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Fugro is to fund the creation of a new ‘Fugro Chair in Geotechnics’ at the University of Western Australia’s Centre for Offshore Foundation Systems (COFS).

The agreement, which also provides funding for three PhD scholarships, was signed by Professor Robyn Owens, UWA’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) and Dr Phil Watson, Director of Fugro Advanced Geomechanics (AG) in Perth and Fugro’s Global Service Line Manager GeoConsulting.

Fugro is the industry-leading expert in the safe, efficient and reliable design of offshore foundations. Its unique knowledge of the behaviour of carbonate soils found offshore Australia, and in other regions of the world, stems from more than two decades of involvement in all major oil and gas developments off Australia’s North West shelf.

As a world-renowned group, COFS performs cutting edge research that is directly relevant to the offshore industry in Australia and throughout the world. The centre is a major node of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Geotechnical Science and Engineering, of which Fugro is a Partner Organisation.

By establishing the ‘Fugro Chair in Geotechnics,’ Fugro and COFS aim to develop a sustainable research group, which is significant to Fugro’s activities worldwide and supports the wider geotechnical community. The group will address key research questions related to design and performance within the field of offshore geotechnics, reducing risk and enhancing engineering design within the offshore sector.

“The close collaboration between Fugro and COFS will assist in ensuring the group’s applied research is targeted to solving real world problems,” explained COFS Director, Winthrop Professor Mark Cassidy. “Fugro will leverage this to provide enhanced solutions for its clients.”

Dr Phil Watson added, “The creation of the ‘Fugro Chair in Geotechnics’ is fully aligned with Fugro’s strategic objective to further expand its global consultancy business. This initiative combines the best consultants and researchers with the high quality earth data acquired by Fugro’s geotechnical and survey experts.”

By funding PhD scholarships, Fugro will also facilitate the growth of high quality graduates in the field of offshore geotechnics and engineering, with the selected students being provided with enhanced educational opportunities by working with the world’s leading geotechnical engineering company.