Archive for July, 2008

The NSW Minister for Primary Industries, Ian Macdonald, visited the University of New England yesterday to launch a new phase in the life of the Primary Industries Innovation Centre (PIIC), a collaborative venture between his Department and the University.

Mr Macdonald announced the appointment of Professor Bob Martin (pictured here) as the first full-time Director of PIIC, and the establishment of an Office for Rural Greenhouse Gas Studies within the UNE-based Centre.

Speaking during yesterday’s event, The Vice-Chancellor of UNE, Professor Alan Pettigrew, and the Director-General of the Department of Primary Industries, Dr Richard Sheldrake, both emphasised and celebrated the truly collaborative nature of PIIC.

Dr Sheldrake predicted that the newly-announced Office would be “the powerhouse for greenhouse gas studies throughout Australia”, adding that “our partnership with an organisation like UNE makes this possible”. Professor Pettigrew highlighted the capacity of PIIC to call on the expertise of people from a wide range of disciplines. “It’s a great testament to the idea of collaborative research into real-world problems,” he said.

The event was chaired by the Speaker of the NSW Legislative Assembly and Member for Northern Tablelands, Richard Torbay. Mr Torbay said the initiatives being announced came at a time when there was “a constructive debate occurring in rural areas” about agricultural practice in the face of climate change. “The opportunities are there,” he said.

In announcing the appointment of a Director for PIIC, Mr Macdonald said Professor Martin, who is also the Director of DPI’s Tamworth Agricultural Institute, was “widely acknowledged as an expert in farming systems research, with more than 35 years’ experience building project teams in Australia and overseas”.

“This stronger link between UNE and DPI will allow leading scientists from the two organisations to work together to develop robust solutions to major problems facing primary industries in north-west NSW,” the Minister said. (Professor Martin, speaking after the event, pointed out that DPI brought to the Centre “a very strong applied research background and a widespread network of extension staff”, while UNE brought its strengths in pure research and teaching.)

While launching the Office for Rural Greenhouse Gas Studies, Mr Macdonald released a discussion paper titled “Climate change research priorities for NSW primary industries”. “The discussion paper is designed to provide advice on research priorities to help primary producers reduce future carbon emissions as well as adapt to any climate variation in which they may have to operate,” he said.

The Minister’s speech marked the opening of a two-day PIIC Symposium at UNE’s Drummond and Smith College featuring reports on recently-completed, current, and proposed projects. Attending the symposium are about 50 researchers from DPI and UNE as well as the Chief Executive Officers of the UNE-based Cooperative Research Centres for the sheep, beef and poultry industries and the Director of the Animal Genetics and Breeding Unit. This is the first annual symposium for PIIC, which was launched two years ago. The position of PIIC Director is jointly funded by DPI and UNE, and the Centre has external funding for current projects of more than $3.5 million.