A plan to create the Australian Maritime Development Centre (AMDC) was launched last week at Pacific 2019.
The AMDC intends to become the 'science, technology and innovation centrepiece' of Australia’s maritime and naval shipbuilding enterprise. It also plans to augment the capabilities of Defence Science & Technology and serve the needs of the RAN and the Department of Defence.
With a focus on advancing Australia’s maritime science, engineering, and technology capabilities, once operational the Centre hopes to foster industry wide gains through independent and collaborative research, open innovation, and the development of new intellectual capital.
Currently forecast to span four states and with plans to expand, the Centre is a collaboration between ten universities and publicly funded research agencies, leading defence companies, and government.
The proposed Centre released its Statement of Principles at Pacific 2019, which was welcomed by Professor Tanya Monro, Chief Defence Scientist and Tony Dalton, Director General Ships & Submarines, CASG.
“The future formation of the Australian Maritime Development Centre is an exciting development in Australia’s defence and shipbuilding enterprise. 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,” Peter Davie, Interim Chair of the AMDC, said.
“With future plans to be an internationally-recognised centre of excellence, Australian Maritime Development Centre will become a foundation of Australia’s maritime enterprise and an integral part of Australia’s advanced maritime Research and Development environment," Davie said.
The development of a business case to explore the establishment of the AMDC is a collaboration between ASC, CSIRO, Deakin University, Defence Innovation Network – NSW, Defence SA, Flinders University, Naval Group, the governments of NSW and Victoria, the University of Adelaide, the University of Melbourne, UNSW, the University of SA, the University of Sydney, Australian Maritime College of the University of Tasmania, and the University of Technology, Sydney.