Category: Innovation
Winner: Carbon Nexus
Carbon Nexus is a specialised industrial-scale research facility within Deakin University’s Institute of Frontier Materials, and is focused on the development of new technologies for the production of carbon fibre materials.
The facility is a globally unique open-access research centre, containing the world’s only industrial-scale carbon fibre pilot production line on a university campus.
It is the only facility capable of producing carbon fibre in the southern hemisphere.
The facility was first envisioned by Professor Bronwyn Fox in 2009 when she saw the coming demand for light-weight materials. The centre was established with an investment of $34 million, supported by the university plus the state and federal governments.
Carbon fibre production operations commenced in November 2013, and the facility was officially opened in May 2014 by Victorian Premier Denis Napthine.
The vision of the facility is to be a world-leading centre of excellence in carbon fibre research, partnering with industry to provide solutions across the value chain from molecular development through to product manufacturing.
Carbon Nexus provides specialised research services to a range of internal and external clients including students and researchers from Deakin and other universities, plus a range of companies from around the world.
The research services are provided on a collaborative basis to students and researchers, and on a commercial basis to companies. A majority of its commercial customers are overseas, thus a high proportion of the revenue is from export business. To supplement the research income, it also produces carbon fibre material for commercial sale.
