CSIRO signs $35 million research deal with Boeing

Following the news earlier this month that global aviation giant Boeing had named Australia’s CSIRO as their 2016 supplier of the year, today the two organisations announced a $35million research agreement covering five years.

Over that time the CSIRO will work with Boeing on topics like space sciences, advanced materials and manufacturing.

The Aviation industry can’t afford to stand still.  Lighter stronger materials can mean fuel savings in flight and enhancements to manufacturing processes could save valuable time on the construction of the huge aircraft at Boeing factories.

The partnership furthers a 28-year relationship between the US and Australian companies with CSIRO CEO Larry Marshall announcing the agreement at an event in Sydney today  “With almost three decades of ground-breaking research that has created jobs and growth for Australia and the US, it’s hard to overstate the impact that our relationship with Boeing has had,” Dr Marshall said.

“Adopting a global outlook for national benefit is a key pillar of CSIRO‘s Strategy 2020, and it’s an approach that has yielded enormous benefits through our relationship with Boeing.”

Boeing’s local president Maureen Dougherty said “Boeing celebrates 90 years in Australia this year, and for nearly a third of that time, we’ve partnered with CSIRO on advanced technologies that have made a real difference to the aerospace industry,” 

“We’re excited to see that relationship move forward as a result of this new multi-year agreement.”

One example of the research partnership in the past is CSIRO‘s “Paintbond” technology which has been applied to more than a thousand Boeing airplanes, including some in the skies above Australia, saving millions of dollars in maintenance costs.