Update from the bid lead – June 2025
Why wouldn’t you be part of a compelling initiative to advance our freight systems?
As the FFCRC team has been travelling around Australia talking to diverse freight stakeholders, there have been common questions emerging about how FFCRC will operate and what the risks of being involved are. This is understandable, as the concept is quite new to many of the freight and adjacent sector organisations we are in discussions with.
As there may be more of you out there with similar questions, I thought I would share a few of them with you now. If your question isn’t covered here check out our website FAQ or get in touch – we’d love to hear from you.
How do we benefit from from being a partner in FFCRC?
Our goal is make sure that all our partners achieve their R&D objectives and there are many ways you benefit from doing this through FFCRC:
- We can support with building your project (ideation, project development)
- We provide co-funding for R&D – less cost and less project risk
- You have a choice of expertise to get the best outcomes and help selecting
- You will have access to an innovation minded network and industry intelligence that helps drive collaborations and new thinking
- You will establish your organisation at the forefront of freight transformation in Australia
- You can lock away funding over a defined (by you) period of time to do projects prior to developing the idea (especially appealing to those looking to save time and effort with internal procurement processes)
Joining the consortium now means you are at the core of the centre as we develop the proposal to the federal government, with your objectives in mind as we welcome further partners and ideas on board.
There is also a ‘sum is greater than the parts’ effect that comes into play with CRC multi-partner collaboration centres. A fertile ecosystem of people, organisations, capability and knowledge that lasts way beyond the duration of the centre itself.
Additionally it’s worth noting that there’s no fee for FFCRC services as the cost of running the centre is borne by the federal government CRC Program. Your contribution is used for your research activities as decided by you throughout the ten years.
What are the risks?
The main risk is that if you DON’T participate you will miss out on being part of this high impact initiative to drive change in our freight systems while achieving your own organisational objectives. You will miss out on the power of collaboration with other organisations to gain new, impactful approaches to your challenges.
Some organisations are understandably concerned about treatment of IP and confidentiality. We respect individual commercial sensitivities and we find ways for organisations to work together to reap the benefits while safeguarding company data and IP.
In short, there is no real risk in joining. We work hard to make sure that everyone achieves their desired objectives through the centre and enjoys the benefits outlined above. In the unlikely event that it is not working for you, we enable partners to withdraw or reduce their commitment as the situation needs.
But we don’t do ‘research’ – is this for us?
You need to decide if this is the right mechanism for your initiatives. However here is a snapshot of what we can do to help you decide if you want to investigate further.
Our goal is to facilitate R&D collaborations that deliver improvements in our freight systems for the benefit of our businesses and communities. This can take many shapes and forms including:
- Technology development everything from proof of concept to prototypes to scale ups
- Trials, tests, pilots, demos, evaluations
- Data analytics, modelling
- Understanding preferences and changing behaviour, human factors
- Studies to help develop regulatory frameworks or policy
- Knowledge translation and stakeholder engagement activities
An important feature of all our projects is understanding the path to utilisation or market for a project from the beginning. This creates certainty that the outcomes will have real-world impact for your organisation and end users.
We are very happy to explore your ideas with you and we can let you know if they are suitable for a CRC approach or not.
We are also planning an online update and information session for partners and those interested in joining. Watch this space for the invitation.
All the best
Lee-Ann
Bid Lead
