Cann Group joins La Trobe University to start medicinal cannabis research project
In a first for the country, a medicinal cannabis company in north-west Victoria is set to deliver a “world-class” product thanks to a new partnership.
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A medicinal cannabis company in north-west Victoria has partnered with a university in a first for the country to deliver a “world-class” product.
La Trobe University has received $5 million in Federal Government funding to establish Australia’s first advanced protected cropping research and training project with Cann Group, which started operating in Mildura last year.
It will see students trained and up-skilled in the protected cropping industry with high-tech cameras feeding live images of the crops to La Trobe University for study.
The study will then be fed back to the Cann Group to improve growing methods and conditions to achieve the best results which can then be used for patients in Australia and internationally.
La Trobe University vice chancellor John Dewar said the project would allow Australia to use medicinal cannabis as a “vehicle to understanding more about how protected cropping can be managed more efficiently and effectively”.
Regional Education Minister Bridget McKenzie said the project would bring together Australia’s best minds and industries to provide local, national and global benefits.
“World leading research is going to be happening right here in Mildura,” she said.
“This project will benefit the nation‘s entire agricultural industry, playing a key role in how we can optimise harvest times, reduce nutrient and watering regimes to maximise production.”
She added: “It is important that world leading research and education happens not just capital cities but in places just like Mildura.”
Federal Member for Mallee Anne Webster and said the project would benefit Mildura’s economy in the most “magical” way.
“This project brings together industry and education and those two things together bring magic,” she said.
La Trobe University received the funding through the second round of Regional Research Collaboration Program.
According to data from the Therapeutic Goods Administration, more than 172,000 people have been approved access to medicinal cannabis.
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