Petronas: PETRONAS Collaborates with Universities in Sarawak to Pursue Innovation

In pursuit of its aspiration to build a stronger technology ecosystem to add value to the business, PETRONAS is building a win-win partnership with institutions of higher learning in Sarawak via the Malaysia Technology Excellence (MTEx) programme.

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/research institutions in Sarawak.

PETRONAS recently engaged with five universities in Sarawak via a programme called “PETRONAS-Academia Collaboration Dialogue Sarawak Universities Reach-Out” where it shared its business pain point and research focus and 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).

Representatives from Curtin University were its Deputy Pro Vice-Chancellor Professor Vincent Lee Chieng Chen and Dean of Research and Development Professor Nagarajan Ramasamy, while UNIMAS was represented by its Deputy Director (Research, Innovation & Enterprise Centre) Dr Charles Bong Hin Joo. Swinburne University was represented by its Director of School of Research Professor Lau Bee Theng.

UTS was represented 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 & 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.

“This journey of collaboration is set to continue, with the upcoming Dialogue session to be conducted in the first quarter of 2023,” he added.

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.