National research facility launched

A $41 million national research facility for cutting-edge microscopy and microanalysis was launched by the Federal Minister for Education, Science and Training, the Hon Julie Bishop MP, at the University of Sydney today.

The Australian Microscopy & Microanalysis Research Facility (AMMRF) aims to be Australia's peak research facility for the characterisation of materials using microscopy and microanalysis techniques, employing electron and ion beams, scanned probes, X-rays and light and laser optics.

"Innovation and key advances in science and technology require an understanding of relationships between the properties and function of materials and their fundamental structure," said Prof Simon Ringer, the facility's executive director and CEO.

Research projects that will use the facility include a study at the University of Western Australia into muscle diseases in newborn babies; a University of Adelaide project to test new drugs to treat bone cancer; a project at the University of New South Wales to develop hard coatings for bearing surfaces, and a University of Sydney study to explore the origins of remarkable properties of a new advanced steel.

"Microscopy and microanalysis allow scientists and engineers to explore and understand these relationships across length scales that range from the barely visible to the atomic level. Advanced platforms in this area are essential to our national scientific capacity; and that's why the AMMRF exists."

Established under the Commonwealth Government's National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS), the AMMRF is a truly national research facility headquartered at the University of Sydney, with nodes at the University of Queensland, the University of New South Wales, the University of Western Australia, Australian National University, Flinders University, the University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia.

"Advanced microscopy and microanalysis platforms will now be available to Australian researchers, at all stages of their careers, to conduct experiments across the AMMRF's impressive national grid," said Ringer.

"Our users already range from health and medicine to archaeology to major science and engineering research programs."