On Monday August 21^st, CIPPS had the great privilege of being launched officially by Senator the Hon Anthony Chisholm, Senator for Queensland, Assistant Minister for Education, Assistant Minister for Regional Development.

Despite nerve-wracking airport chaos for some of our Sydney delegation, approximately 120 members from across the country gathered at UQ’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience or joined via zoom to celebrate this milestone for our Centre. We were pleased to host a range of distinguished guests including, Distinguished Professor Craig Simmons, Executive Director: Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Earth Sciences, ARC via zoom, and Dr Jason Olsen, Office of the Queensland Chief Scientist.

The day began with official proceedings where we heard from Director Craik about the vision for our Centre and the importance of peptides and proteins. Next, UQ's Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Deborah Terry AO discussed how CIPPS is working to solve the greatest challenges facing our modern world including finding eco-friendly pesticides for sustainable food production and new medical treatments.

Left: Professor David Craik welcoming attendees to the launch. Right: Professor Deborah Terry AO speaking about the ground breaking research being conducted at CIPPS.

Distinguished Professor Simmons spoke about the power of the ARC's Centres of Excellence scheme and wished his best for our Centre. Senator Chisholm told us of his journey towards understanding peptides and his eagerness to support high impact science which will benefit the lives of all Australians. The Senator also highlighted the importance of inspiring younger Australians from rural areas to engage with science, a sentiment shared by our communications and engagement portfolio.

Senator the Hon Anthony Chisholm launches the ARC Centre of Excellence for Innovations in Peptide and Protein Science.

Professor Liz New was the final speaker of this session with an inspiring speech about the importance of blue-sky, ambitious science, along with effective support and collaboration, which CIPPS will strive to achieve throughout its lifetime. Professor Craik concluded with a premier of our brilliant Centre video.

After the official proceedings, the Senator took a laboratory tour where he heard directly from CIPPS researchers and witnessed first-hand some of our cutting-edge facilities. Dr Natalie Saez even convinced him to hold a scorpion!

Senator Chisholm tours the CIPPS laboratories at The Institute for Molecular Bioscience.

The second half of the day kicked off with a powerful presentation from ARC Laureate Professor Ben Sherman about the Nagoya Protocol and how this may apply to CIPPS research. We then heard an overview of our flagship programs and updates on three of our key portfolios. The formal talks concluded with Director Craik giving an inspiring summary on our future direction.

The remainder of the day was spent informally networking. Many Centre members met for the first time in-person and took the opportunity to get to know each other over nibbles and beverages.

CIPPS members from across the country informally networking at the conclusion of the official launch.

Our official launch was by all accounts a wonderful success, with Centre members describing feeling energized and inspired to move forward to unleash the power of peptides and proteins!

A very big thank you to everyone who made this outstanding event possible.