Welcome to the
Australian Microscopy & Microanalysis Research Facility (AMMRF)
Established in July 2007 under the Commonwealth Government’s National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS), the AMMRF is a joint venture between Australian university-based microscopy and microanalysis centres. The AMMRF is a national grid of equipment, instrumentation and expertise in microscopy, microanalysis, electron and X-ray diffraction and spectroscopy providing nanostructural characterisation capability and services to all areas of nanotechnology and biotechnology research.
Operating in nodes located in major capital cities (Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Perth and Sydney) with links to smaller units in specialist facilities, the Facility provides access to a vast array of instrumentation. These include widely used optical, electron, X-ray and ion beam techniques and importantly, state-of-the-art flagship platforms that form world leading capabilities. Such capabilities include pulsed-laser local electrode atom probe, high-throughput cryo-electron tomography, high-resolution SEM and spectroscopy, high-precision ion microprobe and ultra-high resolution TEM platforms.
By combining new flagships with existing capabilities, the Facility offers a complete, modern suite of instruments accessible to all Australian publicly funded researches on a merit basis and at a nominal fee schedule. Industry based researchers can also access the facilities for proprietary research at commercial rates.
NEWS
AMMRF Executive Director calls for infrastructure support
AMMRF Executive Director and CEO, Prof. Simon Ringer, is quoted in The Australian, Higher Education on 1 July, 2009, supporting the call to recognise the critical importance of 'super technicians' to support Australia's peak researchers. The federal government's commitment to spend $1.1 billion on upgrading the national research infrastructure is widely welcomed and Prof. Ringer says it is "very exciting, but Australia needs brains as well as new stainless steel". "There's a skills shortage of hundreds across the peak science infrastructure necessary for the infrastructure road map of the future."
"It may not sound like much, but it's a huge number of people given these are high-end specialists who will have a really important impact on Australia's global competitive position, to take us up the innovation rankings." Prof. Ringer is one of numerous voices emphasising that the provision of operating costs to support the impressive new hardware is just as crucial, if Australian research and innovation is to flourish in the 21st century.
The AMMRF is funded by
