King and Queen of Norway present at signing of NGI – UWA agreement in Perth

A royal visit from Norway emphasizes the importance of the long-standing cooperation between the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute, NGI, and the University of Western Australia, UWA.

“I am delighted to announce that Their Majesties King Harald and Queen Sonja of Norway will be present at the signing of the memorandum of understanding between UWA and NGI,” says Dr Andrew Deeks, managing director of NGI’s Australian office.

The King and Queen of Norway embarked on their first official visit to Australia on Monday, 23^rdFebruary, in Canberra. On Friday, 27^thFebruary, the last day of the visit, Their Majesties will be present at a mini-seminar in Perth, Western Australia, devoted to maritime and offshore related research and business.

Andrew Deeks of NGI and Prof. Mark Cassidy of UWA will talk briefly about the long history of cooperation between UWA and NGI. UWA and NGI are world-class institutions; who provide best-in-class geoscience expertise, we are proud to have worked with each other in the past, and excited about building upon this relationship in the future. We share common values of (i) excellence in what we do, (ii), desire to share knowledge, and (iii) passion to make geotechnical design safer, more efficient and more environmentally friendly.

During the last twenty years, professors and students from UWA have visited NGI in Oslo for shorter and longer research assignments. Likewise, several employees of NGI have spent time at UWA. The two institutions now participate in a number of research programs. Two current research projects currently in progress illustrate our common passions; one, which brings reliability methods to pile design, and the other, which is testing a novel type of foundation for offshore wind energy.Both projects aim to reduce material use, make installation faster and quieter and allow new cost effective and environmentally responsible energy generation.

In June this year, NGI will welcome 400 international participants to ISFOG 2015 in Oslo, the 3rd International Symposium on Frontiers in Offshore Geotechnics. ISFOG was initiated by UWA in Perth in 2005, and this year’s Oslo conference is the first to be staged outside Australia.

Professor Mark Cassidy and Pro-Vice Chancellor Iain Watt will represent UWA at the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding with NGI on 27^th February. The signing and the mini-seminar will take place on board the Wallenius Wilhelmsen Large Car and truck Carrier MV Tugela in the port of Fremantle, near Perth, Western Australia.

NGI Perth was established in October 2014 to provide access to expertise in all of NGI's market areas. In its initial phase, offshore energy is the main focus of NGI Perth.