PRIME, an initiative developed by a coalition of stakeholders from within the Australian heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration (HVAC&R) industry is proposing to establish the Innovation Hub for Affordable Heating and Cooling.

Supported by the Australian Institute of Refrigeration, Air Conditioning and Heating (AIRAH) and CSIRO, PRIME has proposed the Innovation Hub as a key mechanism for facilitating the HVAC&R industry’s transition to a low-emissions future.

The Innovation Hub for Affordable Heating and Cooling is aimed at supporting industry, including manufacturers, product entrepreneurs, designers and consultants, to deliver the low-carbon buildings of the future.

Its aims are to create more than 200 jobs from new products and services, retain Australian entrepreneurs in Australia, get innovative low-energy designs applied in at least ten major construction projects and establish Australia’s only dedicated undergraduate major in Building Services.

“The Innovation Hub for Affordable Heating and Cooling will provide virtual and physical spaces where a community of industry innovators, designers and educators can easily access knowledge and research infrastructure. This will make it easier to incubate ideas and reshape industry practice to the needs of the 21st century. It will enable Australian small to medium enterprises to accelerate product development, including through access to cutting-edge intellectual property, independent technology validation and interfaces with venture capital investment,” says AIRAH chief executive Tony Gleeson.

CSIRO head of Energy Efficiency Research Dr Stephen White says the Innovation Hub for Affordable Heating and Cooling will create a connected HVAC innovation community in Australia with a shared IP platform, a streamlined and flexible research environment, living laboratories and design studios.

Living laboratories are real-life places that are made available to flexibly trial HVAC&R innovations in products and services, in an environment of collaboration.

“In a Living Laboratory all interested stakeholders – owner, suppliers, users and researchers – can participate, collaborate, co-create and reflect on improvements and alternative solutions,” says Stephen.

The design studios will help developers and asset owners to work with the design industry to explore new high-performance building solutions in more detail and provide access to international networks and knowledge.

“The Innovation Hub will support the broader HVAC&R industry with knowledge dissemination, skills development and capacity building. We want to help Australian SMEs compete on the world stage. We encourage companies to join up as members to gain access to all these resources and free testing infrastructure,” says Stephen.