Woodside, The University of Western Australia (UWA) and other research organisations are set to work together to establish Woodside FutureLab Oceanworks, a creative research and innovation space that supports industry and university collaboration in ocean engineering.

The launch of FutureLab Oceanworks is expected in late 2016 as part of the new $62 million Indian Ocean Marine Research Centre at UWA’s Crawley campus. It provides a dedicated space for industry and university experts to work together to build technical knowledge and develop solutions to pressing industry challenges.

Energy and Minerals Institute (EMI) Director, Mark Stickells said the intent behind the new facility aligned well with UWA’s innovation strategy and the National Innovation and Science Agenda – both seeking to empower existing innovation, entrepreneurship, industry engagement and inspiring exciting new research.

“Woodside and UWA are building on their long-standing 25-year relationship and commitment to develop high quality education and research programs with real impact and innovative world-class facilities.   FutureLab Oceanworks is a great example of the next generation of industry-university collaboration and will deliver positive results not only to us, but to our stakeholders world-wide.

“With Woodside’s help, UWA has created a comprehensive recruitment program designed to attract the best and brightest students and researchers to our faculties and we are grateful that Woodside continues to find student placements for UWA’s Cooperative Education for Enterprise Development (CEED) initiative.

“I look forward to seeing the global impact of FutureLab Oceanworks research and how that will drive the development of new technology in ocean engineering,” Mr Stickells said.

Woodside has been working to actively build an ecosystem of scientific and technological innovation under its FutureLab program, through collaborations with start-ups, entrepreneurs and adjacent leading industries.