Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will reportedly restore funding to Data61 (formerly NICTA) and announce increased engagement with the Fraunhofer network during a visit to Germany this weekend.
The Australian Financial Review reports that Turnbull will arrive in Berlin late Friday night (Australian time) and announce the recommendations of the Australia-Germany Advisory Group to deepen bilateral trade, scientific and cultural ties.
The Fraunhofer network of applied research centres is globally recognised for its effectiveness in commercialising research across a broad range of disciplines.
Data61 – which merged with CSIRO recently and simultaneously changed from the NICTA name – will also see its funding restored. This was a casualty in the 2014 federal budget and was due to run out in 2016.
The ICT body was established in 2002, had thousands of PhD students, and had spun out 15 successful start-ups.