The Queensland Defence Science Alliance (QDSA) has announced the winners of the 2023 QDSA Collaborative Research Grants. Four projects between Queensland Universities and Defence industry partners have been successful, with each one awarded up to $250,000, which will support the project for up to 18 months and aims to propel ideas from Proof-of-Concept to Prototypes and demonstration.
Project submissions were required to address at least one of two key priority areas from the Federal Government’s Defence Strategic Review (DSR) that align with Queensland strengths – namely, Northern Australia Capabilities or Innovative Asymmetric Technologies.
The University of Queensland (UQ), in collaboration with Griffith University, Advanced Navigation, and Orica Australia, will lead one of the projects. It aims design, build and test silicon-chip-integrated quantum optomechanical magnetometers for use in GPS denied environments. In a world which is highly reliant on GPS application for significant Defence and civil needs, this project has potential to provide alternate navigation pathways should GPS be unavailable.
Griffith University will lead the other other three which cover micropower grids, diamond like coatings and federated learning. The first project - which is collaboration between Griffith University, UQ and Supercritical Technologies - will develop micropower grid capabilities that produce high power outputs which are compact and portable, with direct applications to mobile and fixed Defence installations.
The second - which will see Griffith collaborating with Laserdyne technologies - will design new methods for the fabrication of diamond like coatings for thermal imaging applications with a focus on improving the manufacturing process and unlocking exports to AUKUS countries.
The final project - which is lead by Griffith and includes UQ, University of Sunshine Coast, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Defence Science and Technology Group and Cyborg Industries - is focussed on the application of advanced collaborative AI to providing command and control of multiple uncrewed ground vehicles (UGV). As part of the project, the team will deliver a working prototype.
In total QDSA received 47 submissions from across Queensland.