Australia is looking to embark on a number of ambitious naval acquisition projects in the short-to-mid-term future. To support these future programs through all stages of their lifecycle, as well as enhance the sustainment activities required for existing platforms, there is a need for sustained maritime industry capability development and growth. This development needs to include training of highly-skilled engineers and highly-qualified research engineers to build on the existing workforce, with this community to represent a valuable technical support network (TSN) for industry.

Three Universities, four maritime defence industries and two research organisations have come together to form the ARC Research Training Centre for Naval Design and Manufacturing (RTCNDM), an Australian Research Council Industrial Transformation Training Centre (ITTC) for transforming the way that academia and industry collaborate and for improving the industry-relevance of the research and research training.

The paper will outline how the ITTC scheme aims to align academic research with industry needs through industrial training of PhD students and researchers and by fostering industry-academia links. It will also describe how the formation of the RTCNDM aims to strengthen Australia’s Maritime Industry’s ability to support Defence. Finally, the paper will discuss the expected benefits to researchers and industry partners of enhanced industry-academia interaction through the RTCNDM.