QDSA welcomes 7th university to alliance

QUT has joined the Queensland Defence Science Alliance (QDSA), strengthening Australia’s defence innovation ecosystem and expanding the alliance’s university network across Queensland and the Northern Territory to seven partners. QUT’s membership will further enhance the QDSA’s ability to connect world-class research capability with Defence priorities, industry needs and emerging sovereign technology opportunities. The addition of QUT brings significant depth in areas expected to shape future Defence capability, including advanced manufacturing, robotics and autonomous systems, artificial intelligence and machine learning, energy technologies, cyber security, trusted digital technologies, aerospace and space research, data science, materials engineering, human performance, resilient infrastructure, logistics and emerging biomedical technologies. These strengths will complement the Alliance’s existing capabilities and create new opportunities for collaboration across universities, Defence, government and industry throughout Queensland and the Northern Territory. QDSA is one of the fastest growing nodes of the Defence Research Network (formerly ADSUN), and this announcement reinforces the alliance’s growing reputation as an influential force identifying opportunities to pull-through innovation to the Defence ecosystem. QUT Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Research), Professor Ian O’Hara, said the university looked forward to becoming an active and engaged member of the QDSA community. “In a relatively short time, QDSA has built a strong reputation across Australia’s defence research landscape for connection, collaboration and momentum,” Professor O’Hara said. “QUT is excited to contribute to that momentum by bringing together applied research strengths in areas such as autonomous systems, AI and human performance, and by working with Alliance partners to translate research into practical outcomes for Defence and industry.” QDSA Director Stuart Blackwell said the addition of QUT would create more opportunities for research and industry to collaborate and accelerate the development of new Defence capabilities. “QDSA welcomes QUT as a member and looks forward to increasing the Defence Innovation, Science and Technology opportunities for the Alliance, Queensland and more broadly Defence,” Blackwell said. “Specifically, QUT brings deep expertise in AI and Autonomy that is the frontier for new technologies across all domains, maritime, land, air, space and cyber,” he said. QUT joins Queensland alliance members Griffith University, The University of Queensland, James Cook University, Charles Darwin University, University of Sunshine Coast, University of Southern Queensland, DSTG and the Queensland State Government as QDSA members. For Editorial Inquiries Contact: Editor Kym Bergmann at [email protected] For Advertising Inquiries Contact: Group Sales Director Simon Hadfield at [email protected]