UWA will continue its commitment to playing a pivotal role in global excellence in research in 2016.
I am delighted to report that in 2015, the University continued to provide a strong focus on high-quality, high-impact research. The University climbed one place to be ranked 87th in the world in the prestigious Shanghai Jiao Tong University's Academic Ranking of World Universities.
UWA was awarded more than $62 million of Australian Research Council (ARC) and National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) funding. In particular, two UWA leading research groups secured nearly $10 million from the ARC towards the ARC Research Hub for Offshore Floating Facilities and the ARC Training Centre for Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Futures.
UWA's Research Hub and Training Centre received an equivalent amount of co-investment from industry partners including Shell, Woodside, Bureau Veritas, Lloyd's Register, Chevron, GE Oil and Gas, Clough, Samsung, Guodian NETRI, Virtual Materials Group, and Daewoo.
Partner investment in UWA research was also evident in other disciplines, with $870,000 awarded for an ARC linkage project to look at the origins of rock art provinces in northern Australia. An additional $500,000 in funding was received from the Kimberley Foundation, State Government departments, and Dunkeld Pastoral Company for the same project. These partnerships reinforce the lead role of UWA researchers in contributing to the future economic development of our State and the nation.
The first recipients of the prestigious Forrest Research Foundation Scholarships were announced in May 2015. Five outstanding scholarship recipients from the US, Mexico, Vietnam, France and Singapore will take up their awards at UWA. This is the beginning of a long-term commitment that Andrew and Nicola Forrest have made through their $65 million philanthropic donation to attract the greatest minds in the world to Western Australia.
Fostering innovation and seeking impact from research are at the heart of the University's research agenda, and the UWA Innovation Quarter (IQ) had some early successes in 2015. Of note is the 'Start Something' initiative, which demonstrated a tremendous appetite for innovation and entrepreneurship among postgraduate research students and staff. This program involved the participation of respected industry mentors guiding skill development in the commercialisation of research and engagement with industry. Three very different ideas won prizes – an application to help university students mine the Internet for open access research, a wave energy harvesting device that uses gyroscopic technology and a solution to measure strain in mining structures to improve safety in the resources industry.
Another initiative partnering with the IQ was the launch of 'BloomLab', a collaboration between St Catherine's College and UWA student-led organisation Bloom. The initiative supports students and young people in starting their own ventures and was highly successful in 2015 with 2500 students across Perth using its resources and 25 new start-ups under way.
It was particularly pleasing to see UWA's success at the Premier's Science Awards with 13 finalists announced in 2015. Professor Mark Cassidy from the Centre for Offshore Foundation Systems (COFS) was named Scientist of the Year, while Dr Hannah Moore from the Telethon Kids Institute was named Woodside Early Career Scientist of the Year.
Future funding to support worldclass research infrastructure is now more certain in the higher education sector with the December 2015 Federal Government announcement of $2.3 billion of funding over the next decade. Since 2004, the Government has invested $2.5 billion in the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS), which provided more than 30,000 researchers access to facilities and equipment. More than 1500 technical experts and researchers are employed through these capabilities including UWA, and I am pleased that their continuation now has some certainty until 2027.
UWA works hard to forge partnerships and build on innovation to advance research. Across all disciplines, the University has a strong research performance, with all fields of research ranked world-class or above in the Government's Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) 2015 evaluation.
UWA will continue its commitment to playing a pivotal role in global excellence in research in 2016.
University information
CRICOS Code: 00126G
