The Australian government on Thursday opened a Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) in Perth, aimed at building cybersecurity skills, increasing research capability in the industry.

The government had pledged $50 million for CRC in September last year, and a further AU$90 million were raised by Western Australia state government and nearly two dozen industry, research and university partners.

Based in Edith Cowan University in Perth, the new centre will focus on ensuring the security of critical infrastructure, protecting businesses and developing skills to fill the growing talent gap in the cybersecurity industry.

CRC’s activities will help in achieving the objectives set in Australia’s Cyber Security Strategy, a $240 million program aimed at protecting country’s public and private networks from sophisticated cyber attacks.

Besides that, the newly-established centre will also work closely with Australian Cyber Security Growth Network (AustCyber) to conduct the research that is beneficial for country’s industry.

The centre will focus on ensuring the security of critical infrastructure, protecting businesses and filling the growing talent gap in the cybersecurity industry

AustCyber, which is part of the Australian government’s Industry Growth Centres Initiative, was launched in 2016 to develop a “vibrant and globally competitive” cybersecurity industry in the country.

It is also responsible for ensuring that Australian businesses can benefit from increasing market opportunity in cybersecurity.

Perth is also one of the four Australian cities that house a Joint Cyber Security Centre (JSCS).

The JCSC focuses on promoting collaboration on information security across the private and public sectors including health, finance, energy, education and transport.

Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney are the three other cities in the country where JCSCs are located, and one in Adelaide is expected to be launched in Adelaide by mid-2018.

JCSCs in Australia are closely associated with the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), which in its latest annual Threat Report 2017, revealed that it identified 47,000 cyber incidents, a fifteen percent increase over the previous year.

Scams or fraud accounted for more than 50 percent of these incidents after recording an increase of 22 percent over 2016, according to the report.