Industry News

The Western Australian Commerce Minister Simon O’Brien has announced a series of measures to assist the building industry and local governments to work with recent legislation changes.

“The introduction of the Building Act on April 2, 2012 was the result of several years of consultation,” Mr O’Brien said.

“However, as with any wholesale change to legislation, there is always the possibility that the need for some modifications will arise as the new processes are put into practice.

“The State Government is very aware that any processing delays have a big impact on builders and consumers and since being made aware of the drop in building applications and approvals following the start of the new legislation, we have been working with industry and local government to find a solution.”

To alleviate the immediate pressures on industry, the Minister today signed a Ministerial Order designed to expedite the flow of building work. This order, which will take effect from Saturday, will allow a builder to start work pending approvals for applications lodged after January 1, 2012 and prior to June 30, 2012.

“This temporary measure will assist builders in avoiding protracted delays before starting construction, but will not remove the industry’s obligation to meet all necessary standards,” Mr O’Brien said.

Further, in response to feedback from industry, the Building Commission has formulated a series of regulatory amendments that will simplify the approvals process and make it easier for local governments to apply the law consistently.  Redesigned standard forms aimed at removing confusion in interpreting approval requirements will be distributed to local government authorities, along with a processing checklist.

“Additional information workshops and specific information kits will provide further assistance in understanding the new system and how to benefit from it,” the Minister said.

The State Government, with the Building Commission, is now working to identify longer-term measures, including looking at any other amendments to the Act that may be required to give greater security to industry and local government.

Mr O’Brien said the Government looked forward to working closely with industry and local councils throughout this process.

While the necessary amendments and changes were being made, building surveyors were advised to use the new processing checklist, prioritise their new house applications, use electronic mail systems where possible and seek advice from the Building Commission to help speed up the applications and approvals processes.

The National Electrical and Communications Association (NECA) has welcomed a decision by the Western Australian Minister for Training and Workforce Development Peter Collier to reverse the Construction Training Fund's (CTF) proposed cut to employer subsidies for electrical apprentices.

The CTF proposal would have seen employer subsidies reduced from $9,000 to $6,000 for young apprentices and from $12,000 to $6,000 for mature age apprentices from 1 July 2012.

NECA General Manager membership Ray Harris said the proposed cut in funding would have brought about a decrease in electrical apprentice commencements and further exacerbated the skill shortage in Western Australia.

"Minister Collier's decision was in-line with his reputation as a champion of the apprenticeship system," Mr Harris said.

"The Minister has been calling on industry to increase its apprenticeship training effort because of the short supply of skilled tradesmen.

"The NECA Board and our 750 members were quietly confident the Minister would reach this outcome, given the vast number of young and mature age Western Australians the electrical industry trains every year," Mr Harris said. "We support the Minister's call for increased apprenticeship training so we are pleased he has recognised this and supported the electrical industry."

"If the CTF training subsidy cuts had gone ahead it would have cost our industry $5million in employer subsidies over the training period for apprentices commencing in 2012/2013 and the same amount for starters each year thereafter," Mr Harris said.

"This cost would have been passed on to users of electrical services so the Minister’s decision is also a big win for consumers.

"As the peak industry body representing the interests of electrical contractors, NECA has been in discussion with Minister Collier about this issue for some months and we are very pleased he has given a positive response to our call."

The Federal Government has announced the formation of a working group to consult on the development of a foreign ownership register for agricultural land, following growing concerns over large swathes of prime agricultural land being purchased by foreign nationals.

“A national foreign ownership register for agricultural land would provide the community with a more comprehensive picture of the specific size and locations of foreign agricultural landholdings over and above what is currently available,” Federal Minister for Agriculture Senator Joe Ludwig said.

A government working group will formally seek stakeholder views on the establishment of a register, including:

• What ownership interests should be captured under a register;
• How the register would interact with existing state and territory land title registers, including the Foreign Ownership of Land Register in Queensland;
• Ways to monitor and enforce compliance; and
• How information would be reported on and disclosed.

“The Government will pursue a register where it will clearly improve transparency of foreign ownership in agriculture without imposing unnecessary burdens on investors or duplicating work already undertaken by State and Territory governments,” Senator Ludwig said.

