Northern Australia Infrastructure Fund commits $96M to JCU project

The Federal Government has committed up to $96 million from its Northern Australia Infrastructure Fund (NAIF) to boost enrolments in engineering courses at James Cook University (JCU) in Townsville.

This funding is the NAIF’s first investment commitment in Queensland and will be used to develop a Technology Innovation Complex (TIC).

Minister for Resources and Northern Australia Matt Canavan said the complex will provide contemporary facilities as part of the Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) offering targeted at engineering students.

“JCU is establishing a focus of engineering for the tropics and the TIC will be the centrepiece of an ‘innovation hub’ in which undergraduate students, industry partners, post-graduate researchers and start-up businesses will collaborate,” Mr Canavan said.

“We also need to attract more young Australians into engineering to support our strong resources sector. We have built our mining sector by harnessing the efforts of some of the world’s best engineers trained here in Australia. This new facility will help us repeat that success in the future,” he said.

The financial assistance is subject to the Queensland Government’s agreement for the funds to be advanced.

Senator Ian Macdonald said he was pleased to see NAIF making a loan commitment that would significantly benefit the economy of North Queensland.

“It will particularly help JCU attract more regional and international students in engineering, which in turn will boost expertise in a profession so vital to infrastructure development and innovation in Northern Australia and throughout our part of the world,” Mr Macdonald said.

“The TIC is part of a broader modernisation and building program that JCU tells me will potentially return a public benefit of some $700 million over 30 years, driven by increased participation in higher education and collaboration with industry, so it is terrific the NAIF funding can help generate that sort of benefit.”