Clough partners with UWA

CLOUGH Ltd and the University of Western Australia have entered a partnership in which the engineering company has agreed to support funding of a first year centre for engineering students at UWA.The agreement is another addition to the range of affiliations that UWA has been building with the business community.UWA appointed former Chamber of Mineral and Energy chief executive Tim Shanahan as Director of Energy and Minerals Initiative last year. UWA counts substantial agreement with some of the major resources and engineering related businesses operating in the state. The mineral and energy research sector received strong backing from businesses with a $5 million partnership signed with BHP Billiton to fund a BHP Billiton chair in the Business of Resources. Chevron and UWA entered a three-year $6.9 million partnership which includes a $2.3 million commitment from Chevron and in-kind funding of $4.6 million from UWA to fund a Chevron chair in Gas Process Engineering. A Woodside/Chevron Chair in Petroleum Geoscience was appointed, and a partnership between UWA and engineering group Monadelphous was signed to deliver more job-ready engineering graduates. Alcoa of Australia and Worsley Alumina also have a chair in Biogeochemistry. Clough chief executive officer John Smith said in an announcement that the agreement continued the company’s extensive history with UWA which started in the 1970’s primarily with the introduction of engineering scholarships, which was spearheaded by Harold Clough. Construction on the centre will begin next year. The centre is expected to be ready by 2010