On 16 April 2010 Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced funding for Southern Innovation’s cutting-edge radiation detection technology.

The grant is for proof-of-concept activities through the Government’s newly created Commercialisation Australia program.

Southern Innovation will use the funds to design, simulate, implement and test advanced digital signal processing algorithms which will lead to significant benefits in many industries, including materials analysis; homeland security; and non-destructive testing.

The funding was announced by the Prime Minister and the Hon Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research at an address to Community Cabinet in Sydney.

Southern Innovation joins 20 other Australian creative innovators in the first round of ideas to be supported by Commercialisation Australia. Created in January 2010, Commercialisation Australia (www.commercialisationaustralia.gov.au) is the Government’s initiative to encourage entrepreneurship, knowledge-based industries, and new business growth.

SITORO®  technology has led to a 20-fold improvement over current state-of-the-art radiation detectors. The Commercialisation Australia funding will be used to adapt the  SITORO®  technology to large area semiconductor detectors, significantly increasing the range of radiation detection and measurement solutions available to industry.