UNSW has been announced as a founding member of a world-class maritime research collaboration, the Australian Maritime Development Centre.

UNSW Faculty of Engineering Associate Dean (Industry and Innovation), and interim Deputy Chair of the AMDC, Ian Gibson, said the centre would see government, academia and industry working closely together to find solutions to the biggest challenges facing the defence and maritime sector in Australia.

“When organisations and institutions come together in such a way as this centre, it results in impressive knowledge advances that will see a transformation in defence innovation. Together, we intend to create a critical national strategic asset,” he said. 

The world-class hub will span three Australian states, NSW, SA and Victoria, and will be supported by the research capabilities of 10 leading Australian universities and research institutions, leading industrial defence companies and government.

Vice Admiral (Ret’d) Paul Maddison, Director of the UNSW Defence Research Institute, said maritime research and development was critical to Australia’s future naval requirements. At UNSW, research in this area ranges from increasing strategic competition in the maritime domain through to transnational maritime crime and non-traditional security threats. 

paul maddison director unsw defence research institute

Paul Maddison, Director of the UNSW Defence Research Institute.

“There will continue to be disruptive change in the world and Australia, like many countries, needs to be prepared. This is where the ADMC will come in, playing a role to break down barriers to multi-stakeholder collaboration in order to accelerate capability development for joint power projection in the maritime domain. We are proud that UNSW will play an important role in setting the AMDC up for success,” Vice Admiral Maddison said.

The Australian Maritime Development Centre plans to offer best-in-class class national research and development capability for Australia’s maritime and naval sector whilst serving the needs of the Royal Australia Navy and Department of Defence.

Dedicated to independent and collaborative research, open innovation and the development of new intellectual capital, the AMDC will bring together Australia’s premier academic institutions, government and major maritime industry entities.

The AMDC is working to be operational in the first quarter of 2020 and is based on the unique model originally launched by Naval Group in France, a world leader in naval defence.