Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
A manufacturing industry body and three universities jointly establish a 7-year Cooperative Research Centre to solve a shared supply-chain problem, with the industry partners matching the Commonwealth's funding through cash and in-kind contributions such as equipment access and staff secondments.
- Is an instance
A single SME partners with a research organisation on an 18-month CRC-P project to develop a specific product improvement, applying for the smaller, faster CRC-P stream rather than the multi-year flagship CRC stream because the problem is narrower and time-sensitive.
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
A university research team seeking funding for an investigator-driven program of fundamental research, with no industry partner setting the research question and no requirement for industry co-investment, should look to an ARC scheme such as a Centre of Excellence or Discovery Project rather than the CRC Program, which is structurally industry-led.
Editorial commentary
The Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) Program is the Australian Government’s flagship scheme for industry-led collaborative research, established in 1990 and administered by the Department of Industry, Science and Resources — distinct from the Australian Research Council, which administers university-led schemes like Discovery Projects and Linkage Projects. Its purpose is to bolster the competitiveness, productivity, and sustainability of Australian industries by funding sustained collaboration between industry, universities, and other research organisations on problems industry itself has identified, rather than funding investigator-driven basic research.
The Two Funding Streams
The program is structured around two streams that differ in scale and duration rather than purpose:
Cooperative Research Centres (CRCs) are medium to long-term collaborations lasting up to 10 years, established as standalone entities with their own governance structure to tackle a major, industry-identified challenge. There is no fixed funding ceiling, but Commonwealth funding for a CRC typically runs from $30 million to $75 million over the centre’s life. Participants must at least match the Commonwealth’s contribution through cash and/or in-kind support.
CRC-P Grants are the program’s shorter, faster, and more accessible entry point: industry-led projects of up to three years, funded at $100,000 to $3 million, matched by the applicant partners. See the CRC-P entry for the specific eligibility and assessment mechanics of that stream.
Who Can Participate
Participation is deliberately broad. Industry participants range from small and medium enterprises to large corporations, and involvement from industry is central to the program’s premise that research should be directly relevant to a real market need rather than proposed in the abstract. Universities and other research organisations supply the research expertise and infrastructure. Government agencies and other end-users often participate as well, shaping research direction and helping ensure outcomes are actually adopted once a centre or project concludes.
How It Differs from ARC Schemes
The CRC Program is easy to conflate with ARC’s own collaborative schemes, but the two sit under entirely different administering agencies and different premises. An ARC Centre of Excellence is university-led and funds a coordinated program of fundamental and applied research chosen through the ARC’s competitive peer-review process, with no requirement that industry co-contribute. A CRC is industry-led by design — the research question originates from an identified industry problem, and matching industry co-investment is a structural requirement, not an optional strengthening factor. A research office deciding between the two should look at who is setting the research agenda: an ARC Centre of Excellence when it’s a university-driven program of discovery-oriented research, a CRC when industry has a specific problem and is prepared to co-invest in solving it.
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
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