US-Australia collaboration: partners in innovation, transforming lives and economies together

Partners in innovation

In 2017 Science in Public produced a series of factsheets for the Australian Embassy in Washington DC, to highlight some of the US-Australia innovations transforming both countries.

You can view the factsheets online by clicking on the links below or by downloading the individual PDF files.

  1. Protecting our crops—partners in food security (Download PDF)
  2. Protecting phones, robots and governments—partners in cybersecurity  (Download PDF)
  3.  From the ocean floor to batteries—partners in energy (Download PDF)
  4. Cars, planes…partners in advanced manufacturing (Download PDF)
  5. Eyes, hearts, bionic spines—partners in new health technologies (Download PDF)
  6. Healthier trucks and clean air underground—partners in mining technologies (Download PDF)

Transforming lives and economies together

Cochlear implant pioneer Professor Graeme Clark with recipient Credit: Cochlear Limited
Cochlear implant pioneer Professor Graeme Clark with recipient. Credit: Cochlear Limited

The United States is the world’s undisputed innovation leader, but Australian ingenuity is helping to meet America’s biggest challenges and improve the lives of its citizens every day.

  • Across America, deaf children are hearing for the first time thanks to a cochlear implant or bionic ear invented and manufactured in Australia.
  • Young women have access to vaccines that prevent cervical cancer, because of the work of Australian medical researchers at the University of Queensland.
  • America’s largest warships use Nulka for missile defence. It’s a little Aussie rocket that pretends it’s a ship.
  • In Pittsburgh, they’re making an ‘ultra-battery’ for storage of renewable energy, developed at Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO. The technology will also be used in hybrid cars.
  • Texan cotton farmers are growing crops that use less water, less pesticide and produce better cotton, with the help of CSIRO-derived plant varieties.
  • In Nebraska, Cold War technology, adapted by Australian mining company BHP Billiton, is being used to find rare earth mineral deposits from the air.
  • In Hawaii, one of the world’s largest optical telescopes uses an instrument built at ANU to analyze infrared light.
  • And millions of people are connecting to the internet wirelessly, thanks to discoveries by CSIRO astronomer-engineers.

In February 2011, Australia and America’s science leaders met in Washington DC to explore  closer science collaboration.

Science in Public produced a series of factsheets for the Australian Government showcasing some of the successes of past and present US-Australian collaboration in science, and signaling future collaboration.

You can view the factsheets online by clicking on the links below or by downloading the individual PDF files. To download all the factsheets as one PDF click here.

  1. Overview: Innovation today means jobs and prosperity tomorrow. (Download PDF)
  2. Delivering sustainable agriculture and biosecurity. (Download PDF)
  3. Slivers of sun: clean energy and smarter mining. (Download PDF)
  4. Science collaboration improves health. (Download PDF)
  5. Understanding and responding to changing climate. (Download PDF)
  6. Traveling at Mach 5: Defense and materials science in action. (Download PDF)
  7. Searching the southern sky, and unchaining the internet. (Download PDF)
  8. The Australian science and technology system. (Download PDF)

Hundreds of Aussie science achievements that you can share in speeches, posts and publications