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Chief Defence Scientist Tanya Monro has ratified a new partnership arrangement with Australia’s university sector, the Defence Science Partnerships (DSP 2.0) agreement.
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The DSP 2.0 agreement replaces an earlier agreement of the same name, involves every public university in Australia.
The updated framework follows the launch of Defence’s bold new strategy for Defence science and technology, which will see Defence increasingly draw on the research and innovation ecosystem across Australia to deliver Defence capability.
Professor Monro welcomed the support of the academic sector, saying, "Having come from the university sector, I am very much aware of the substantial contribution universities can make to Defence and Defence capability."
University collaboration is core to DST's strategy to build on the organisation's strength of being a valued advisor to government and to focus DST's efforts towards future Defence and national security capability.
DST leverages world-class capabilities both in Australia and internationally, through strategic alliances and partnerships. Partnerships enable the organisation to take a stronger role in integrating knowledge and best practices to deliver innovative outcomes.
"This new arrangement provides a robust framework for Defence to partner with universities and removes the need to negotiate individual contracts for every collaborative project," Professor Monro added.
The majority of Defence's engagement with universities is undertaken under the Defence Science Partnerships (DSP) program. Every public university in Australia has signed on to the DSP, making it the largest program of its kind in Australia.
The program provides a common pre-agreed framework under which Australian universities can work with Defence. It provides for all types of agreements, including:
- Research agreements;
- Bilateral collaborative project agreements;
- Multi-party collaborative project agreements;
- Staff secondments and exchange agreements;
- Centre for advanced defence research agreements;
- Academic funding agreements;
- Postdoc funding agreements;
- Infrastructure access agreements;
- Equipment loan agreements;
- Material transfer agreements;
- Defence staff PhD studies agreements;
- Scholarship (no project) agreements;
- Scholarship (project-based) agreements;
- Student participation deed; and
- Variation agreements.
Professor Monro added, "It’s critical that we harness the skills, talents and expertise of the entire innovation network to deliver the best possible outcomes for Defence and Australia more broadly. With all 37 of our public universities in Australia signing on to this new partnering framework, we have a mechanism for achieving that."
