The Group of Eight (Go8) comprising Australia’s leading research-intensive universities, will lead a delegation to Singapore and Japan this week to strengthen Australia’s relationship with key strategic partners.
Go8 Chair Professor Mark Scott AO, Major General (Ret’d) Paul Symon (former Director General Australia Secret Intelligence Service) and Lieutenant General (Ret’d) Rick Burr (former Chief of Army), co-chairs of the Go8 Defence and Security Committee and Deputy Vice Chancellors from Go8 universities will meet with Government, industry and university counterparts in Singapore and Japan to discuss opportunities for research collaboration in critical areas, including national security.
Professor Scott said, “at a time when some of our partners are adopting protectionist economic policies and questioning research collaboration, it is imperative that we seek opportunities and strengthen engagement with likeminded regional neighbours.”
Recently the United States, the Go8’s single largest collaborative research partner globally, suspended or terminated research grants with six of our eight member universities in line with policy changes introduced by the Trump administration.
“We are living in a more contested and unpredictable environment and engagement with partners like Singapore and Japan is key to our ongoing capacity to carry out critical research in areas of national priority,” Professor Scott said.
The program in Singapore will leverage the 60th anniversary of bilateral relations in 2025 and coincide with discussions for an ambitious agenda for the next ten years of the Australia-Singapore Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in which research and innovation are expected to play a greater role.
A Go8-Singapore research roundtable will bring together university leaders, government and industry representatives from Singapore and Australia for discussions around fostering deeper research collaborations in areas of shared interest including AI, climate change, energy transition, quantum computing, biomedical sciences.
A high-level dialogue will be held in Tokyo to discuss pathways to safeguard research collaboration. Japan is a trusted and long-standing research collaborator and is a key strategic partner in the Indo Pacific.
Go8 universities are committed to building stronger relationships with our close regional partners to minimise risk to our capacity to carry out collaborative lifesaving and nation building research and to develop the expertise to find solutions to global challenges.