Jobs hopes in ‘pods’ project

AN extra 140 jobs are expected to be created at Deakin University’s new advanced manufacturing hub ManuFutures as its emerging businesses come online over the next 18 months.

Deakin University vicechancellor Jane den Hollander said more than 60 people were already working at Manu- Futures with that figure tipped to comfortably rise to 200 people by the end of next year.

“A lot of people are saying (it will be 200) by the end of this year,” Prof den Hollander said.

Speaking at an Entrepreneurs Geelong forum yesterday, Prof den Hollander said 10 of the 11 pods at ManuFutures were already under lease. She predicted that some of the companies involved would go on to be “really big deals”.

The $13 million ManuFutures innovation hub opened this year with Deakin building on its reputation as a world leader in carbon fibre research.

Prof den Hollander said initial plans for the centre were larger, based on a proposed three-way funding split of $10 million each from the university, state and federal governments.

“The feds said it was too risky, it won’t work … but they took seven months to tell us,” Prof den Hollander said. “We wasted nearly a year.”

Deakin, which provided land and pro bono support on top of $10 million in funding, received $3 million from the Andrews Government but was forced to scale back the original plan for 20 pods.

“The best thing that makes us so proud is that Deakin did it. We made it work,” she said.

Prof den Hollander said the university’s initial foray into the carbon fibre industry was as an underwriter of a $102 million project, which has since led to the development of the highly successful Carbon Revolution, but she said it was not without risk. “We bet the house to create new jobs for the future,” she said.

The carbon fibre industry had created 2000 skilled jobs in Geelong, she said.