SA to open $92m data research facility

The South Ausralian government plans to open a new research centre in Adelaide designed to crunch data and provide insights into crime and online terrorism to service defence and national security agencies.

The $92 million facility in Adelaide's Technology Park - which will employ over 40 full time staff and support 48 PhD students during a five year period - will bring private sector participants and research organisations together to study how big data can best be utilised in defence and national security.

Chief executive officer of the centre, Dr Sanjay Mazumdar, said the facility would apply high-performance analytics to enable defence and national security agencies to predict a threat, rather than respond to a "catastrophic aftermath". 

According to the state’s minister for defence and industries, Martin Hamilton-Smith, the research facility will provide such agencies with capabilities to make critical decisions about online crime and terrorism faster and more accurately.

The SA government was given $92 million for the project out of the Commonwealth Government's collaborative research centre pot of funding.

The state will stump up $600,000 over three years, with the remaining cash to be delivered via in-kind support from a number of companies, academic institutions and governments.

More to come