The five universities of the Australian Technology Network (ATN) and the Australian Institute of Energy (AIE) are collaborating on a project to raise the profile of energy education and research in Australian universities, and have recently been successful in securing funds from the ATN universities, CSIRO and DEST to start a program called ATeNergy.
ATeNergy is designed to pilot a national coordinated program of energy education and R&D to address national energy R&D priorities, provide industry focused short courses in energy and provide general community education in energy. It will bring together the resources of the five universities of the ATN, the Australian Institute of Energy (AIE), industry partners and CSIRO.
The partnership will develop a program to address national energy R&D priorities, provide industry focussed courses in energy and provide general community education in energy. It will review the current identified energy research and education capabilities of the ATN as well as the needs of industry and business with a view to bridging those gaps with a significant national R&D project and course offerings developed in conjunction with industry.
The objectives of the ATN/AIE Energy Education & Research Collaboration are:
Coordinate a large scale energy R&D project across the ATN with industry and relevant Government agencies such as CSIRO which address national research priorities in the energy sector.
Through the AIE network and other industry partners publicise the availability of postgraduate and postdoctoral research positions in energy fields across the ATN universities.
The development of much-needed short courses for energy industry professionals to be delivered nationally across all ATN universities as an essential element of on going professional career development.
The development of a coordinated post graduate national program in energy allowing student (and staff) mobility across (initially) all mainland states. The intention is to provide a course whereby each ATN university contributes to subjects and courses that can and will be used by other universities.
An ATN/Industry Roundtable will be established, to provide a forum for the development of industry focussed and supported energy education and energy R&D
Another new initiative in 2005 has been the e-Grad School, which integrates and adds to the ATN's online learning collaborative activities.
The e-Grad School (Australia) concept will:
· Provide a model for collaboration linking e-research and e-learning
This pilot project is for the development of an e-Grad School that offers a comprehensive range of virtual research training services to universities and other research providers in Australia and internationally. The project has its foundations in the successful existing collaboration between the five universities in the Australian Technology Network. A range of relevant online resources and services for research students has already been developed across the Network and the pilot project taps into these, adapting them as necessary to the e-Grad School context. During the pilot, sustainable delivery of the integrated resources and services will be developed system-wide. The e-Grad School will develop a Masters of Research Management. The sub-projects include generic capabilities (LEAP), research methodology on-line (MORE), an on-line graduate colloquium, a process of supervisor development and accreditation, career preparation, tertiary teaching, and information literacy for the e-researcher.
The pilot project also includes the preparation of a detailed business plan for the establishment and launch of the self-funding e-Grad School (Australia) to operate from 2007.