Our best research organisation, the CSIRO is getting a massive boost with a new 5 year commitment with leading aeronautical company Boeing. The two businesses have committed to continue working together on a broad range of areas of mutual interest including space sciences, advanced materials and manufacturing.
This continues a long running relationship that extends a 28-year partnership between CSIRO and Boeing. CSIRO Chief Executive Larry Marshall announced the new funding agreement at the American Chamber of Commerce in Australia’s G’day to Aussie innovation event in Sydney today.
“With almost three decades of ground-breaking research that has created jobs and growth for Australia and the US, it’s hard to overstate the impact that our relationship with Boeing has had.
Adopting a global outlook for national benefit is a key pillar of CSIRO’s Strategy 2020, and it’s an approach that has yielded enormous benefits through our relationship with Boeing.”
Earlier this month, Boeing named CSIRO as a 2016 Supplier of the Year. President of Boeing Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific, Maureen Dougherty said,
“Boeing celebrates 90 years in Australia this year, and for nearly a third of that time, we’ve partnered with CSIRO on advanced technologies that have made a real difference to the aerospace industry,”
“We’re excited to see that relationship move forward as a result of this new multi-year agreement.”
Over the years the organisations have invested more than $AUD170 million on 190 joint research projects into everything from innovative new manufacturing processes, to fire retardants, biofuels and software. Its technologies like ‘Paintbond’ from CSIRO that has been applied to more than a thousand Boeing airplanes, including some in the skies above Australia, saving millions of dollars in maintenance costs.
The strong relationship with CSIRO was a key factor in Boeing choosing Australia as the location for its largest research and development operation outside the United States. Dr Marshall said,
“We are proud to have worked with Boeing so closely and for so many years, helping them to deliver profound value to their customers.
Our relationship is a real success story of science partnering with industry to create impact, and we’re looking forward to growing that impact even further in the coming years.”