“While there has been minimal change in foreign ownership levels of agricultural land in Australia since 1984, the ABARES report highlights the need for better data sources to provide a more comprehensive picture of how the landscape of foreign investment in agriculture may be evolving.”

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) has released a report into the health of the country’s male population, finding notable discrepancies in health based on geographical location.

The health of Australia’s males: a focus on five population groups report was released by Minister for Indigenous Health Warren Snowdon as part of Men’s Health Week.

The report examines the health of Australian men in different population groups, characterised by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander status, remoteness, socioeconomic disadvantage, region of birth and age.

‘It shows that these factors can affect health for both better and worse,’ said AIHW CEO and Director David Kalisch.  

‘For example, the life expectancy among Indigenous males is 67 years—11.5 years less than their non-Indigenous counterparts.’

The report explored the different factors that contribute to porter health rates in different population areas, including lung cancer, diabetes and kidney disease.

Males in remote areas also generally have shorter life expectancy and poorer self-assessed health status. As remoteness increases, so too do several health-related factors, including rates of obesity, tobacco smoking and risky alcohol consumption. Males in remote areas also have more new cases of lung cancer, hospitalisations for Type 2 diabetes, and deaths from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes and suicide.

Rates of obesity and tobacco smoking among men also increase with socioeconomic disadvantage, as do new cases of lung cancer, hospitalisations for Type 2 diabetes and deaths from coronary heart disease, lung cancer, coronary obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes and suicide.

In contrast, the report shows that some population groups enjoy better health in some areas.

Males born overseas have fewer risk factors and lower overall mortality and hospitalisations compared with males born in Australia, and older males (aged 65 and over) are living longer than ever before, and have fewer risk factors such as overweight/obesity and tobacco smoking than younger males.

The full report can be found here

http://www.aihw.gov.au/publication-detail/?id=10737421980&libID=10737421980

The Federal Government has increased its support for the City of Sydney's plans to roll out Australia's first large-scale trigeneration energy network.

Lord Mayor Clover Moore welcomed the $5 million funding boost, announced by Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, Greg Combet, and Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, Mark Dreyfus.

"The City's trigeneration network will drastically improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon pollution. Households and businesses connected to the network will get a cleaner and cost-competitive alternative to the rising cost of coal-fired electricity," Ms Moore said.

"Gas-fired trigeneration is more than twice as energy efficient as coal-fired electricity and our network will produce electricity, heating and cooling for surrounding buildings.

"The Federal Government's extra funding will help us reach our target to cut carbon pollution across the City of Sydney by 70 per cent by 2030 and make Sydney Australia's leading low-carbon city."

The $5 million will be added to $12 million in City funding for the installation of trigeneration plants at Town Hall House and Prince Alfred Park Pool. It was one of 63 grants totalling $42 million as part of the Federal Government's Community Energy Efficiency program.

It comes on top of a $3.75 million grant for trigeneration for the Green Square Town Centre as part of the Liveable Cities Program, announced in April.

The City's low-carbon energy network could save NSW electricity consumers as much as $1.5 billion by 2030 in avoided or delayed spending on electricity grid upgrades and new power stations.

In April, the City signed a heads of agreement with energy company Cogent, wholly owned by Origin, to build the trigeneration energy network in Sydney.

The City's interim trigeneration master plan estimates a total capacity of 360 MW by 2030 at a cost of $440 million (2010 dollars), supplying 70 per cent of the local government area's electricity requirements.

Under the agreement, Cogent will provide trigeneration services to council and privately owned buildings in four low-carbon-zones across central Sydney: Green Square, CBD North (Martin Place/George Street),CBD South (Town Hall Precinct) and Pyrmont/Broadway.

An interdisciplinary Victoria University Faculty of Business and Law research team has been awarded a $30,000 grant to develop a unique information and communications technology (ICT) program for tradespeople in Victoria.

Associate Professor Stephen Burgess (School of Management and Information Systems), Dr Rafael Paguio (School of Accounting and Finance) and Dr Carolyn Woodley (Victoria Law School) were awarded the grant by the Telematics Trust for their project, ‘Enabled Tradie’.

The Telematics Trust grants attract applications from leading educational institutes, government, business and not-for-profit organisations exploring innovative ways of using information and communications technology (ICT) for educational purposes.

