Flinders Uni partners with Blueforge Alliance Australia on maritime defence research and education

BlueForge Alliance Australia (BFAA) and Adelaide-based Flinders University have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on maritime research and education programs in support of AUKUS, the trilateral security partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The Memorandum of Understanding opens partnership opportunities on the development and delivery of collaborative research, education, and workforce development programs supporting advanced manufacturing related to undersea platforms, says the university.

BFAA is the Australian subsidiary of Bryan, Texas-based not-for-profit BlueForge Alliance whose mission, it says, is to galvanise and uplift the defence industrial base by increasing capability, capacity and resilience. The three pillars on which these will be built, it adds, are advanced technology, supply chain optimisation and workforce development.

BFAA, which is also a not-for-profit, is a strategic enabler for AUKUS, designed to partner across industry, government, and academia to uplift Australia’s sovereign submarine and maritime industrial base.

The agreement will enable Flinders researchers to support programs that uplift supply chain capability while exploring workforce development for current and future students, the university said in a statement. It was signed by Flinders University and BFAA during the Indo Pacific 2025 International Maritime Exposition.

“Flinders University is internationally recognised as a leader in advanced manufacturing capability at our innovation campus at Tonsley in Adelaide, South Australia and is already supporting the naval shipbuilding industry through capability uplift, making us a natural academic partner for Blueforge Alliance in Australia,” said Flinders Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), Professor Raymond Chan.

“This agreement reinforces our long-standing leadership in research and education that supports Australia’s current and future defence needs. It builds on our strength in advanced manufacturing at the Flinders’ Factory of the Future and innovative education programs, enabling an impactful partnership with Blueforge Alliance and its U.S partners.”

The MoU between Flinders and BFAA builds on a separate agreement between BFAA and the South Australian Government to strengthen the AUKUS workforce.

Flinders has an existing partnership with the University of Rhode Island (URI)– a key partner of US submarine builder General Dynamics Electric Boat, where Flinders and URI have partnered to deliver Australia’s first nuclear engineering major.

Flinders University has also signed a landmark Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with Naval Undersea Warfare Centre (NUWC) Division Newport, and is the only Australian university to do so. This will be another important collaboration that contributes to the advancement of joint Australian and US initiatives, the university says.