Top Australian scientists to meet, launch nation's "ideas boom"

Hundreds of leading Australian scientists will meet this month to kickstart the nation's "ideas boom", attempting to transform good scientific ideas into viable business propositions.

Australia's Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) has invited 11 teams of scientists from some of Australia's most prestigious universities and within its own ranks to take part in its "ON Accelerator" program.

The teams were selected on the strength and creativeness of their ideas, and whether the CSIRO felt they could make a real impact on Australia's future industrial, economic and environmental prosperity.

One of this year's suggested ideas involves developing GPS-free "collision avoidance" technology, which could help drones and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) navigate autonomously.

The country's national postal delivery service, Australia Post, is currently in the midst of a two-week trail for drone-assisted parcel deliveries.

However, at this stage, the new delivery method is limited by the fact that it must be flown by a pilot, and is only beneficial when couriering packages to houses that are inaccessible by road.

The CSIRO program is looking to change this, by giving postal companies technology capable of making drones a viable alternative for its service.

Other creative ideas that will take center stage at the intensive three-month conference, beginning next week, include a food additive for livestock to reduce cattle methane emissions by up to 90 percent and facial recognition software to assess the level of pain among emergency patients.

"The CSIRO is focused on helping Australia navigate the changes we face, from digital disruption to environmental impact," Dr Larry Marshall, the research organization's chief executive, said in a press release on Thursday.

"We need to translate more of our nation's excellent science into solutions that build a better future, and the ON Accelerator is the perfect way to teach researchers and teams how to do just that."

In December last year, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull flagged the end of Australia's mining boom and beginning of the "ideas boom", pledging 860 million U.S. dollars over the next four years for innovation projects.

The ON Accelerator program, launched five months before Turnbull's Innovation Statement, hopes to shorten the time from concept development to commercialization. Endit