Australian wine research received a welcome pat on the piggybank with the announcement that the unusually named National Wine Research Cluster would receive funding to the tune of $4.5 million from the Commonwealth Government, plus $700,000 from the South Australian Government and $2.5 million from a range of partners including The Australian Wine Research Institute, CSIRO, The South Australian Research and Development Institute, The University of Adelaide and the Grape and Wine R&D Corporation and Charles Sturt University. Director of The Australian Wine Research Institute, Professor Peter Hoj, who recently collected The Maurice O’Shea Award on behalf of the Institute, said he expects the new facility to strengthen Australia’s ability to support its grape and wine industry with research. Much of the funding will be directed towards building extensions and the purchase of state of the art analytical, fermentation and harvesting equipment.
