The Cooperative Research Centre for Railway Engineering and
Technologies (Rail CRC), a joint venture of six universities and
six major Australian railway companies, was the first
transportation-related research and education Centre in Australia
partially sponsored by the Commonwealth Government under the
Cooperative Research Centre Program.
More then 250 experts from industry and academia combined their
efforts under the CRC umbrella to develop knowledge, products and
services that would assist the industry with improving productivity
and performance. More than $60 million in cash and in-kind
resources was contributed to the Centre by participants and the
government toward 40 R&D and educational projects.
Over the 6 years of operation from 2001 to 2007 the Centre
developed an impressive portfolio of technologies, software
products and educational materials. As independently estimated by
consultants and international experts, Rail CRC outputs have the
capability to deliver significant benefits to the industry via
improved productivity, reduced maintenance costs, increased network
capacity, and reliability and efficiency of operations.
Rail Innovation Australia (RIA) Pty Ltd, established in 2007, was
assigned with a challenging task to manage, further grow and
commercialise the Rail CRC intellectual property delivering
benefits to the industry and returns to shareholders.
