Australia, Israel collaborate on asthma breakthrough
A GRANT from the Victorian Government has paired a local and Israeli business together to bring vital asthma monitoring technology closer to commercial release.
PETER KOHN
A GRANT from the Victorian Government has paired a local and Israeli business together to bring vital asthma monitoring technology closer to commercial release.
State Minister for Innovation Gavin Jennings announced a new funding round for the VISTECH program, which provides matching grants of up to $640,000 to help innovative Victorian companies work with Israeli companies.
“VISTECH demonstrates the value of international partnerships in commercialising our research and highlights that Victorian companies can offer important partnerships on the world stage,” Jennings said.
“Victoria and Israel face similar challenges in areas such as health and environment and water sustainability. We are positioning ourselves as knowledge-driven economies for the 21st century.”
A VISTECH collaboration between the ASX-listed Australian company PulmoSonix and Karmelsonix Israel has produced a non-invasive monitoring system for severe asthma sufferers.
PulmoSonix director Henry Pinskier said a $208,000 VISTECH grant, awarded under the program’s second round of funding, not only underwrote the research and development, but actually brought the two companies in contact with each other in the first place.
Piknsier made contact with KarmelSonix Israel, then known as Karmel Medical, during a 2005 trade mission to Israel with then-treasurer John Brumby and Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce national chairman Leon Kempler.
“It was the process of going through the VISTECH application that brought the two companies close together,” Pinskier said.
“Obtaining the VISTECH grant and the process of working through the application together with our partners at KarmelSonix Israel enabled us to work collaboratively in developing our acoustic respiratory monitoring technology, which is now being commercialised.”
Meanwhile, Victorian company FloorBotics International and an Israeli electronics company have used a $310,000 VISTECH grant to collaborate in the development of an autonomous robotic navigation algorithm that provides the navigation system for a robotic cleaning machine.
A collaboration between Melbourne-based Sustainability Ventures and Aqwise in Israel, funded by a $351,000 grant, will assist the sustainable diversification of dairy farms. The system is currently installed and already being tested on a commercial farm at Invergordon in northern Victoria.