On the train from New York City to Washinton DC for this Debate@Go8 Mini podcast, Group of Eight CE Vicki Thomson and Major General (Ret’d) Paul Symon AO, Co-Chair of the Go8 Defence & Security Committee and Senior Advisor at the University of Melbourne, discuss the Go8 delegation to the United States thus far and how the focus of this high-level mission to our largest single research partner will shift and we change cities.
In New York, the focus was on research and industry collaboration and commercialisation, with a brilliant roundtable hosted with the American Australian Association and Australian Consulate-General in New York and an extraordinary visit to IBM Research Think Lab. In Washinton DC, that focus will move to government, politics and the intersection of the current geopolitical environment with universities, research security and national security. Recorded September 2026.