{"id":554354,"date":"2026-03-21T06:10:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T06:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/554354\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T06:10:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T06:10:12","slug":"bibra-lake-innovator-abuzz-with-3m-boost-to-bee-glue-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/554354\/","title":{"rendered":"Bibra Lake innovator abuzz with $3m boost to bee \u2018glue\u2019 research"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"css-9cqv6l-StyledPNParagraph e8utp6u0\">A Bibra Lake business is investigating if bee \u201cglue\u201d can be used in health and therapeutic products.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9cqv6l-StyledPNParagraph e8utp6u0\">Red Earth Pollen has received a $3 million grant for its bid to transform propolis \u2014 the resinous substance that bees use to seal and protect their hives against disease \u2014 into a bioactive ingredient.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9cqv6l-StyledPNParagraph e8utp6u0\">It aims to build Australia\u2019s first comprehensive propolis extraction and product development ecosystem, enabling the beehive byproduct to be turned into bioactive extracts for pharmaceutical, chemical and microbiological use.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9cqv6l-StyledPNParagraph e8utp6u0\">Red Earth Pollen founder and CEO Mathew Welch said it would unlock the potential of a \u201ctruly remarkable\u201d natural resource.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9cqv6l-StyledPNParagraph e8utp6u0\">\u201cAustralian propolis comes from some of the most biodiverse forests on Earth, and we are only just beginning to understand its biological potential,\u201d Dr Welch said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9cqv6l-StyledPNParagraph e8utp6u0\">\u201cThe funding allows us to bring together leading Australian researchers and industry partners to develop the science and processing capability needed to turn Australian propolis into high-value health products.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9cqv6l-StyledPNParagraph e8utp6u0\">\u201cAustralia has extraordinary biodiversity, but historically we have exported raw natural products rather than building industries around them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9cqv6l-StyledPNParagraph e8utp6u0\">\u201cThis project is about creating the science and manufacturing capability to turn Australian bee products into globally recognised health ingredients.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9cqv6l-StyledPNParagraph e8utp6u0\">Fremantle MHR Josh Wilson said it would help secure an Australian-made future.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/f32fa8c32b46f4f183302a48670d54628a7318af.jpg\" alt=\"Red Earth Pollen founder and CEO Dr Mathew Welch\" class=\"css-16r7l45-StyledImage en5ut4d0\"\/>Camera IconRed Earth Pollen founder and CEO Dr Mathew Welch Credit: Supplied<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9cqv6l-StyledPNParagraph e8utp6u0\">\u201cI\u2019m pleased to support Red Earth Pollen\u2019s leading-edge propolis project that strives to advance scientific understanding and broaden the income stream for Western Australian beekeepers by value-adding to a little-regarded honey byproduct,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9cqv6l-StyledPNParagraph e8utp6u0\">Red Earth Pollen is one of 27 recipients sharing in $66m through the latest round of the Cooperative Research Centre projects program.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9cqv6l-StyledPNParagraph e8utp6u0\">The latest round of grants opened on March 18. Eligible partnerships are encouraged to apply for up to $3m for projects with a focus on artificial intelligence that develops or enhances AI systems and technologies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9cqv6l-StyledPNParagraph e8utp6u0\">For more information on the CRC-P Program, visit <a class=\"css-445i33-StyledTextLink ezegcyi0\" data-link-type=\"article-inline\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/aus01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.business.gov.au%2Fcrc-p&amp;data=05%7C02%7Cmichael.palmer%40wanews.com.au%7C7b9c6a93b08649e539bc08de83d4fc84%7Ca45470d5309e426fae080255f1aa55cc%7C0%7C0%7C639093147986318528%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=kqtHrDVVVSsh6Uy3kUMiaAons%2FiUqxH2W4%2Fs%2Bd7emDE%3D&amp;reserved=0\">business.gov.au\/crc-p<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Bibra Lake business is investigating if bee \u201cglue\u201d can be used in health and therapeutic products. Red&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554355,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99,155775,44,46,128,8080,45],"class_list":["post-554354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-cockburn","tag-news","tag-perth","tag-science","tag-south","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}