Centre Finances

The Centre receives funding from, the Australian Research Council (ARC) and the Centre’s administering and collaborating organisations. In addition to cash, our administering, collaborating and partner organisations provide significant resources through ‘in-kind’ contributions, mainly in the form of our Chief Investigators and Associate Investigators time, space, central computing and networking. We also source additional funding via industry engagement and relevant industry projects, raising over $52.9 million in the last seven years.

The Centre’s finances for the 2020 calendar year are summarised in the Income and Expenditure Tables below.

The Centre received over $4 million, in cash, from the ARC and our administering and collaborating partner Universities. Other income, including funds sourced through industry engagement and grants, totalled $13.9 million in 2020.

Our expenditure is predominantly allocated to salaries and PhD support, with the remainder allocated to strategic initiatives, travel and visitor support, workshops and conferences, equipment and other operating expenses.  Due to COVID-19 budget expenditure for travel and visitor support as well as workshops and conferences was significantly reduced. Savings against these budget lines was therefore redirected to the purchase of some new equipment, an increased allocation for the Best of ACRV project and the 2021 Robotic Vision Summer School, as well as the extension of PhD Scholarships into 2021.

The Centre Executive Committee determines budget allocations for research projects and major centre activities. All nodes contribute to the Centre’s operating costs, although the majority of the Centre’s significant operational expenses are managed by QUT as the Centre’s administering node. Indexation funds have largely been used in support of strategic initiatives and in 2020 this included funding the Best of ACRV project. These funds are also used to cover 50% of the salary of female postdoctoral research fellows, and travel support to Centre events for Centre staff with parenting commitments. These initiatives are one response designed to address some of the structural barriers preventing female participation in robotics and computer vision.

Each year, the Centre’s administering and collaborating partner organisations contribute almost $940,000 as cash, a total of more than $6.86 million over the life of the Centre. Approximately $1 million is also contributed annually as in-kind, or $7 million over the life of the Centre. Together, our international partner organisations contribute $139,000 per annum of in-kind, totalling $973,000 over the Centre’s seven-year lifespan.

The Centre’s administering and collaborating partner organisations, where most of our researchers are based, also provide access to a broad range of robotic vision equipment, which is conservatively valued at over $1 million per annum ($7 million in total, over the life of the Centre).