Australia’s most outstanding industry-research collaborations have been recognised at the 2025 Excellence in Innovation Awards, presented by Cooperative Research Australia (CRA) in partnership with Swinburne University of Technology.
Announced on Tuesday, 20 May, during CRA’s Collaborate Innovate 2025 conference in Melbourne, the awards highlight the impact of Cooperative Research Centres (CRCs) and other research partnerships in delivering tangible benefits across health, infrastructure, finance, sustainability, and the environment.
CRA Chief Executive Officer Jane O’Dwyer said the annual awards underscore the critical role that research collaboration plays in driving Australia’s innovation success.
“The standard of entries into this year’s Innovation Awards was testament to the quality of Australian R&D,” O’Dwyer said.
“Each of the awardees demonstrate how industry-research collaboration can translate into commercial, environmental and societal benefit. This work is critical to Australia’s prosperity and global competitiveness and deserves to be celebrated and sustained.”
The 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Dr Katherine Woodthorpe AO for her longstanding contribution to the CRC Program.
Dr Woodthorpe has been involved in 14 CRCs across a broad range of sectors – from bushfire safety to medtech – and has served as Chair and board member of multiple CRCs throughout her career.
“I’m delighted and honoured to receive this award,” Dr Woodthorpe said.
“Collaborative research has been at the heart of much of Australia’s research translation success, delivering both public and commercial benefit. I’m thrilled to be recognised for my small contribution to this success.”
In the category of Research Commercialisation, Navi Medical Technologies, in collaboration with the Royal Women’s Hospital, University of Melbourne and Design + Industry, received recognition for its development of the “Neonav” device.
The non-invasive technology helps guide central line placement in critically ill newborns, reducing reliance on x-rays and repeat procedures. The device, developed through a CRC-P project, has now received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The Award for Impact was jointly awarded to Dr Andreas Furche of the Digital Finance CRC and Samira Sadeghi of Edith Cowan University.
Dr Furche was recognised for his leadership in advancing Australia’s digital finance sector through industry, government and academic partnerships, including research into Central Bank Digital Currencies. CRA noted the national and international impact of his work, which has been measured in the billions of dollars.
Samira Sadeghi was commended for her research into innovative, non-toxic polymer additives that remove emerging pollutants such as PFAS from water.
CRA highlighted the strong commercial potential of her collaboration with the Water & Carbon Group in addressing a major environmental challenge.
Curtin University’s Professor Jacques Eksteen and Dr Lina Hockaday received the Award for Research Institution Leadership in Industry-Research Collaboration, in recognition of their work with the Heavy Industry Low-carbon Transition (HILT) CRC.
Their research involves repurposing seawater brine to upgrade iron ore to premium-grade quality, helping to enable green steel production and reduce industrial carbon emissions.
The Award for Enduring Industry-Research Collaboration was jointly awarded to Dr Mojtaba Mahmoodian of RMIT University, working with the SmartCrete CRC, and Dr Matthias Raab of CO2CRC.
Dr Mahmoodian led a national collaboration involving four universities and ten government and industry partners, which developed AI-driven predictive maintenance tools for concrete infrastructure.
CRA said the tools are helping asset owners improve the longevity, safety and sustainability of key infrastructure.
Dr Raab was recognised for establishing CO2CRC’s Otway facility as a world-leading site for carbon capture and storage (CCS) research.
Under his leadership, CRA said, Australia now hosts two of the world’s most significant CCS projects, collectively storing 3.5 million tonnes of CO? annually, with additional projects underway both onshore and offshore.
The Excellence in Innovation Awards are an initiative of Cooperative Research Australia, the peak body representing CRCs and other research collaboration entities nationally.
