The French and Australian governments have announced a historic new partnership to tackle climate change, launching FACET: the French-Australian Centre for Energy Transition.
The Centre will be co-led by CEA (the French Atomic Energy and Alternative Energy Commission), Université Grenoble-Alpes, Swinburne University of Technology- which is also the host of the Centre – and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
The partnership, announced by French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Catherine Colonna, and the Australian Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs, The Hon Tim Watts MP, will strengthen Australia and France’s bilateral relationship by building cooperation on sustainable and inclusive energy initiatives, and support energy transition needs in the Indo-Pacific region.
The Centre is a key deliverable under the resilience and climate action pillar of the France-Australia bilateral roadmap.
Global solutions to global challenges
Open to partners from universities, research and technology organisations as well as industries, FACET will enable joint activities in innovation, research, education and training, with a strong focus on energy transition, through leadership, low-carbon energy production and supply chain decarbonisation.
With seed funding from the Australian and French governments, the Centre will support wider adoption of sustainable energy solutions, support multilateral partnerships and advance education and skills to support an ambitious climate change response agenda.
“Global challenges require global solutions. Today, represents an important step forward in our efforts to tackle one of the biggest threats our world faces – climate change – and work towards net zero,” said President and Vice-Chancellor, Swinburne University of Technology, Professor Pascale Quester.
“Swinburne is proud to play host to this ground-breaking partnership between France and Australia, reflecting our nations’ shared energy transition ambitions and utilising our world-leading scientific and industry-linked commercialisation capabilities.”
As a dual sector university, Swinburne offers the unique combination of excellence in research, teaching, skills development and commercial innovation needed to facilitate FACET’s energy transition objectives.
The Centre will utilise Swinburne’s world-leading strengths in the hydrogen economy, renewable generation systems, energy storage systems, future energy networks and supply chain decarbonisation.
It will also bring together capabilities in artificial intelligence (AI), digital and supercomputer research, remote sensing, learning development, commercialisation and work-integrated learning.
