Become an Industry Partner

The Australian Cobotics Centre is an Australian Research Council Industrial Transformation Training Centres. The ITTC will be jointly funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC), research organisations (universities and government research organisations) and industry partners.

Through this scheme, the ARC will contribute up $1 million p.a. for 5 years (from 2021-2026). The ARC funds will be combined with cash and in-kind contributions from university and industry partners. Contributions are primarily used to fund PhD programs and postdoctoral research fellows, as well as for equipment for use by Centre researchers and costs associated with travel for collaboration (including placements) and, that associated with promoting the impact of the Centre.

Collaboration with the Centre offers partners:

• The ability to jointly develop a specific project that provides value to an organisation (in line with our research areas) without having to fund the associated research and development costs
• Access to workforce training and development to enable a holistic approach to implementing cobotic and associated technologies
• Access to a network of industry partners to share experiences and resources which in turn will drive value-delivering technological & workforce changes to allow Australian manufacturing to do ‘bigger business together’
• Linkage to a network of suppliers to assist businesses with automation
• The opportunity to help drive policy change to supports innovation & integration in the manufacturing sector
• Expertise based on research and applied knowledge across many areas including in industrial relations, engineering, robotics, interaction design, architecture, data processing and more
• The ability to utilise research outcomes and their applications learnt through research with other partners of the Centre
• Access to world-class research infrastructure and facilities
• Access to domestic and international networks for advice and further opportunities to collaborate outside of the Centre.

Partners will be invited to participate in all Centre-wide engagement activity including:

• The annual symposium
• Training and development programs including formal mentoring of researchers
• Student Placements
• Twice yearly program board
• Quarterly 1:1 project reviews

All Partner Organisations will nominate a Partner Investigator who acts as a Lead contact for their organisation . Partner Investigators (PI) are expected to:

• take significant intellectual responsibility for the planning and conduct of the project and for any strategic decisions required in its pursuit and the communication of results;
• have the relevant skills and experience to contribute to the project;
• make a commitment to carrying out the project and not assume the role of a supplier of resources for work that will largely be undertaken by others; and/or
• provide effective supervision, support and mentoring of research personnel, as required.

The joining process consists of four stages:

1. Initial expression of interest

If you are interested in joining us, please email us at cobotics@qut.edu.au indicating which research programs stood out, where you think the Centre can support your organisation’s strategic goals, and the preferred level of commitment.

Our executive will review your application for fit with the Centre’s strategic goals and to ensure there are no conflicts of interest with existing partners.

2. Creation of collaboration proposal

Following this, the team will get in contact to understand how we might work together and will create a collaboration proposal for your organisation.  To help create the proposal we may need to do site visits, workshops and interviews with people from the organisation. This is a high level document that outlines areas we could add most value that are inline with our research goals.

3. Formal agreement

From here, if your organisation is happy to proceed, you will need to sign a formal agreement (T & Cs can be provided in advanced). After this, we are ready to work together!

4. On-boarding

Once we have you officially on board, we will officially introduce the organisation to our partners and researchers in our monthly catch up. The project teams will then be in touch to start to formulate the project schedules and get the work started.

The Centre is open to discussion about IP ownership. IP terms can be negotiated on an individual project basis however initially all partners will sign the master agreement.

The Centre’s plan is for IP ownership to adhere to the National Principles of Intellectual Property Management for Publicly Funded Research and also seeks to maximise opportunities for participating organisations to achieve successful commercial and market-based outcomes from their involvement.  

Proposed principles for IP management include initial investiture of newly-created IP, commercial access for partners via licencing, and first option for participants to negotiate commercial rights within various usage segments, such as exclusivity within sub-industries or geographic territories. Universities will retain academic usage licences to be used towards publications and other research outputs.