We are ready to give AUKUS the technology and expertise it needs: Go8

Group of Eight universities say they have the necessary expertise to play a key role in developing new military technologies under AUKUS pact.

Australian company Hypersonix is developing a hydrogen-powered engine for hypersonic flight with technological support from the University of Queensland, a Group of Eight member.

The research-intensive universities in the Group of Eight say they are ready to play their part in ­developing the military technologies which Australia, the US and Britain plan to jointly develop under the AUKUS pact.

In a new capability document, the universities say they have the necessary research expertise for the task, as well as the teaching ­resources to train the high-technology workforce, which the AUKUS agreement will require.

The paper, titled Curated: Capability to support AUKUS Pillar II, says that Go8 universities play a outsize global role in many of the research disciplines relevant to AUKUS. The universities’ produce 2.5 per cent of the world’s research in oceanography, 2.1 per cent in ocean engineering, 1.7 per cent in quantum science and 1.7 per cent in artificial intelligence.

“This is a remarkable performance out of just eight universities when we consider Australia’s population, at almost 27 million, is around 0.33 per cent of the global population – 40 per cent that of the UK, and around 8 per cent of the US,” the paper says.

Pillar II is the section of the AUKUS pact which commits the three partners to developing defence capabilities based on new technologies including AI, quantum, materials science, robotics and information systems. It is distinct from Pillar I which will create a nuclear submarine force for Australia.

According to the paper, Australian universities stand ahead of US and UK universities in the proportion of their research papers in AUKUS-related areas that are in the top 1 per cent globally by number of citations. Overall, Australian universities have 3.3 per cent of such papers in the world’s top 1 per cent, whereas US universities stand at 2.7 per cent and UK universities are at 2.5 per cent.

Alone, the Go8 universities – Sydney, Melbourne, UNSW, Monash, Queensland, Adelaide, Western Australia and the Australian National University – are responsible for 3.5 per cent of the research papers in AUKUS-­related research areas that are in the top 1 per cent globally by number of citations.

Photonics research at the University of Adelaide, a Group of Eight member.

“Go8 universities are at the forefront of Australia’s defence and security research effort and are integral to bringing AUKUS to successful delivery,” said Go8 chief executive Vicki Thomson.

She said the Go8’s universities had advanced capabilities in all the research fields required for AUKUS Pillar II and already had strong research collaboration with universities in the US and the UK.

Ms Thomson said it was critical for the success of AUKUS to build on the foundation of Australian universities’ existing capabilities which was well-developed in the six main and two additional AUKUS Pillar II streams.

The 168-page paper highlights in depth the areas in which each of the Go8 universities can benefit AUKUS through expertise in areas such as quantum sensing, quantum communication, electronic warfare, hypersonic flight, advanced cyber capabilities, cryptography, artificial intelligence and machine learning, materials science, optics and photonics, and undersea technologies.

Ms Thomson also said the eight universities were able to train a high-technology workforce to work on developing new defence technologies.

“Across our eight universities, there is the potential to drive AUKUS-focused workforce development through undergraduate and postgraduate courses in related areas; capacity-building via defence institutes; and career and skill-based partnerships with industry,” she said.

The paper also includes detailed lists of expert contacts for each university.