‘Enabled Tradie’ will develop an educational program that combines face-to-face, online and work-based teaching approaches to build ICT awareness among Victorian tradespeople and encourage ICT usage. The pilot project will mentor a group of 12 tradespeople, supporting them in the adoption of appropriate ICT tools to help achieve business process efficiency, market effectiveness and work-life balance.

Offering an innovative alternative to the occasional training seminar format, the integrated project will take into account learners’ individual requirements and will provide practical support to successfully adopt and evaluate ICT. It will draw on Victoria University’s expertise in the use of face-to-face as well as online learning technologies. Another distinctive feature is the use of business students to provide dedicated and customised mentoring support to initiate and integrate ICT adoption.

Local councils in the Melbourne West region have been advised of the project and expressions of support have been received by the project team. Beyond this pilot phase, future plans include a wider roll-out across the region in line with VU’s Local Government Areas Engagement framework.

VU Research Grants Manager, Sandy Superina described the award as ‘fantastic news’. Sandy adds, ‘this is a prestigious grant and demonstrates how we can forge productive links between VU expertise and the educational and research needs of Victoria.’

A collaboration between the University of Tasmania, state and Australian governments and a range of industry partners promises to deliver a world-first SenseT data sensor network will utilise the National Broadband Network rollout in Tasmania to mesh together historical, spatial and real-time data and make it available through the web to the community.

Over the next five years sensors will be deployed across Tasmania, measuring all aspects of activity, including energy, carbon, water, population and transport flow. Existing sensor networks will be federated into this single, large-scale system.

CSIRO is investing $10.5 million to the project over five years. The Tasmanian Government is contributing to the investment of CSIRO and UTAS.

The Australian Government has contributed $3.6 million to the project under the $120 million Tasmanian Forests Intergovernmental Agreement to bring total Commonwealth investment in SenseT to more than $14 million.

Industry partners also include National ICT Australia (NICTA) and Aurora Energy.

The sensor network has the potential to create transformative opportunities for the community, for business and for government.

"SenseT is one of the biggest coordinated investments in knowledge infrastructure that Tasmania has seen," the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Peter Rathjen, said. "It promises to have a dramatic impact on innovation and productivity in our economy, as well as supporting better decision-making on how we manage our resources and the environment."

Viticulture, the oyster and abalone industries, e-health, meteorology and carbon capture are just a handful of the areas likely to benefit from such a network.

The project has been initiated by the University of Tasmania, the Tasmanian Government and CSIRO, in collaboration NICTA, IBM and the Institute for a Broadband Enabled Society (University of Melbourne).

Internet retailer Kogan has announced the introduction of a world first tax on Internet Explorer 7 users. The 6.8 per cent charge came into effect last week and will increase by 0.1 per cent per month.

“But don't worry, unlike other taxes, we're making it easy to get around this one with a simple upgrade away from IE7,” the company announced on its blog.

The company defended the introduction of the tax, saying that it is simply too difficult to optimise for the antiquated browser.

“It’s not only costing us a huge amount, it’s affecting any business with an online presence, and costing the Internet economy millions.”

“Customers who enter our site using Internet Explorer 7 can avoid the impost by simply downloading an up-to-date browser such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Opera or even a more recent version of Internet Explorer.”

Construction firm Reed Constructions has announced it has been placed in voluntary administration after suffering heavy losses through some of its key contracts.

Administrator, Mr John Melluish, said he will be undertaking an urgent assessment of the financial position of the company and that a first meeting of creditors will be held on Wednesday, 27 June 2012.

“We will be doing everything we can to provide key stakeholders with clarity about the future of the company,” Mr Melluish said. “Reed Constructions suffered a number of losses on contracts largely arising from an inability to recover additional costs.”

Further information is available to employees, subcontractors and creditors of the company under the current matters section of Ferrier Hodgson’s website at www.ferrierhodgson.com

The Australia Local Government has released the 2012-13 State of the Regions Report, concluding that a new approach to regional development is urgently needed to address the growing inequality across the country’s regions.

Exacerbated by the mining boom and consequent patchwork economy, the report warns that many regions, particularly those in the non-mining states, risk being left behind as specific areas of the economy gain pace.

