About Us

Overview of ARTIC’s vision and values

The Australian Research Translation and Innovation Consortium (ARTIC) brings together ARC Centres of Excellence (CoEs), industry, government and other partners to strengthen research translation and increase the real-world impact of Australia’s world-class research.

Research translation is the process through which research knowledge and discoveries are used or applied to achieve real-world outcomes. It can take many forms, including industry collaboration, new technologies and services, policy and practice, workforce and skills development, entrepreneurship and commercialisation.

ARTIC was established to make these pathways easier to navigate and more effective. By connecting expertise and capabilities across Centres of Excellence and creating stronger links with industry, government and the broader innovation ecosystem, ARTIC helps reduce fragmentation, build translation capability and create opportunities that individual organisations may not be able to achieve alone.

Our vision is a connected, collaborative and high-trust Australian research translation ecosystem where fundamental research can contribute to national priorities, new technologies, industries, policy, capability and societal benefit.

ARTIC recognises that research translation is not a single pathway. Centres of Excellence span diverse disciplines, operate at different stages of translation and engage with external partners in different ways. Rather than imposing a one-size-fits-all model, ARTIC provides shared frameworks, networks and opportunities that Centres can draw on according to their needs.

Our work includes bringing people and organisations together around shared challenges, mapping research capabilities, strengthening translation skills, connecting research with industry and government needs, sharing knowledge and effective practice, and identifying opportunities for cross-Centre collaboration. As the consortium develops, this foundation will support larger collaborative initiatives, stronger translation pathways and a coordinated national voice for research translation.

Our values are grounded in collaboration, openness, inclusion, national benefit and sustainable impact. We respect the independence and expertise of individual Centres while recognising the value created when knowledge, networks and capabilities are shared.

ARTIC is committed to ethical and responsible innovation, respect for Indigenous knowledge systems and intellectual property, and developing researchers and professional staff with the skills and experience to contribute within and beyond academia.

Ultimately, ARTIC aims to make research translation more connected, deliberate and achievable, helping turn Australia’s exceptional research capability into outcomes that benefit industry, government, communities and the nation.

History: How the Better Futures Hackathon inspired the creation of ARTIC

The idea for ARTIC grew from the collaboration created through the 2023 Better Futures Innovation Challenge, which brought together five ARC Centres of Excellence with industry partners to explore real-world challenges through multidisciplinary research.

The initiative demonstrated what becomes possible when expertise from different research fields is brought together around a shared problem. Researchers who may not otherwise have worked together were able to combine their knowledge and capabilities with insights from industry to develop new approaches and potential applications.

One example was a concept developed in partnership with Pentalym for an RFID-based system to help track critical medical equipment in emergency response fleets. The project demonstrated how expertise developed through fundamental research could be applied in an entirely different context to address a practical challenge.

More importantly, the experience highlighted a broader opportunity.

Australia’s ARC Centres of Excellence collectively contain extraordinary research expertise, infrastructure, talent and networks. Yet opportunities to connect those capabilities across Centres and with industry, government and other sectors have often depended on existing relationships, individual initiatives or one-off events.

The Better Futures Innovation Challenge showed the value of creating those connections deliberately.

ARTIC was established to build on that idea: creating an enduring national platform through which Centres of Excellence can connect, share capability and expertise, develop translation skills, engage with external partners and collaborate on opportunities that extend beyond individual disciplines or institutions.

What began as an experiment in cross-Centre collaboration has grown into a broader effort to strengthen Australia’s research translation ecosystem and create more pathways from discovery to real-world impact.