The Academy owes its origin to two organisations - an engineering and management consulting company directed by Dr Rudolph Frederick Stapelberg, ICS Industrial Consulting Services Pty Ltd, and a research organisation headed by Professor Joseph Mathew, the Cooperative Research Centre for Integrated Engineering Asset Management.

ICS (International) was registered in 1983, and ICS (Australia) was registered in 1992, with continual consulting services to both private and public sector organisations, many of which have repeatedly requested contracts from ICS over extended periods of several years, particularly for ICS's specialisation in solution-based engineering modelling.

A primary ICS consulting and training focus is in Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Safety (RAMS) Analysis.
ICS also provides consulting services to public sector organisations for quality management compliance of risk-based and performance-based infrastructure asset management and maintenance contracts.

Furthermore, ICS provides professional skills training in a wide range of engineering and management topics through the Academy for Professional Education and Training. The Academy therefore has the benefit of over 25 years of training experience through ICS with global organisations, such as Alcoa, Anglo American, BP, BHP Billiton, Caltex, Escom, Rio Tinto (CRA), Sasol, Shell,  WMC, and many more.

The Academy's association with  the
Cooperative Research Centre for Integrated Engineering Asset Management, gave it links with tertiary education institutions in recommending degree courses such as Master of Asset Management and Master of Engineering Asset Management, Master of Engineering Management and Master of Technology Management.

The Cooperative Research Centre for Integrated Engineering Asset Management (CIEAM I), was an Australian Federal Government funded Cooperative Research Centre from July 2004 to 2010, and from 2010 to June 2013, functioning as the Cooperative Research Centre for Infrastructure and Engineering Asset Management (CIEAM II), working directly with leading industry, government and research organisations, and tertiary education institutions, to develop innovative solutions in a strategic integrated framework. CIEAM's tenure as a Cooperative Research Centre came to an end in 2013 although innovation in infrastructure and engineering asset management continues through its successor entity, the Asset Institute (AI).
Academy History