The City of Joondalup in Western Australia has welcomed a commitment from the State Government to provide $800,000 in funding to support the establishment of a Joondalup Innovation Hub.
WA Premier Mark McGowan joined Innovation and ICT Minister Dave Kelly at Edith Cowan University (ECU) Joondalup to announce the $16.7 million New Industries Fund, with the Joondalup Innovation Hub to be one of the first initiatives supported.
The Hub will bring together the public, private and research sectors to work initially in the area of cyber security.
Joondalup Mayor Albert Jacob said the City was proud to have assisted ECU in attracting the Innovation Hub to the Joondalup campus.
“For some time the City has worked on making Joondalup an innovation hub by exploring initiatives between local government and the university sector,” Mayor Jacob said.
“The launch of THE LINK website in 2016 was the first milestone in this ambitious plan and was the result of a joint initiative between the City and ECU to enable businesses and investors to access relevant information on how to take advantage of opportunities in Joondalup and connect with global leading research expertise.
“THE LINK has helped to drive innovation and business growth in Perth’s northern growth corridor, encouraging the brightest minds in research and business to work together to create novel solutions and job-creating enterprises.”
Mayor Jacob said the launch of the City’s Digital Strategy in 2013 identified the need for the City to support cyber security research pilot projects.
“The City’s Economic Development Strategy has a goal to position Joondalup as a regional knowledge and innovation hub and a Digital City,” he said.
“In 2013 the City partnered with ECU Security Research Institute (ECUSRI) to commence a research project called the ‘Small Medium Enterprise Cyber Security Engagement Project Pilot’.
“This project then transitioned in 2015 to the CyberCheckMe initiative, an ongoing collaboration with ECU to encourage local businesses to be cyber aware and to learn about the available tools and techniques to better protect their businesses by achieving a lower risk profile.
“The program has also assisted the ECUSRI with the provision of a significant amount of data that has added to the research capability of the Institute and helped to strengthen its role as a leader in the Cyber Security sector.”
