IXUP has finalised and signed a multi-year agreement with the Western Australian Biodiversity Science Institute (WABSI) to deploy its Secure Data Engine technology, as well as automated data sharing agreements powered by IXUP’s Five Safes Governance Framework, as part of the Shared Environmental Analytics Facility (SEAF) project, in a Microsoft Azure environment.
Formally launched in August 2024, the groundbreaking SEAF project developed by WABSI and the Western Australian Marine Science Institution (WAMSI) will launch with a pilot enabling the streamlining of shared environmental data, environmental modelling and assessment. It will facilitate the secure management and collaboration of sensitive environmental data sourced from some of Australia’s largest organizations, such as Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton, and the Western Australian Government.
WABSI and WAMSI have been joined by the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy funded Australian Research Data Commons for the next stage of the program.
The SEAF platform’s capabilities will enable these stakeholders to share, process, and analyse environmental data in a controlled and secure environment, leveraging IXUP’s encryption technology.
The pilot deployment of SEAF is initially funded for two important regions, Pilbara and Cockburn Sound, which represent 2 of the priority regions that are under consideration for rollout in the coming years.
According to a publicly available report from PWC, the SEAF project has the potential to generate $1.6 billion in net present value (NPV) over the next ten years, once fully rolled out in the Pilbara region alone.
This initial deployment has potential to be the first of a multi-stage expansion of the SEAF project and importantly, represents the first ever high-margin license fee revenue earned by IXUP for its pioneering secure data engine technology.
IXUP expects its involvement in this initiative to enhance sales prospects and pipeline growth across the IXUP business, enabled by a high-profile reference site and demonstrated application of its technology.
Discussions regarding the potential expansion of the project beyond the initial two regions is planned to be undertaken post successful deployment which is aimed at proving the economic benefits of the solution at a broader scale.
This contract also ideally positions IXUP for potential further national and global opportunities in both secure environmental data collaboration applications as well as non-environmental data sharing opportunities.
IXUP’s CEO, Mr. Al Watson, commented:
“Over the past eight years, IXUP has invested over $30 million in developing its data privacy and encryption software and governance platform. We are delighted that after extensive evaluation, the SEAF initiative has sought out IXUP as an integral part of SEAF. Initial SEAF partners include the Government of Western Australia, Microsoft, WAMSI, WABSI, Rio Tinto, BHP and others.
We are encouraged by the quality of our partners and the rigour with which IXUP’s selection has been undertaken over the past two years. This outcome, which will see IXUP’s globally unique IP being commercialised for the first time, is a testament to the quality and uniqueness of the developed technology and our team.
We expect this to be the first of many applications of IXUP’s core technology and look forward to demonstrating success on the SEAF project, which we expect will highlight the clear commercial value of our technology which has applications to a range of other secure data sharing applications both domestically and internationally.”
Commenting on behalf of Microsoft, Data and AI Specialist Dr Emma Burns, said:
“The SEAF solution was conceived with a specific aim, to develop a standalone analytics platform that combines both unsecure and secure data transfer and collaboration with a robust governance framework. IXUP’s capability to help ensure secure data collaboration is a crucial element of SEAF. We have worked closely with IXUP over the past two years to deploy their unique secure data collaboration and governance solution within Microsoft Azure. We look forward to working with IXUP in coming years with the aim of targeting other global environmental data related applications.”
Commenting on behalf of WABSI and WAMSI, WABSI CEO Professor Owen Nevin, said:
“WABSI and WAMSI have developed SEAF to meet a local and global demand for more information about cumulative pressures on the environment. The key benefit of SEAF is that it unlocks the real value of environmental information available. It transforms science and shared data into useable tools, enabling decision-makers from industry, government and regulators to make more robust, repeatable and sustainable decisions. By delivering a product and governance model that allows stakeholders to perform analytics over shared, encrypted environmental data held within Microsoft’s Azure platform, IXUP is crucial to the success of the SEAF program. We look forward to working with the IXUP team in the coming years as this important project comes to life.”