Launch of new gravitational wave discovery centre

The Turnbull Government is backing a new Centre for Excellence to support a vital national and international research program into gravitational waves.

Minister for Education and Training Simon Birmingham today will officially launch the Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery at Swinburne Universityand said the facility will be critical in progressing further collaborative research in this rapidly advancing field.

“The Turnbull Government is investing $31.3 million into the facility to ensure Australia remains a world leader in gravitational wave research and discovery,” Minister Birmingham said.

“This facility builds on decades of Australian investment in gravitational wave and pulsar science and merges research activities by Australian and international researchers into a focused national program.

“Last year we saw the historic first detection of gravitational waves culminating in international researchers being awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics.

 “Australian researchers, scientists and engineers played an important role in this major scientific discovery and the new Centre of Excellence will further explore these first detections and help researchers better understand the extreme physics of black holes and warped space-time.

“The Centre of Excellencewill help equip researchers with cutting edge technology to further advance research across multiple disciplines, from lasers and radio instrumentation to big data and astronomy.”

Researchers based at Swinburne University of Technology will work closely with Australian Universities—The University of Adelaide; The Australian National University; The University of Western Australia; The University of Melbourne Monash University—and well as other participating Australian and international organisations.

The ARC Centres of Excellence scheme fosters significant collaborations between universities, publicly funded research organisations, other research bodies, governments and businesses in Australia and overseas, all to support outstanding research.

For more information about this Centre, please visit the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGRav) website and for more information about the ARC and its grant schemes, visit the ARC website.