The South Australian State Government has announced a $3.8 million investment to boost South Australia’s science and research capabilities to benefit the State’s mineral processing, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, optical and energy industries.
The metabolomics capability at The Australian Wine Research Institute was one of four recipients to share the investment.
Managing Director of The Australian Wine Research Institute, Dr Sakkie Pretorius, explains how this investment will help support quality wine production. “Wine itself is made up from several interacting ‘metabolomes’; with grape, yeast, bacteria, and oak metabolites all contributing to wine chemical composition which shapes a wine’s final characteristics. Metabolomics approaches in wine research therefore have the ability to provide a much greater understanding of how variables, such as environmental conditions and genetic variation of vines, yeast and bacteria, shape the sensory attributes of wines and distinguish the best vintages from the ‘also-rans’. Most importantly, greater information can be converted into greater knowledge which will ultimately lead to greater control for wine makers,” he said. “This funding investment by the South Australian State Government and with the support of Bioplatforms Australia allows the AWRI to embrace world-class ‘Big Science’ approaches to fast-track beneficial outcomes for the Australian wine industry.”
The new investment was also shared by:
- The University of South Australia’s Ian Wark Research Institute and Flinders University for the purchase and operation of equipment to manufacture micro and nano scale devices as part of the South Australian node of the Australian National Fabrication Facility.
- Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing at the University of Adelaide for optical fibre research equipment that will aid the development of the next generation of sensors that may one day enable the non-invasive monitoring of embryos and devices to remotely identify corrosion in aircraft.
- Adelaide Proteomics Centre, a joint venture of the University of Adelaide and SA Pathology, to support research into the fight against diseases such as cancer and the development of therapeutics to treat the disease.
For further information, please contact Communications Manager, Rae Blair (rae.blair@awri.com.au).