CANBERRA, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Australia's national science agency announced an investment in science and technology growth areas to support the country's pandemic recovery.
The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) announced on Tuesday it will spend 100 million Australian dollars (78.3 million U.S. dollars) over the next four years on biomedical and digital manufacturing, digital healthcare, artificial intelligence (AI) and other major scientific breakthroughs.
Larry Marshall, the chief executive of the CSIRO, said the initiative would grow the agency's portfolio and help drive Australia's economic recovery from the coronavirus crisis.
"COVID-19 and Australia's lived experience during the pandemic has shown that science can deliver remarkable solutions to solve our greatest challenges, like predicting and isolating COVID hotspots, agile manufacturing to create sovereign supply of desperately needed products, and virtual healthcare for our most vulnerable communities wherever they live across our continent," he said in a media release.
"The world is facing unprecedented disruption, but disruption creates new opportunities for the bold, and the actions we take now can set the path towards a brighter future for all Australians."
The CSIRO said the pandemic revealed the "need for increased Australian sovereign capabilities in biomedical discovery, development, and manufacturing." Enditem