Four Australian universities have been selected to conduct joint research with US universities on priority defence projects.
Announced by the Minister for Defence Industry, Christopher Pyne , the research is to come under the auspices of the US Department of Defense Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI).
Mr Pyne congratulated the Australian universities, saying the Next Generation Technologies Fund supported their success.
He said it was the first time Defence had funded Australian universities to work with their US counterparts.
“As these universities were chosen from a pool of over 400 proposals, this is a great outcome, one which shows that Australian researchers are world class,” Mr Pyne said.
He said Australia’s Griffith University, University of NSW and University of Technology Sydney would work with Duke University, the University of Oregon and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on integrated quantum sensing and control for high-fidelity qubit operations while Sydney University and the University of NSW are to partner with the University of Tennessee, Ohio State University and Virginia Polytechnic Institute on a project in material sciences.
He said the Australian universities would each receive a grant of up to $1 million per year for three years to support their research in Australia.
Mr Pyne said that while Australian universities were able to bid for MURI projects in the past, they were not eligible for grants from the US Department of Defense.
“The Government is investing $25 million in the Australian version of the MURI program, called AUSMURI, to facilitate joint research with the American universities,” Mr Pyne said.