The report includes economic analysis of every local government area in Australia. It identifies Western Australia and its regions as clear winners from the boom, along with some of the regions in Queensland and News South Wales, and highlights negative impacts in other states and regions.

Leading Economist and co-author, Dr Peter Brain says a necessary first step to rethinking regional development to encourage equality across local government areas in Australia is the establishment of an independent Commission of Inquiry into the issue.

“If the Inquiry concluded that non-mining regions have been adversely impacted due to ineffective planning for regional development, we would have a catalyst to start the process for a productive redesign of regional planning in Australia,” Dr Brain said.

“During the past 30 years, there has been insufficient investment in regional development in Australia and the findings of the Report reinforce the need for a system of dedicated funds to flow into local infrastructure projects.

President of the Australian Local Government Association, Genia McCaffery says the Report explores new ways of thinking about regional development and investment to drive jobs, real wages and regional productivity.

“Local governments need to be involved in decisions concerning Commonwealth investment in regional infrastructure and development. This Report provides local governments with the facts and figures required for making decisions regarding their local industries and regional economies,” Mayor McCaffery said.

“This Report is essential reading for policy makers and politicians interested in regional development and equality."

Long serving Mayor of North Sydney and president of the Australian Local Government Association Gina McCaffery has announced she will be retiring from local government.

After four terms as Mayor of North Sydney Council, Cr McCaffery announced she will not be seeking re-election in September.

“It’s time,” she says of the decision.  “I’ve had a few weeks to think about what I want to do and I’ve realised I’m ready to move on to other things.”

“It’s been a difficult decision to make because I am passionate about local government and so much is still happening in the industry.  But I believe its time for a new mayor and a new era in our community.”

Cr McCaffery was elected President of ALGA in 2010 and is currently working on a range of issues including constitutional recognition of local government.  Cr McCaffery will also be standing down from the ALGA Presidency.

The Federal Government has announced its intention to assess the economic benefits of three key national building codes.

Master Builders Australia (MBA) welcomed the announcement, but has urged that any review of the existing codes must be conducted with an aim of improving productivity.

“The building and construction industry welcomes any reforms that will help boost productivity. For a long time we have called for the Building Code of Australia to be cost effective,” MBA CEO Wilhelm Harnisch said.

“As Reserve Bank Governor Glenn Stevens said at the PM’s Economic Forum this week, increasing productivity is the country’s biggest challenge.”

The MBA has been calling for a national, uniform code that can be readily enforced and will enhance national productivity.

 “Industry has expressed concern over the lack of transparency and governance, as well as a lack of consultation by regulators administering and developing building codes and regulations.

“Master Builders calls for the impact assessment to look at ways to increase transparency in the development of regulation and to reduce the red tape burden placed on builders.

“The building and construction industry contributes to close to eight per cent of the country’s economic output. Improved productivity will help the industry maintain its vital contribution to economic output and help shift it out of the ‘slow lane’ of the current two speed economy,” Mr Harnisch concluded.

The Housing Industry Association has welcomed the decision by the Victorian Government to expand Melbourne’s Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) for further housing development.

State Planning Minister Matthew Guy opened an additional 6,000 hectares of land to be brought into the UGB plan.

“The announcement of new land being earmarked for housing construction is good news for the Victorian community,” HIA Regional Executive Director Gil King said.

“This will assist in reducing pressure on housing prices, and providing more affordable housing– meaning first home buyers might be able to enter the market.”

“Today’s announcement by the Minister is also significant to the residential building industry as it demonstrates a willingness of the government to review the Urban Growth Boundary, which we argue should be occurring on a regular basis.”

“This welcome initiative is only part of the solution which, as the Minister has acknowledged, includes development opportunities for vacant land  in the inner suburbs  close to the CBD,” said Mr King

Improved indicators and a more systematic collection of performance information would enhance the assessment of rural research, development and extension (RD&E), according to a report released by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES). 

The report found that improved indicators and a more systematic collection of performance information would enhance the assessment of rural research, development and extension

ABARES acting Executive Director, Kim Ritman, said there is a need for more information on the performance of Australia’s rural RD&E system to support strategic decision-making and improve the ability to assess the system’s performance.

