RPS-TIDE-UWA new technology collaboration awarded major Australian research grant

The Australian Research Council (ARC) has awarded a Linkage Project grant worth AUS $707,971 to the team, which includes researchers from the TIDE Research Hub, The University of Western Australia (UWA), and RPS, the project’s industry partner.

The grant was awarded to a four-year research project led by Dr Matthew Rayson, senior research fellow at UWA’s Oceans Graduate School. It aims to develop new remote sensing techniques to measure ocean surface currents at unprecedented resolution. The research outcomes are intended to be platform-agnostic, allowing measuring techniques to be employed from drones, aircraft and satellites.

RPS will provide technical guidance to the project and support ground-truthing measurements. In the future, the resulting technology may be directly applied to our on-demand data delivery applications, modelling software and consulting solutions, supporting improved decision-making for offshore wind and Defence, oil spill response and search and rescue.  

Murray Burling, RPS Managing Director Energy Asia Pacific says, “To deliver on our promise of making complex easy, our clients expect RPS to be continually innovating. This exciting collaboration with UWA and the TIDE Research Hub supports us to do just that, by partnering with world-leading researchers to develop and apply new technology to the challenges faced in complex marine environments.”

Only one in three Linkage Project applications were successful in this funding round. TIDE Director Phil Watson says of the collaboration between researchers and industry partners, “This award recognises the research excellence in oceanography that resides in our team, as well as the value of our partnership with RPS – it is truly an exciting development.”

For more details, please contact Murray Burling murray.burling@rpsgroup.com or Greg Bush greg.bush@rpsgroup.com.