Seafood Research Centre
6 January 2007
The last email to cross my desk before closing the office for Christmas was notification that the Australian Seafood Cooperative Research Centre (CRC), in which we’re a supporting partner, was to be approved by the Australian Government. Commonwealth funding will begin in July and amount to $35.5m over 7 years. The consortium partners will contribute another $100m in cash and resources, so this will be a high impact enterprise. It was a nice way to end off an academic year in which university staff had devoted a lot of time and energy to redefining how we better identify and grow the university’s areas of research concentration. Success for the CRC reinforces one of the key areas that emerged as part of this process.
The CRC programme was established in 1990 as a way of promoting collaboration between industry, publicly-funded research organisations and universities. CRCs are expected to conduct world-class research and innovation that will significantly contribute to the nation’s industrial, commercial and economic growth. Competition to gain CRC recognition is fierce and the prestige associated with joining the programme high. Becoming a partner in a new CRC is an important step for this University in establishing its research profile and demonstrating our commitment to the development of our region and the Australian economy as a whole.
The Seafood CRC will operate Australia wide and aims to help end users of its research deliver safe, high quality, nutritious seafood products to premium markets, domestically and overseas. It will address the entire value chain from production (wild-harvest and aquaculture) to consumer. Our particular projects within the CRC are linked to aquaculture, especially in partnership with the Australian Prawn Farmers Association, and to seafood flesh quality. The USC research team, led by Associate Professor Abigail Elizur, has been involved in planning the CRC submission for over a year, so it is great to see a positive outcome for them. For the USC staff involved in the projects, the establishment of the CRC will provide exciting opportunities to: receive funding for cutting edge research; work with fellow experts across Australia; and recruit new postgraduate students.
The postgraduate scholarships available through the CRC programme will be particularly rewarding for us. While we produce excellent Honours graduates, in many cases there isn’t the opportunity for them to continue research careers in their home region, because we have not had access to enough PhD and Master scholarships to go anywhere near meeting demand, or indeed the talent base of the Sunshine Coast. This is a great loss to the region. The CRC will help address this situation in one research field.
The CRC establishment will further cement our strong working partnership with the Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries and provide opportunities for new relationships with the other universities and research agencies involved in the initiative. As we grow and develop our research reputation, having partnerships with other groups and individuals working in similar fields will become increasingly important, in a funding environment that favours very large projects and powerful teams of researchers.
Professor Greg Hill is Acting Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Sunshine Coast.