Keppel Corporation and the National University of Singapore have agreed to set up the Keppel-NUS Corporate Laboratory, with backing from the National Research Foundation (NRF), to develop technological solutions for the offshore industry.
The laboratory, which will be based at the NUS Faculty of Engineering, will be established with an investment of S$75 million.
Its mission will be to undertake research and development, building on Keppel's competencies and NUS' research expertise, for solutions to deepwater, Arctic and other fields.
It will have three main research areas, cited as: Future Systems, Future Yards and Future Resources.
Future Systems will focus on deepwater and arctic technology. In deepwater technology, it will focus on developing solutions for floating systems for deep and ultra-deep water, for oil and gas exploration and production, and sea floor mining.
For arctic technology, it will focus on understanding ice-structure interaction as a factor in the design of Arctic drilling systems.
Future Yards will look at increasing productivity and reducing reliance on manual labor in three main yard activities: welding, painting, and operations in confined spaces.
Future Resources will focus on deepsea seabed nodule collection, to develop core competencies in environmental impact assessment and environmentally-benign exploration, and exploitation of mineral resources in the deep ocean.
Keppel, which has already been working with NUS Engineering for a number of years, said the move signifies a deeper collaboration between industry and academia. In the long term, the Corporate Laboratory aims to nurture engineering students for the offshore industry, providing opportunities for students to get hands-on experience and exposure to the practical needs of the offshore industry.