UNE’s role as an anchor institution was on display over the past week, when the University hosted three conferences on widely disparate matters, all of vital importance to the region’s future.

The School of Education’s From Evidence to Excellence Early Childhood Conference conference provided the region’s educators with insights into the latest research on early childhood education. Educators from the New England North West were given free admission.

Pictured: Dr Jen Jackson, senior research fellow at the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), provides the conference keynote on moving preschool outcomes “from policy to practice”.

The Northern Basin Forum, hosted by UNE’s Freshwater Ecology team, this week brought policymakers and scientists from across millions of square kilometres of watershed to UNE to share observations about our threatened riverine environments and water policy.

Pictured: The Northern Basin’s Cultural Network group met on the Gwydir River at Yarrowyck ahead of the forum to discuss the intersection between culture, science and policy. The conversation was led by former UNE lecturer, Dr Paul Frazier of Armidale-based 2Rog Consulting, with support from Dr Brooke Kennedy, UNE Senior Lecturer in Anthrozoology and Indigenous Knowledge.

About 50 practitioners and thinkers grappling with land-based solutions to climate change met this week on UNE’s SMART Farms for a two-day exchange on technology, methodology and policy. The Down to Earth conference was hosted by FarmLab, a business specialising in environmental measurement of agricultural land that was built within UNE’s SMART Region Incubator (SRI). The event was supported by the SRI and UNE’s SMART Farms.

Pictured: To foster networking and discussion, the Down to Earth conference’s organisers prioritised outdoor gatherings and lengthy periods of free discussion – such as this evening campfire moment at UNE’s Kirby farm command headquarters.