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In a move that will bolster and give a ‘step up’ to Australia’s maritime future, the Australian Maritime Development Centre has been slated to be operational by Q1 2020, it was confirmed at the PACIFIC 2019 Maritime Exposition.
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The AMDC is a collaboration between government, academia, and industry and aims to “solve the biggest challenges facing the local defence and maritime sector”, with the intention to become the science, technology and innovation “centrepiece” of the aforementioned industries.
Confirmed to be up and running in the first quarter of 2020, the centre is expected to span four Australian states with plans for expansion, and also includes the expertise of 10 leading Australian universities and publicly funded research agencies, leading industrial defence companies and government.
At Pacific 2019, the AMDC released its statement of principles, which was welcomed by Professor Tanya Monro, Chief Defence Scientist, and Tony Dalton, director general ships and submarines, Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group.
“The future formation of the Australian Maritime Development Centre is an exciting development in Australia’s defence and shipbuilding enterprise,” said Peter Davie, interim chair of the AMDC.
“We plan to bring together the best of the country’s research and development assets into a new, powerful network to serve the needs of our naval and maritime customers in a way that has not been possible in the past.”
Francois Duthoit, Vice President for International Development and Cooperation at Naval Group said of the announcement, “Naval Group is incredibly proud to be part of establishing the world class centre of scientific research and development. For over 400 years Naval Group has been developing and refining new technologies and innovation, and we look forward to sharing our expertise and know-how with the region’s brightest minds. It’s our hope that together, we can simultaneously solve the industry’s most critical challenges and build upon Australia’s defence capability.”
The following researchers are confirmed to be involved in the AMDC collaboration:
- ASC
- CSIRO
- Deakin University
- Defence Innovation Network-NSW
- Defence SA
- Flinders University
- The University of Melbourne
- The University of New South Wales
- The University of South Australia
- The University of Sydney
- Australian Maritime College of The University of Tasmania
- The University of Technology Sydney
A final decision and announcement on the future operation of the AMDC is anticipated for later this year, or early 2020.
More to come.
