The centre will receive $3.5 million a year from the federal government, with the state also tipping in $6 million over four years.
The Palaszczuk government will provide staffing for the initiative, which will be based at Queensland University of Technology’s Gardens Point campus.
“Having the centre here gives us access to millions of dollars of research and development funding to develop and commercialise ideas from our METS sector and in our universities,” Queensland State Development Minister Dr Anthony Lynham said.
“This is about creating new business and export opportunities and jobs in an area where we already have a global reputation and international markets.”
The centre will focus on reducing the regulatory burden, increasing collaboration and commercialisation, improving international engagement and enhancing management and workforce skills.
All of that will help the local sector push ahead of its global peers, according to Federal Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science Christopher Pyne.
“The future prosperity of the METS sector will depend on its ability to remain globally competitive and seize these global opportunities,” he said.
Some of mining’s big problems will be addressed under the initiative, including reducing production costs and finding innovative approaches to rehabilitation.
That work will be a good fit for the mining state, which has more operating METS companies than any other. Queensland houses more than 400 companies employing more than 60,000 people and the sector is even larger on the national scale.
“There are around 386,000 highly skilled employees in the METS sector in Australia,” METS Growth Centre chair Elizabeth Lewis-Gray said.
“This workforce represents one of the largest and most highly skilled industry groups in Australia, producing leading edge technology and equipment for the mining industry, one of Australia’s biggest export earners.”
The growth centre will be one of five established under the Commonwealth’s Innovation and Competitiveness Agenda.
It will also dovetail with Queensland’s $180 million strategy to create knowledge-based jobs.