“Rural RD&E is vital for the ongoing growth and improvement in the productivity, profitability, competitiveness and sustainability of Australia’s agriculture, fisheries, forestry and food industries,” Dr Ritman said.

“National spending on primary industries RD&E is estimated to be around $1.5 billion per annum and this investment needs to be focused, and used efficiently and effectively.”

The Rural Research and Development Council proposed a preliminary framework for measuring and reporting rural RD&E system performance in its 2011 Investment Plan.

ABARES further developed the Council’s framework by assessing a wide variety of input, output and outcome indicators according to their availability and suitability as measures of system performance.

“There are considerable gaps in data availability, in particular, indicators of extension and adoption activity, as well as social outcomes,” Dr Ritman said.

“Going forward, there is scope to increase stakeholder participation in developing the framework for regular reporting of rural RD&E performance indicators.”

The report, Measuring and reporting trends relating to the performance of Australia’s rural RD&E system, is available here.

The Queensland Commission of Audit has published its Interim Report into the state of Queensland's finances, finding that the state's return to surplus within two years is increasingly unlikey.

The report presents a damming evaluation of the previous Government's fiscal management, lambasting its "lack of fiscal discipline", projecting that the state's debt is likely to balloon to over $100 billion by 2018-19 unless urgent action is taken to pay down debt. 

“Interest is now the fastest growing government expense in Queensland - not health, not education, not public transport - and it’s all due to Labor’s appalling reckless financial mismanagement," State Treasurer Tim Nicholls said.

Mr Nicholls said the Report outlined the need for major ‘fiscal repair’ to end the debilitating cycle of over-expenditure and crippling increases in debt and debt-servicing costs. 

“The Commission has recommended some very strong medicine which we all must take to get Queensland’s finances back in the black," Mr Nicholls said.

The Commission will deliver its Final Report in February next year, which Mr Nicholls says will chart a path for fiscal repair. 

The full report can be found here

The Australian National University is set to host a $100 million world-leading supercomputer that will enable data-intensive research into climate change, earch science and national water management.

Due for completion by 2013, the computer will be built and installed by Fujitsu Australia under an agreement signed with the ANU. The project is receiving $50 million in funding under the Australian Government's Super Science Initiative.

"It is a petascale computer - with a processing power equivalent to 56,000 desktop computers - and it will help ensure that we develop and retain highly-skilled technical specialists," Minister for Science and Research Senator Chris Evans said.

"Australian researchers, nation-wide, will be able to use the computer to construct the most accurate and detailed models of the Earth's climatic systems that are possible today.

"The supercomputer will help to fast track technical advances in computational research techniques."

The supercomputer forms a key component of the Federal Government's $901 ,million investment in research infrastructure through the Super Science Iniatitve.

The project is a partnership between the Australian Government, the ANU, CSIRO, the Bureau of Meteorology, Geoscience Australia and several leading universities.

Cloud computing specialist NextDC has announced the appointment of Craig Scroggie as the company's new Chief Executive Officer, replacing Bevan Slattery who will continue as Executive Director and Chairman.

Mr Scroggie has served as a non-executive Director since late 2010,  and is the outgoing Vice President and Managing Director of Symantec for the Pacific region. He has previously held senior leadership positions with Veritas Software, Computer Associates, EMC Corporation and Fujitsu Australia & New Zealand.

NEXTDC Founder and current CEO, Bevan Slattery said he was thrilled Mr Scroggie had accepted the role of CEO bolstering the management team and giving Mr Slattery more time to focus on data centre delivery and the next generation of the ONEDC® platform. 

 “Craig’s incredible enthusiasm, experience and extensive contacts throughout Australia and Asia will be of great benefit to our existing sales and development plans and ignite NEXTDC’s next phase of growth," Mr Slattery said.

“Having worked with Craig on the Board for the past 18 months, I have always been extremely impressed by his level of professionalism, energy and leadership – Craig is an impressive and inspiring professional. “I am looking forward to working with Craig to deliver our vision for NEXTDC and expanding into new areas of opportunity.”

The University of Sydney, the country's oldest tertiary institution, has released a major new strategy aimed at significantly improving rates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participation in higher education, research and engagement.

