Federal Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane today launched a new centre dedicated to research in the resources sector, but was coy on whether Canberra would support a similar body that Woodside has been pushing for the oil and gas sector.
Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane today launched a new centre dedicated to research in the resources sector, but was coy on whether Canberra would support a similar body that Woodside has been pushing for the oil and gas sector.
Transfield Services managing director Graeme Hunt has been named as the inaugural chair of the National Resource Sciences Precinct, a collaboration between CSIRO, Curtin University and the University of Western Australia.
Mr Hunt, whose past roles include time as BHP Billiton’s president iron ore, likened the new centre to a portal through which companies and government could connect with research experts and science infrastructure.
Speaking at the launch in Perth today, he said the centre would also seek to replace competition with collaboration.
“There have been areas of collaboration between the three institutions but there hasn’t been an umbrella body that strives to make sure there is alignment and transparency about what each of them is trying to do,” Mr Hunt said.
“It doesn’t mean they won’t compete with each other where it makes sense, but it’s all about being as effective as possible.”
As chair, Mr Hunt said he would work closely with CSIRO chief executive Megan Clark, Curtin vice-chancellor Deborah Terry, and UWA vice-chancellor Paul Johnson.
Mr Hunt said the organisation would have a very modest operating budget.
“It’s all about leveraging resources we can get from the member organisations and elsewhere,” he said.
The centre has obtained $17 million in funding from CSIRO’s Science Industry and Endowment Fund and $2.6 million from the state government.
Mr Hunt said Perth was a logical place to establish the centre.
“The potential of this, and the reason I was happy to take it on, is the huge amount of capability in this part of the wold, in physical assets and the capability of the people working in this space,’’ he said.
“The challenge here is to bring both of those together.”
The establishment of the new centre follows an announcement in February last year by the Gillard government that it would establish 10 industry innovation precincts.
Woodside Petroleum coordinated a submission calling for the establishment of an oil and gas industry innovation precinct as one of the 10.
Mr Macfarlane said today the proposal was still under review.
“In terms of that precincts concept, we’re still considering how we deal with that,’’ he said.
When asked about the Woodside proposal, he said: “I’m aware of that and, as I say, we’re considering where we go with that”.
The National Resource Sciences Precinct adds to several existing bodies designed to bolster research in the mining sector.
These include Melbourne-based AMIRA International, an international association of mining companies, and the state government’s Minerals Research Institute of Western Australia (MRIWA).
MRIWA, which was known briefly as the Western Australian Minerals Research Institute (WAMRI), takes over from the Minerals and Energy Research Institute of WA (MERIWA).
The new body has $7.5 million of government funding over three years, and is designed to focus only on minerals research, but not energy research.
The latter function is picked up by the WA Energy Research Alliance (WA:ERA), which is also an alliance between CSIRO, Curtin and UWA.
