KUCHING, Nov 1: Petronas recently engaged with five universities in Sarawak via a programme called the ‘Petronas-Academia Collaboration Dialogue Sarawak Universities Reach-Out’ where it shared its business pain points, research focus as well as sought deeper understanding of the universities’ expertise and aspiration.
The five local universities involved were Curtin University, Swinburne University, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas), Universiti Teknologi Sarawak (UTS), and Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) Bintulu Campus.
In a media release, Petronas said that the collaboration with institutions of higher learning in Sarawak under its Malaysia Technology Excellence (MTEx) programme was part of its pursuit of aspiration to build a stronger technology ecosystem to add value to the business.
MTEx, stewarded by Malaysia Petroleum Management (MPM) with the support of Project Delivery & Technology (PD&T), Centre of Excellence (COE) and Integrated Value Assurance (IVA), aims to foster technology collaboration and networking opportunities between Petronas and academic or research institutions in Sarawak.
Curtin University was represented by its Deputy Pro Vice-Chancellor Professor Vincent Lee Chieng Chen and Dean of Research and Development Professor Nagarajan Ramasamy, while Unimas by its deputy director (Research, Innovation and Enterprise Centre) Dr Charles Bong Hin Joo.
Swinburne University was represented by School of Research director Professor Lau Bee Theng and UTS by senior lecturers Dr Geno Peter and Daniel Tan Yong Wen, while Campus director Professor Dr Shahrul Razid Sarbini represented UPM.
At the event, MPM’s head of Resource Development and Management Aidil Shabudin thanked the universities’ representatives for their participation.
“Hopefully this programme will enable us to better understand key challenges faced by academia in managing industrial oriented research projects and strengthen alignment between industry needs and hunger for solutions with universities’ expertise,” he said.
Aidil added that this journey of collaboration is set to continue, with the upcoming Dialogue session to be conducted in the first quarter of 2023.
During the Petronas-Academia Collaboration Dialogue last year, Petronas received 100 proposals from 16 universities nationwide. Out of that, 23 proposals from 11 Universities have been included in Petronas’ Research Programmes. — DayakDaily
