Western Australia's Curtin has inked a strategic alliance with the University of Aberdeen to deliver high-impact research and innovative teaching programs across four key areas: energy, medicine and health, creative arts and business.

 

The alliance will draw on the strength of both universities and create opportunities for "global collaboration and staff and student mobility".

 

Curtin University Vice-Chancellor Professor Deborah Terry said the alliance would use joint appointments, collaborative research efforts and co-taught courses, and would see the establishment of a new global energy institute.

 

Through the institute, Aberdeen and Curtin will collaborate in transnational education, energy-related taught postgraduate programs; higher degree by research training; professional development programs and government and industry engagement.

 

The Global Energy Institute will offer a joint Master degree in subsea engineering, along with six energy related joint research projects.

 

"The global energy institute will capitalise on the strengths of both universities in the fields of oil, gas and renewables, and provide an internationally recognised hub for delivering world-class research and education programs," Professor Terry said.

 

Aberdeen principal Sir Ian Diamond said the partnership would create new teaching programs, more opportunities for students and staff to work in Australia, and closer connections with industry.

 

"In order to be successful in research and teaching it is essential to have international collaboration.

Aberdeen and Curtin Universities will develop areas of mutual interest, combine our strengths and provide innovative solutions to global problems," Sir Ian said.

 

The collaboration between the two universities comes at a time when National Energy Resources Australia issued a report at the Australian Oil & Gas Expo in Perth this week revealing a lack of collaboration between academia and industry, 

 

Woodside senior vice president and chief technology officer Shaun Gregory said the concept of "innovation" could easily be misunderstood.

 

Gregory, who won IT News' CIO of the Year award in Melbourne on Monday night, said innovation, while an over-used term, was "very structured" at Woodside.

 

"It's not a bunch of blue-sky engineers in a room and you tell them to innovate and come up with ideas, because ideas are everywhere," Gregory said.

 

"Australian academia rates really highly in research papers but really poorly on commercialisation, so it's very easy and get a whole bunch of ideas. What you really should be chasing are the problems, because it's through solving those problems that you actually get innovation."