Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon witnessed a historic signing today.
Australia and New Zealand signed a new, five-year, Preferred Access Agreement at the Australia-New Zealand Leaders’ Meeting in Noosa.
The ceremony between ANSTO and the New Zealand Synchrotron Group Ltd (NZSG) strengthened the longstanding, highly valued, scientific partnership between Australia and New Zealand.
The agreement will secure ongoing access and prioritised beamtime for New Zealand researchers to ANSTO’s Australian Synchrotron.
The synchrotron is located in Melbourne and is one of Australia’s most significant pieces of scientific infrastructure. Its particle accelerator, which is roughly the size of the MCG, produces a powerful source of light that enables researchers to examine structures of matter, advancing important work across a broad range of fields including health, climate and food security.
This agreement builds on the existing collaboration between the two nations that has delivered hundreds of research papers and outcomes in research fields of national importance. Areas include health and disease treatment, agriculture, aquaculture and food science, earth science and volcanology, environmental science and climate change, and the development of new materials for clean energy technologies.
Australian Synchrotron Director Dr Michael James said, “The new Agreement will provide New Zealand researchers more than 11,000 hours of access to the outstanding scientific capabilities across 14 worldclass beamlines at the Australian Synchrotron.”