Arthur Sinodinos (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science) Share this | Hansard source

The ESO strategic partnership is an opportunity for the advanced instrumentation capability currently part of the Australian Astronomical Observatory to be positioned for the future. New university consortia and institutional arrangements will be put in place to continue the Anglo-Australian Telescope operations and to deliver Australia's national instrumentation capability. Being part of a university-led consortium rather than a government department will give rise to competitive grant opportunities that are not currently available. The Australian Astronomical Observatory will be better placed to cultivate new industry linkages and to commercialise and develop spin-offs from technological innovations. Our domestic optical and radio telescopes, like the Anglo-Australian Telescope, will be important test beds for key technologies and new optical instrumentation, which can then be designed and built for the world-class ESO under competitive tender.