NICTA to receive $45 million from Iemma government

Following an earlier allocation of $20 million between 2002 and 2007, the newly announced agreement means that the Iemma Government will provide a total of $45 million to NICTA over the decade from 2002 to 2012.

“This is a direct investment in NSW and Australia's innovative future,” said Ian Macdonald, NSW Minister for State Development.

“Information and communications technologies (ICT) underpin our modern services economy and help drive the future competitiveness of this State.”

“ICT is a major driver of innovation, including in key sectors identified for growth such as financial services, manufacturing and freight and logistics,” he said.

NICTA has amassed a technology portfolio of 60 patent applications and has created four new companies, including Open Kernel Labs, which already has brought NICTA-developed technology to the hands of hundreds of millions of mobile phone consumers.

Macdonald cited an evaluation by the NSW Department of State and Regional Development that found that NICTA has generated an estimated $168 million in benefits for NSW in its first five years.

He pointed out that the figure represents a return of $8 for every dollar contributed by the NSW Government, in addition to downstream benefits to industry and the community from the use of NICTA’s services.

“It is estimated that NSW’s further five-year, $25 million commitment to NICTA will generate more than $219 million in further benefits for the State, including the new investment at the Australian Technology Park,” Macdonald said.

NICTA’s researchers are developing technologies that it expects will meet the current and future needs of the community. Through its Smart Transport and Roads (STaR) project, the research organisation is currently working at the Australian Technology Park to combine advanced technologies to help solve traffic problems in Australia and around the world.

Results of the STaR project are expected to lead to large economic and environmental benefits arising from better traffic control, more reliable travel times and more efficient incident management.

“NICTA’s research is about problem-solving based on breakthroughs in knowledge and fundamental innovation. It is ‘use-inspired’. It is not research for research’s sake,” said NICTA’s Chief Executive Officer, David Skellern.

“We work with industry and Government to identify problems that are best solved by ICT breakthroughs and apply our expertise to develop knowledge and technology to solve those problems,” he said.