The Wingara Mura - Bunga Barrabugu, meaning "thinking path to make tomorrow", forms a core part of the university's overall Strategic Plan 2011-2015, aims to expand the Aboriginal education, research and engagement to become part of the core activity of the University.

Federal Minister for Tertiary Education, Senator Chris Evans, co-launched the strategy with NSW Governor Professor Marie Bashir.

"If we don't tap the potential of large sections of our population, we're underselling not only them and their capability, we're underselling the nation," Senator Evans said.  

Vice-Chancellor Dr Michael Spence saidthat much of the thinking behind the development of the strategy, which followed a major review of Indigenous Education commissioned by the University in 2008, had considered what it would mean to be an Australian university - in the sense of understanding Australia as a partnership between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Australians, and non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.

"I wanted to work at a university that could help educate all Australians for that future," he said. "This is the moment that we celebrate together that we are launching something new in the life of this remarkable institution."

"The University's approach is not built on a discourse of disadvantage, it does not start by describing Aboriginal peoples as a collection of problems or deficits, but rather it recognises rights, builds capability and creates opportunity," Dr Spence said.

Targets in the strategy include accomplishing the following by 2015:

• doubling the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people studying at Sydney from 206 undergraduates (as at March 2012)
• employing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander academic staff complement of 75 (currently 15) and a general staff complement of 97 (currently 23)
• increasing the number of staff and students engaged in research in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander issues by at least 40 percent
• lifting funding from all sources for research in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander areas by at least 25 percent
• ensuring that all new and existing staff take part in cross-cultural training.

The complete version of the University's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Integrated Strategy is available online at sydney.edu.au/indigenous

International computing giant IBM has published a report into the coming four decades of Australia's ICT future, finding that the sector will eventually grow to rival, and even surpass, the resources sector as the country transitions from a 'natural resources' economy to a 'developed resources' economy.

Written by Phil Ruthven, Founder and Chairman, IBISWorld, and commissioned by IBM, the report looks ahead of existing research to examine how Australia can harness the booming information technology sector worldwide.

The report reveals that the high-speed broadband enhanced information and technology sector will rapidly become the backbone of the country's economy, and that the rollout of the NBN infrastructure is as important and game-changing as the introduction of electricity or telephony was at the start of the 20th century.

The report predicts that 10 per cent of Australia’s 509 industries, accounting for 23 per cent of the nation’s revenue, will not function without this new utility. A further 23 per cent of industry revenue will use it to drive step-changes in their business. 15 industry classes are likely to demise if they do not reinvent themselves to embrace the digital future; and some may simply be unable to do so.

The report paints a more gloomy picture for traditional media and print advertising, finding that innovation is the sole key to their survival.

"Australia’s digital future will transform some industries, including knowledge industries, health and educational services, which will be underpinned by digitised products and services," Mr Stevens wrote in the report.

The report finds that Australia will no longer be known for its dependency on the export of natural resources over the next half century. It will become known as much an exporter of services such as tourism, business services, health and education services. The export of tourism alone could match the 2012 mineral exports totalling around $175 billion by 2030.

The full report can be found here

The CSIRO team that invented a new, faster wireless local area networking method, which went on to form the basis of modern Wi-Fi, has won the European Inventor Award 2012.

Inventors Dr John O’Sullivan, Dr Terry Percival, Mr Diet Ostry, Mr Graham Daniels and Mr John Deane were named as the winners of  the ‘Non-European countries’ category of the annual awards for the patented WLAN technology at an awards ceremony in Copenhagen overnight.

The honour marks the first time an Australian team has claimed the prestigious prize since its inception in 2006.

“We’re thrilled for the team to receive this international recognition for an invention that has had such a significant global impact,” said Nigel Poole, CSIRO’s Acting Group Executive for Information Sciences.

“It’s a technology that has changed how we work and how we live. The rapid expansion of indoor wireless communications is in part possible because of the WLAN technology invented by scientists at CSIRO in Australia.”

Used by over three billion devices worldwide, the technology is expected to be used by over five billion by the time the patent expires next year.  

The EIA is presented in five categories: Industry, Research, SMEs, Non-European countries and Lifetime Achievement. Fifteen finalists were selected across all categories from almost 200 inventors and teams who were originally nominated, by an international jury comprising leading personalities from industry, science, politics and media.