Our Track Record

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$180M+ funding 
over 10 years

90+ Industry 
Collaborations

2,000+ Publications

30 prestigious 
scientific awards

7 Start-Ups

  • Large grants and prestigious fellowships
    • $38M Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale BioPhotonics (CNBP)
    • Adelaide node of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav)
    • $96M Headquarters, The Braggs: A topping out ceremony was held in June 2012
    • $1.5 M in projects through the Photonics Catalyst Program connecting South Australian Industry with photonics technologies in November 2013
    • $1.4M to establish South Australia at the forefront of Additive Manufacturing.
    • 2 x highly prestigious ARC Laureate Fellowships
    • 16 national and international fellowships including an ARC Laureate Fellowship, 10 Future, DECRA  and Heart Foundation Fellowships
    • 4 x Ramsey fellowships
    • 3 x prestigious European Fellowships from the Humboldt and Marie Curie foundations
    • 2 x $1M SA Premier Research Fellowships

    Also proudly part of:

  • Our partnerships

    One of the key aims of IPAS is to combine research excellence with a strong industry focus and collaborative culture.

    The team at IPAS work closely with Adelaide Enterprise and Research Contracts and Partnerships, the commercialisation arms of the University of Adelaide, to create a culture of innovation within the Institute, foster industry-led collaborations and contract research, and to develop technology licence agreements.

    The commercial objectives of IPAS are to accelerate the process of getting products to market, helping the growth of photonics and advanced sensing sectors in Australia, creating new opportunities and jobs for graduates and researchers outside traditional academic roles and securing an untied income stream to the Institute.

    IPAS partners; SILANNA, Novartis, AAERC, ACHM, AEROMETREX, AMGC, AOFR, ARCHER, ARKWRIGHT, ASC, ATRAD, AUSTOFIX, AUSTRALIAN PORK, AUSTRALIAN SEAFOOD, AVAILER, AWS, AXIOM, BAE SYSTEMS, BHP BILLITION, BIONOMICS, BIOPLATFORMS, BIOSIS, BRUKER, CalPain, CENTURY, CF RAIL SERVICES, CHEVRON, COOK MEDICAL, COOPERS, CORETEC, CPR, CRC ORE, CRC PLANT BIOSECURITY, CRYOCLOCK, CSIRO, CSL, DCNS, DEEP EXPLORATION TECHNOLOGIES, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENCE, DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRY, INNOVATION AND SCIENCE, DIEMOULD, DSTG, ECOJET, ELE

  • Commercialisation
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    Cryoclock

    Cryoclock Pty Ltd is a company launched by Prof Andre Luiten and Adj. Prof John Hartnett in 2016 to exploit the commercial potential of their Sapphire Clock technology, the purest frequency source commercially available.

    Find out more

    Mirage Photonics logo

    Mirage Photonics

    Mirage Photonics is a start-up launched in 2016 by Dr Ori Henderson-Sapir. At the forefront of fibre-based mid-infrared (IR) laser development, it brings innovative solutions to the R&D and environmental sensing sector.

    Find out more

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    Miniprobes

    Miniprobes Pty Ltd is a South Australian startup incorporated in 2016 by three IPAS researchers (Robert McLaughlin, Bryden Quirk, Rodney Kirk) to commercialise their smart needle technology.

    Find out more

    Logo of HT Sensing

    HT Sensing

    HT Sensing Pty Ltd, founded in 2019, is a South Australian high-tech manufacturing company specialising in high-temperature, multi-point sensors for use within the metals processing industry and other high-value, high-temperature applications.

    Find out more

  • Award-winning scientists (selected)
    • 2019 Geoff Opat Early Career Researcher Prize - Dr Jiawen Li
    • 2019 Winnovation Award category Sciences - Dr Katharina Richter
    • 2019 Winnovation Award category Engineering - Dr Jiawen Li
    • 2019 Tall Poppy Award - Dr Danny Wilson
    • 2019 Avalon Airshow Innovation Award for Autonomous and Unmanned Systems and ISR – Cryoclock Pty Ltd, including Prof Andre Luiten, Prof John Hartnett, A/Prof Martin O'Connor, Dr Ori Henderson-Sapir, Dr Fred Baynes and Dr Ka Wu
    • 2019 Avalon Airshow Defence SME Innovation Prize –  Cryoclock Pty Ltd, including Prof Andre Luiten, Prof John Hartnett, A/Prof Martin O'Connor, Dr Ori Henderson-Sapir, Dr Fred Baynes and Dr Ka Wu
    • 2018 Australian Institute of Physics Allan Walsh Medal – Prof Andre Luiten
    • 2018 Defence Science and Technology Eureka Prize – Sapphire Clock - Prof Andre Luiten, Prof John Hartnett, A/Prof Martin O'Connor, Dr Ori Henderson-Sapir, Dr Fred Baynes, Dr Giuseppe Tettamanzi, Dr Ka Wu
    • 2018 Top 10 Innovators under 35 in the Asia Pacific region - Dr Jonathan Hall
    • 2018 SA Tall Poppy of the Year – Dr Ben Sparkes
    • 2018 Australia and New Zealand Industrial and Applied Mathematics EO Tuck Medal – Prof Yvonne Stokes
    • 2017 Optical Society of America Fellowship - Prof Heike Ebendorff-Heidepriem
    • 2017 National Measurement Institute Barry Inglish Medal  – Prof Andre Luiten
    • 2017  Winnovation Award category Technology - Prof Heike Ebendorff-Heidepriem
    • 2017 Queen’s Birthday Honours – Emeritus Prof Bob Vincent AM
    • 2017 Asia Pacific Global Winner – Talent Unleashed Awards - Dr Jonathan Hall
    • 2017 Australian and New Zealand Society for Mass Spectrometry Bowie Medal – A/Prof Tara Pukala
    • 2016 NHMRC Top 10 Projects – Prof Andrew Abell, Prof Grant Booker, Dr Steven Polyak 
    • 2016 Society of Crystallographers in Australia and New Zealand Sandy Matieson Medal – Prof Chris Sumby
    • 2016 Chemical Society of Japan Lectureship Award – Prof Christian Doonan