Canada, Greece, Brazil and the United States of America are the countries represented by the Flinders' Visiting International Research Fellows (VIRF) for 2018. The purpose of the VIRF is to support engagement with high-performing international collaborators with Flinders. In order to achieve this the VIRFs will initiate and undertake collaborative research and training of researchers and students at Flinders during their visit, and engage and share ideas with researchers, with the aim of building lasting research collaboration. Another aim of the visits of the Fellow will be to lead to collaboration on an application for international research funding.

Dr Maria Giannacopoulos from Business, Government and Law will be hosting Onwubiko (Biko) Agozino from Virginia Tech, USA in June 2018. Biko is the Professor of Sociology and Africana Studies at Virginia Tech. While at Flinders Biko will be involved in a one day symposium with scholars whose work is concerned with law, colonialism and/or history.

Professor Andrew Goldsmith and Professor Christian Leuprecht from Business, Government and Law will be hosting Dr Todd Hataley from the Royal Military College (RMC) of Canada from April to May 2018. Todd is an investigator with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police as well as an Adjunct Associate Professor with the RMC. While at Flinders, Todd will undertake a comparative study between Canada and Australia on policing efforts/capacity to combat trade based money laundering, the newest and possibly most complex form of money laundering. He will also present a public lecture on "Cross-border policing cooperation: The Canada - United States model".

Professor Justine Smith from Medicine and Public Health will be hosting Dr João Marcello Furtado from the Ribeirão Preo Medical School, University of São Paulo in September 2018. Since 2012, he has been Latin America's Strategic Advisor for the International Agency for Prevention of Blindness. As part of his visit, Justine and João will work on setting up an international research consortium on infectious eye disease.

Associate Professor Claire Drummond from Nursing and Health Sciences will be hosting Associate Professor Lance Dalleck from Western State Colorado University from May to June 2018. Lance is the Associate Professor of Exercise and Sport Science (ESS) and the Director, Center for Wellness and Human Performance at Western State Colorado University. While at Flinders Lance will provide valuable input into the development of the new Master of Clinical Exercise Physiology topics.

Professor Craig Simmons from Science and Engineering will be hosting Professor Rene Therrien from Universite Laval, Canada, from January to April 2018. Rene is the Vice Dean of Research from the Faculty of Science and Engineering and he has been collaborating with Craig since 1999. Rene will work with Craig and his team on a current awarded ARC grant, specifically the HydroGeoSphere modelling part of the project. Rene and his colleagues in Canada have been developing HydroGeoSphere for the past 15 years.

Associate Professor Sarah Harmer from Science and Engineering will be hosting Professor Adam Hitchcock from McMaster University, Canada, from October to December 2018. Adam is Canada Research Chair in Materials Research at McMaster University. Adam and Sarah have been collaborating over recent years on developing a new tool for in situ spectroscopic analysis of materials using Scanning Transmission X-ray Microscopy and Photoemission Electron Microscopy (STXM). While are Flinders, Sarah and Adam will run a workshop on STXM at the Australian Synchrotron Users Meeting.

Dr Grace Skrzypiec and Dr Phillip Slee from Education, Psychology and Social Work will be hosting Eleni Didaskalou from the University of Thesssaly, Greece, from January to March 2018. Eleni will deliver a seminar series with staff and postgraduate students while at Flinders and a webinar will be delivered to existing members of an international network of researchers in the field of education research by Eleni, Grace and Phillip.

Inspiring Research will feature upcoming stories and provide information on sessions with the VIRFs during 2018.