Our Facilities and Equipment
The Future Industries Institute hosts exceptional research infrastructure that supports a world-class program of research and industry-linked development. Based at Mawson Lakes, FII houses over $80 million of specialised infrastructure, including state-of-the-art laboratories and equipment in purpose-built facilities.
Providing services such as, process development and optimisation support, troubleshooting and failure analysis across many industries, usage of our facilities and instruments occur under the guidance of experienced technical and research staff.
Below is a list of some our state-of-the-art facilities that align with our five sectors. We welcome the opportunity to discuss how we can support your specific challenge, opportunity or R&D programme.
Please email the FII Administration Team for more information.
Our Flagship Facilities
Australian National Fabrication Facility 
The ANFF SA Node brings together more than $15m of equipment and technical expertise in surface modification, characterisation, nanotechnology and advanced materials. The ANFF is focused on the design and fabrication of micro and nano-engineered structures, including microfluidic devices, in both polymer and glass substrates.
For more information about the ANFF at UniSA
Engaging with small to medium enterprises and high-tech start-ups within the defence, space, mining, electronics, agri-tech/food, medical/healthcare and automotive sectors is a key driver of the Testlab. Providing world-class expertise in computer-aided design (CAD), 3D printing, post-printing analysis and treatment facilities, along with 3D scanning equipment, the Testlab demonstrates how Industry 4.0 methodologies and practices can be adopted by industry to enhance productivity, competitiveness and profitability.
Microscopy Australia is a consortium of university-based microscopy facilities for use across all areas of biology, materials science, nanotechnology and minerals research. Access to facilities is available to academic and industry users with scientific expertise available to ensure the collection of high-quality data. Microscopy Australia empowers research by providing open access to sophisticated instruments and expertise for researchers around the country and supports business by providing imaging and analytical solutions for R&D, QA, failure analysis, patent support and non-destructive analysis.
The Mass Spectrometry & Proteomics (MSP) facility provides expertise for Tissue Mass Spectrometry Imaging and proteomic analyses. MSP is a Proteomics Node for Bioplatforms Australia in South Australia that was established under the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS). Offering all types of proteomic services including quantitative proteomics, phosphoproteomics and glycomics, our facilities also offer, to a limited extent, lipidomics and metabolomics, in collaboration with the Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI), which is a Metabolomics Node for Bioplatforms Australia, also located in South Australia.
For more information
Healthy Environments
Our high-end labs focus on delivering expertise in biogeochemical processes to develop innovative solutions to the challenges facing agriculture and the environment. Available to industry and the professions, the equipment within our facilities works in collaboration with our researchers to deliver life changing research. Some of our equipment includes:
- Triple Quadrupole Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer (QQQ ICP-MS)
- Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Time of Flight Mass Spectrometer (LA-ICP-ToF-MS)
- Lightcycler Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) instrument
- Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometer/Mass Spectrometer (LC-MS/MS)
- Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometer (GC/MS)
High-Tech Manufacturing
Leading the way in the evolution of modern manufacturing, our labs are at the forefront of materials and engineering research. Our equipment enables us to offer a product development pipeline for industry, translating concepts and designs, through fabrication to testing and performance evaluation. Below is a snapshot of our equipment:
- Robotic clean & dip coater
- Flow and spin coating
- Large area inline sputter coater (600x600mm)
- Nanovea Microindenter
- UMIS nanoindentor
Medical Technology
Our Medical Technology Labs are based in in Buildings V and MM at the Mawson Lakes campus. Consisting of state-of-the-art facilities and equipment that enables live cell imaging, advanced microscopy, 3D bioprinting, surface engineering and characterisation our staff and students are working with industry and academia to tackle a range of medical issues from wound healing to prenatal care and cancer diagnosis. Our labs contain the following pieces of equipment:
- Histology Facility
- Incucyte live-cell analysis system
- BD LSR Fortessa X20 Flow Cytometer
- Zeiss Confocal Microscope
- Suite of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) instruments
Smart Energy
Working with local, national and international companies, our labs focus on developing materials and manufacturing processes for ground-breaking devices that are efficient, renewable and safe. This is in parallel with research that evaluates product lifecycles. Some of our equipment includes:
- Solar simulator
- IR camera
- C-Therm Thermal Conductivity Meter
- Freeze dryer
- UV-Vis spectrometer
Sustainable Resources
Our facilities provide the support required to develop new and improved minerals processing and extraction. With a focus on the reduction of energy and water and low impact extraction, our labs and equipment are available to industry as they provide technological innovations across the resources value chain. Below is some of the equipment within these labs:
- Comprehensive flotation suite of equipment
- Comprehensive magnetic separation suite of equipment
- Surface analytical facilities including X-ray Photoelectron Spectrometer (XPS) and Time of Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometer (ToF-SIMS)
- Mineralogical characterisation suite of instruments
- Mini Pilot Flotation Plant
