19 July 2018
University of South Australia (UniSA) has established a joint laboratory in advanced lasers and sensors with Shandong Academy of Sciences (SDAS) supported by the South Australian Government.
The collaboration consists of two major facilities – one in China’s Jinan City and the other in Adelaide.
The advanced lasers and sensors lab was announced at the same time as the South Australian Government forged closer links with the Shandong Academy of Sciences by underpinning a three-year collaboration agreement with all three South Australian universities and committing $900,000 to support the advancement of collaborative research with China.
The new collaboration in lasers and sensors research will integrate top-class Chinese and Australian scientific and technological resources, boosting capacity to make significant technological breakthroughs within the next five years.
Research will focus on the development of advanced lasers and sensors for humidity sensing and trace detection of toxins in food products, R&D and commercialisation of planar waveguide-based infrared lasers and advanced gas sensors.
UniSA Deputy Vice Chancellor: Research, Professor Tanya Monro says the joint laboratory aims to develop novel and internationally competitive lasers and sensor products and to open the door for both Australian and Chinese businesses to collaborate and innovate.
“This sector has enormous potential internationally to transform and upgrade existing industries, and at the same time, support the formation of new industries where advanced sensor and laser technologies are key,” Prof Monro says.
“By bringing our research teams together we expect to shorten discovery times and leverage global links from both South Australian and Shandong.”
The $1.6m joint lab, funded jointly by UniSA, the Shandong Academy of Sciences and the South Australian Government, will also support places for six PhD students.
A SDAS-UniSA International Joint Graduate Program will be established to appoint supervisors, graduates, and PhD students from both UniSA and SDAS to the facilities.
Established in 1978, the Laser Institute of SDAS already has several national and provincial labs and research centres.
As one of Australia’s five key technology universities and ranked in the top 100 in the world in engineering technologies, UniSA is engaged in the kind of advanced laser and sensor technologies research to support SDAS’s longstanding success in the field.
Building on the Inter-Governmental Agreement on Shandong-South Australia Science and Technology Industrialisation Cooperation Platform signed in May 2017, the partnership will deepen relationship between South Australia and its sister-province, Shandong.
Media contact: or Michèle Nardelli mobile 0418 823 673 email:michele.nardelli@unisa.edu.au
