RMIT and the Asia Society join forces to help our regional reach

RMIT and the Asia Society Australia are joining forces to help business and others find opportunities in the Asia-Pacific region.

RMIT’s and Asia Society Australia’s Asia Trade and Innovation Hub will strengthen understanding of the Asia-Pacific. Picture: Supplied.

An Asia Trade and Innovation Hub will officially open on RMIT’s Melbourne city campus in the first half of 2022, as part of a new collaboration with the Asia Society Australia funded by the Victorian government’s Victorian Higher Education State Investment Fund.

As part of the deal, the think tank will now base itself at the campus.

The partners plan to leverage each other’s expertise and networks “to create new opportunities for Victorian economic and social engagement in Asia”, RMIT interim vice-chancellor Dionne Higgins said.

The society’s chief executive officer Philipp Ivanov said the partnership was a powerful alliance that would create an enduring platform for new research, innovation and regional connectivity.

“RMIT’s footprint in Asia, industry-focused research capabilities and world-class facilities in Melbourne complement Asia Society’s global network, policy impact and mission to prepare Australians for engagement with a more complex Asia,” Mr Ivanov said.

The hub will offer events, policy discussion and debate, applied research, media engagement, online and blended learning and produce applied research “road maps”, to help businesses tackle priority markets and sectors in the Asia-Pacific.

Asia Society Australia is a centre of Asia Society, which is a global non-profit organisation with centres in the US, Hong Kong, The Philippines, India, South Korea and Switzerland as well as in Australia.