The Victorian Government today announced the launch of the first round of the Small Technologies Industry Uptake Program (STIUP) which was a key part of the $10.5 million Victorian Action Plan for Small Technologies.
The program is intended to support businesses in accessing facilities, goods, services and advice to help them include small technologies in their products, processes and services. The resources available in Victoria include the Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication, the Australian Synchrotron and MiniFab as well as facilities and institutions such as the CSIRO and universities.
The STIUP funds provide successful applicants with a voucher that can be exchanged for equivalent value of goods or services from approved suppliers. Currently, there are three categories of voucher, as described below.
Small Technologies Feasibility (STFeas) Voucher
Value: up to $10,000.00.
Purpose: small fee-based services such as prior art searches, demonstration of coatings, preliminary testing, marketing studies, and consulting services to evaluate feasibility of micro and nano fabrication processes.
Small Technologies Technical (STTech) Voucher
Value: up to $50,000.00.
Purpose: substantial micro or nanotechnology based development activity such as assistance for small scale product prototyping, laboratory verification, field testing and fabrication of small technology demonstrators.
Small Technologies Trial (STTrial) Voucher
Value: up to $250,000.00
Purpose: trial of existing small technology based innovations which can improve the competitiveness of businesses belonging to a priority Victorian industry, or improve services which are provided for the benefit of Victorians.
STTrial voucher applications close on 11 November 2010, while STFeas and STTech voucher applications are open until June 2013.
Further information and application forms are available from the Business Victoria website.
Before You Go…
Thank you for reading this article to the end – I hope you enjoyed it, and found it useful. Almost every article I post here takes a few hours of my time to research and write, and I have never felt the need to ask for anything in return.
But now – for the first, and perhaps only, time – I am asking for a favour. If you are a patent attorney, examiner, or other professional who is experienced in reading and interpreting patent claims, I could really use your help with my PhD research. My project involves applying artificial intelligence to analyse patent claim scope systematically, with the goal of better understanding how different legal and regulatory choices influence the boundaries of patent protection. But I need data to train my models, and that is where you can potentially assist me. If every qualified person who reads this request could spare just a couple of hours over the next few weeks, I could gather all the data I need.
The task itself is straightforward and web-based – I am asking participants to compare pairs of patent claims and evaluate their relative scope, using an online application that I have designed and implemented over the past few months. No special knowledge is required beyond the ability to read and understand patent claims in technical fields with which you are familiar. You might even find it to be fun!
There is more information on the project website, at claimscopeproject.net. In particular, you can read:
- a detailed description of the study, its goals and benefits; and
- instructions for the use of the online claim comparison application.
Thank you for considering this request!
Mark Summerfield
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