What is NICTA?
NICTA is Australia’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Centre of Excellence. We are an independent company in the business of research, commercialisation and research training. With over 700 people, NICTA is the largest organisation in Australia dedicated to ICT research.
NICTA is helping to build a sustainable Australian ICT sector by:
| • | Making fundamental advances in ICT than can underpin the development of globally competitive products, processes and services. |
| • | Building innovative ICT companies. |
| • | Contributing skills and outcomes that are changing the profile of our ICT industry. |
Our focus is on use–inspired basic research to address the technology challenges facing industry, community and the national interest.
NICTA aspires to be one of the world’s top-ten ICT research centres by 2020. Our long-term contribution will be to create new ICT industries for Australia.
View NICTA's 30 second video MPEG-4 (1.5MB) or Windows Media Video (1.3MB).
Research Focus
NICTA’s strategy is to focus our research efforts to maximise their impact. We have four research themes that highlight our ICT capabilities.
| • | Embedded Systems – developing ‘smart products’ of the future. |
| • | Networked Systems – technologies that connect the ‘smart products’ of embedded systems together to form ‘smart networks’. |
| • | Making Sense of Data – finding ways to make sense and extract value from the growing amounts of data created by ICT systems. |
| • | Managing Complexity – developing efficient and reliable tools and processes to solve complex ICT problems. |
Research Inspiration
Our research inspiration comes largely from our key business areas, which also underpin our industry interaction and business development activities. NICTA's key business areas are:
| • | Biomedical and Life Sciences |
| • | Intelligent Transport Systems |
| • | Safety and Security |
| • | Environmental Management |
| • | Mobile Systems and Services |
| • | Software Infrastructure |
Research Impact
The end goal of many research projects at NICTA is commercialisation. This could take the form of spinning out a company, the licensing of usage rights, selling the technology, entering into joint ventures, pursuing high-end consulting or adopting a combination of these structures appropriate to their market opportunities.
History
NICTA was established in 2002 by the Australian Government, as part of the Backing Australia’s Ability initiative, following a competitive bid process. We are a national organisation with five laboratories in four cities: Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra and Brisbane. At the core of our endeavours is a unique approach to the fostering and development of ICT research.
NICTA Funding
We are funded by the Australian Government through the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy and the Australian Research Council through the ICT Centre of Excellence program.
NICTA’s members include the Governments of the Australian Capital Territory and New South Wales, the University of New South Wales and the Australian National University. The organisation also has a range of partners including the University of Sydney, the Victorian Government, the University of Melbourne, the Queensland Government, Griffith University, the Queensland University of Technology and the University of Queensland.