Grants underline ability to partner with industry

The University of Adelaide has been awarded $1,405,458 in linkage grants by the Australian Research Council (ARC) to undertake two projects that aim to reduce the uncertainties of capturing and storing CO₂ and to create a new class of optical fibre that will enable the future quantum internet.

The ARC’s Linkage Program promotes national and international research partnerships between researchers and business, industry, community organisations and other publicly funded research agencies. The latest grants announced are outcomes of the Linkage Projects Round 1 for 2022.

“I congratulate our experts on securing funding for their important projects,” said Professor Anton Middelberg, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), the University of Adelaide.

“These ARC grants will enable our experts, in partnership with industry and government to undertake valuable work that will benefit society in the essential areas of environmental sustainability and sovereign capability. They both demonstrate how research and innovation are enabling creative solutions to complex, global challenges.”

The two projects led by experts from the University in this round are as follows:

Professor Simon Holford from the School of Physics, Chemistry and Earth Sciences, will lead a team that will undertake multiscale geomechanical modelling of basin-scale CO₂ storage. The project has received $506,554 from the ARC.

This project aims to develop innovative geomechanical models that will show the potential for reservoir deformation, including induced seismic activity, during storage of CO₂. This will help identify storage locations at low risk of deformation and CO₂ leakage in regions where little data exists. The project will examine the technical and commercial viability of CO₂ storage in Australia’s Cooper-Eromanga basins. It aims to reduce geomechanical uncertainties that are a barrier to the global need to upscale carbon capture and storage.

“These ARC grants will enable our experts, in partnership with industry and government to undertake valuable work that will benefit society in the essential areas of environmental sustainability and sovereign capability."Professor Anton Middelberg, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), the University of Adelaide.

Professor Heike Ebendorff-Heidepriem from the School of Physics, Chemistry and Earth Sciences is Deputy Director of the University of Adelaide’s Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing, Director of the Optofab Adelaide Hub at the Australian National Fabrication Facility. She holds a South Australian Government Future Industry Making Fellowship. Her team will look at ultra-low-loss fluoride glass optical fibres for the future quantum internet. The project has received $898,904. Other team members include Professor David Ottaway, Dr Erik Schartner and Dr Ori Henderson-Sapir.

Currently transmission loss of silica optical fibres limits the capacity of the global internet. Fluoride glass overcomes this limitation and will enable the future quantum internet to become a reality. The project is developing solutions to enable commercial-scale manufacturing of these fibres. The team will develop innovative fibre fabrication methods optimised for space manufacturing. Benefits of the project will include enhanced internet capacity with lower energy requirements, and opportunities for sovereign capability in fluoride fibre fabrication in Australia.

Details of the ARC funding announcement can be found here.