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ITTC for Corrosion Prevention
Dear colleagues,
Join a network of Australia’s leading scientists in corrosion, materials engineering and computational science in their effort to quantify, address and minimize the impact of corrosion and materials degradation in Australia’s economy through a new Industrial Transformation Training Centre (ITTC) for Corrosion Prevention.
The Australian Government will fund the ITTC for Corrosion Prevention through the Australian Research Council (ARC). The ITTC will harbour the development of enduring strategic partnerships between research organisations, government policymakers and industry to mitigate the ongoing impact and cost of corrosion on industry assets, community infrastructures, and the Australian economy and environment. The ITTC will strengthen and expand world-leading capabilities in corrosion research in the country and consolidate Australia as the first nation to tackle corrosion holistically, through education, research, technology development, industry engagement, economics, and policy.
Why an ITTC for Corrosion Prevention?
The ITTC will catalyse the nation’s transformative approach to corrosion mitigation practices and corrosion management strategies, delivering sustainable and innovative solutions. The ITTC will educate the next generation of professionals with a unique skill set that will allow them to apply science to solving real-world and constantly changing challenges.
Effectively, we know that a 10% reduction on the economic cost of corrosion is possible by implementing current best practices and corrosion know-how. Indeed, numerous international studies show that deploying readily available materials, products, methods, and technologies will drastically reduce the impact of corrosion on operational costs and safety as well as carbon footprint.
Supporting Australia's next industrial revolution
Our ITTC will combine cutting-edge computational science approaches, such as machine learning and digital twins, with industry 4.0 strategies to manage corrosion. The close collaboration between industry and academia will produce innovative solutions. The corrosion mitigation measures will be universal with significant industrial applications and, more importantly, will affect the daily life of us as citizens. Our technologies will be ubiquitous in public spaces and households, in our roofs, in our cars, in our streets. They will reduce the severe impact of corrosion on our economy, with an estimated annual cost of 3.4% of Australia’s GDP. This cost is larger than Australia’s investment in either healthcare, education or research.
Our ITTC for Corrosion Prevention will combine cutting-edge computational science approaches, such as machine learning and digital twins, with industry 4.0 strategies to manage corrosion.
An interdisciplinary approach
A drastic and sustainable reduction in the economic and societal impact of corrosion requires the intimate collaboration between the industries that face corrosion challenges, policymakers, and regulatory bodies, as well as academia. The proposed ITTC will bring together leading national and international organisations and industry partners. With ARC’s support, we will address the most insidious corrosion challenges faced by Australian businesses and communities. The ITTC will educate professionals across various industry sectors, including, e.g., oil and gas, mining, defence, biomedical, chemical processing, and manufacturing. The ITTC for Corrosion Prevention will signify an essential investment in Australia’s human capital by developing professionals in a career of the future. We will provide specific academic and industry training programs for PhD students, and post-doctoral research fellows through their placement in partner industry organisations. The ITTC will foster knowledge transfer from academia to industry and strategically deploy cutting-edge technologies.
Research Themes
- Protective Coatings for various applications, including:
- Corrosion under insulation,
- Microbiologically influence corrosion,
- Cathodic protection.
- Materials performance (Environmental Cracking and Tribocorrosion).
- Concrete corrosion.
- Digital twins and Machine Learning to incorporate Industry 4.0 to Integrity Management.
Important Dates
- Deadline Expression of Interest: 5 October 2020.
- Anticipated ARC Announcement: Q3, 2021.
For more information download the brochure.
