UNSW’s Faculty of Engineering is seeking interested industry staff to apply for its 25 Engineering Industry Research Fellowships until 2 December 2015, in order to bring research and industry closer together.
According to the University, the Industry Research Fellowships will allow researchers working in the private and government sector to access the Engineering Faculty’s expertise and multi-million dollar labs and facilities, in order to improve products, overcome obstacles and solve challenges.
The aim of the fellowships is to foster and grow the cooperation between the academic and the business world, leading to an accelerated development of technologies that can reach commercial application.
Fellows will spend time working on campus on early-stage projects and knowledge transfer, and applications are open to researchers based both in Australia and overseas. During this time, they will remain employees of their own company.
Mark Hoffman, Dean of Engineering at UNSW, says this is Australia’s first such program, modelled on successful initiatives in the US and Germany.
“The purpose is to bring people who work in industry closer to the research that happens in universities, and improve the two-way communication for the development of technology,” he said.
“When researchers at university design projects, they often don’t have a strong knowledge of what industry needs. Similarly, industry doesn’t always have a full understanding of the capability within universities. So if we can have people from industry actually working alongside our researchers and students, both sides can better understand the technologies needed and partner in their development.
Successful applicants become Industry Fellows, who have the option of spending up to six months on campus in a full-time capacity, or up to a year part-time. This will give them access to UNSW research expertise and facilities to work on projects, or collaborate with UNSW researchers to transfer knowledge to industry or products to market.
Once the fellowship is completed, they can apply to renew, extend or continue their projects.
According to Hoffman, global leaders of engineering and technology research are marked by elevated levels of collaboration between research and industry. Australia falls well behind on this score: in its Science, Technology and Industry Scoreboard 2015, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), ranked Australia 29th out of 30 in business-university collaboration.
But Hoffman says it takes two to tango. Businesses also need to reach out to universities, and corporate Australia needs to develop a mindset that sees universities as partners, rather than as ivory towers.
Applications for the Industry Research Fellowships should be submitted by Wednesday 2 December 2015.