Physical Sciences Fund 2020
The successful funding recipients in the 2020 Physical Sciences Fund were announced at an event held at the Sydney Startup Hub on Tuesday 9 February 2021, in the presence of the Hon. Rob Stokes MP, Minister for Planning and Public Spaces and the Hon. Gabrielle Upton MP, Parliamentary Secretary to the Premier.
The $5 million fund is part of a targeted strategy by the Office of the NSW Chief Scientist & Engineer to encourage research translation, delivering better collaboration between universities and industry, and driving NSW Government outcomes in economic growth and jobs creation.
NSW has great strengths in research across a wide range of scientific fields. The PSF aims to build on these strengths by supporting the translation of research into devices and systems ready for commercialisation.
The funding recipients include MicroTau, Quasar Satellite Technologies, Zetifi, and BioScout.
BioScout is a company created by the University of Sydney engineers who came up with the idea of an automated airborne disease tracking system during their university studies. Their technology uses smart sensing, data and artificial intelligence to track and analyse the spread of airborne diseases on farm fields.
BioScout’s proprietary sensors are stationed on cropped land and actively sample the air to detect fungal disease that may threaten the yield output and quality of a farmer’s crops.
The information gathered from the field is sent to the BioScout cloud servers where the raw data is processed and in the event of a disease outbreak, the farmer is notified. Using BioScouts technology, farmers can receive real-time data about the identity, density and location of pathogens in a crop field.
More about the other funding recipients:
MicroTau Pty Ltd, Direct Contactless Microfabrication (DCM) Printer, printing microscopic patterns inspired by nature to produce functional surface properties.
Quasar Satellite Technologies, Phased Array Satellite Ground Station as a Service, digital phased array technology that can potentially link to hundreds of satellites simultaneously using a single installation.
Zetifi, ZetiCell and ZetiRover, a solar-powered Wi-Fi small cell that delivers high bandwidth connectivity to rural and remote areas.
To view a recording of the event, please click here.
More information on PSF 2020 recipients is available here.
More information on BiScout’s test trials and technology is available on the University of Sydney website here.