centres (CRCs) are an Australian Federal Government program and are key bodies for Australian scientific research. The Cooperative Research Centres Programme was established in 1990 to enhance Australia's industrial, commercial and economic growth through the development of sustained, user-driven, cooperative public-private research centres that achieve high levels of outcomes in adoption and commercialisation. The program emphasises the importance of collaborative arrangements to maximise the benefits of research through an enhanced process of utilisation, commercialisation and technology transfer. It also has a strong education component with a focus on producing graduates with skills relevant to industry needs. Most CRCs offer scholarships for postgraduate students.

The CRC Programme is administered by the Commonwealth Department of Industry and Science.

Reviews of the Cooperative Research Programme have been regularly undertaken. In 2012, an independent impact study found CRCs generated a net economic benefit of $7.5 billion from 1991 - 2017. This equates to an annual contribution of $278 million, or around 0.03 percentage points to GDP.

The Cooperative Research Centre Association (CRCA), established on 1 December 1994, to promote the CRC program while also acting a conduit for information sharing and learning between CRCs. Over time the role has evolved to the extent that today the CRCA is also recognised as the principal non-Government advocate of the CRC Program.

Since the commencement of the CRC Programme in 1991 there have been 14 selection rounds. Selection rounds were conducted in March 1991, December 1991, December 1992, December 1994, and then at regular two year intervals: 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006. Following the review of the Programme in 2008, the 11th and 12th Selection rounds were both held in 2009. Selection rounds are now annual.

Results of CRC funding rounds can be found at the CRC online directory.

A number of websites of previously funded CRCs are archived in perpetuity on the National Library of Australia's Trove online library database aggregator.

The CRC Program provides funding to CRCs across six industry sectors: manufacturing technology, information and communication technology, mining and energy, agriculture and rural-based manufacturing, environment and medical science and technology

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