Research Engagement and ImpactAccelerating the Interplay Wellbeing Framework

Lena Long and her family on Martu Country
Lena Long and her family on Martu Country
Image © Sheree Cairney & The Interplay Project

A framework that was developed out of the CRC for Remote Economic Participation (CRC-REP) has now been selected into the CSIRO ON: Accelerate 4 program. CRC-REP ran from 1 July 2010 until 30 June 2017 and delivered significant economic and social benefits to remote Australia.

The Interplay Wellbeing Framework is a statistical tool to measure and strengthen wellbeing. Developed specifically to improve wellbeing measurements and assessment of Indigenous Australians, it can now be used to improve wellbeing in other groups and it is this aspect that will be developed within ON: Accelerate 4.

The ON: Accelerate highly competitive program selects teams and their projects and provides them with assistance aimed at increasing the entrepreneurial skills of researchers by pairing them with mentors, hosting face-to-face workshops and ending with a Demo Day. Each team receives a $15,000 OPEX budget to assist them with participation in the program. In the last round, ON: Accelerate 3, the SeaNU team from Flinders and the CSIRO were selected. The Interplay project team participated in the ON: Prime Northern Australia program and their successful completion of that led to them being selected for the ON: Accelerate program.

"Our team benefited enormously from the CSIRO ON Prime program and are very excited about Accelerate. We connected with a broad national network of community organisations, government and philanthropic groups who not only provided us with valuable insights on their needs but who showed much interest in the Interplay Wellbeing Framework as potential partners or clients. It helped us shift from a research to an entrepreneurial mindset to broaden the impact of our work," said Associate Professor Sheree Cairney.

The key characteristics for the Interplay Wellbeing Framework include:

  1. merging and strengthening both community and government priorities, 
  2. providing quantitative assessment of Indigenous cultural values and needs, and
  3. identifying key interrelationships and pathways to success based on a holistic understanding where all underlying parts are interrelated.

The Interplay Wellbeing Framework can be used to design and evaluate programs, based on community needs and measures of success. This is an impact driven, scientifically validated approach that statistically compares and monitors wellbeing over time, providing a roadmap to change. It is presented as on online, interactive data visualisation tool that brings together stories (videos) and numbers (statistics) for accessibility to broad audiences. This represents a solution to measuring wellbeing in the most acute case that can now be applied to solve the problem elsewhere.

The Interplay team consists of Sheree, Byron Wilson (Charles Darwin University), Tammy Abbott (Ninti One Ltd), and Jessica Yamaguchi (Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Information and Evaluation Branch).

Research Engagement and Impact2018 Visiting International Research Fellows to Flinders

cjild's hand holding a globe of the world

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.

 

Research Engagement and ImpactECR Spotlight - Ashokkumar Manoharan

The Unwritten Rules of Hotel Management

Australia has seen a steady inflow of immigrants who are finding employment in the hotel sector, leading to these workplaces having a high ethnic diversity of staff. In spite of legislative measures that prevent discrimination, hotels still need to implement appropriate diversity management practices to manage this workforce. In doing so, workplaces can maximise the advantages of employee diversity. So, how are the successful hotels doing it?

I research how Australian medium-sized hotels manage ethnically diverse employees. These hotels, which employ 20 – 199 staff, contribute to 35% of the industry value, but are underrepresented in research.

My research revealed that hotel general managers use self-initiated informal diversity management practices. These include informal recruitment, training and development, and performance management practices. For instance managers used ‘shadow system’ training, whereby ethnically diverse new employees were paired with employees from a similar ethnic background - this led to improved workplace operational skills.

While it is interesting to note that ethnically diverse employees are managed through informal practices, it is important that these practices be formalised so that they can be sustained over the long-term, regardless of management turnover. When informal diversity practices are effective, we encourage these practices to be recorded for the long-term benefit of the hotel. By doing so, a better quality of service can maximised and challenges, such as employee turnover, can be minimised.

 

Ashokkumar Manoharan

Dr Ashokkumar Manoharan

Dr Ashokkumar Manoharan is a Lecturer in Strategic Management in Flinders Business, College of Business, Government and Law. Ashok has an interdisciplinary educational background including a PhD in Management from UniSA and an MBA, M.Sc., and Bachelors in Hotel Management. His research area focuses on organisational culture, workforce diversity and diversity management with a particular emphasis on cultural diversity in the Australian hospitality industry. One of Ashok’s articles on managing ethnic diverse employees in Australian hotel industry can be found at Science Direct.

T: 8201 2838
E: ashokkumar.manoharan@flinders.edu.au
Campus: Bedford Park
College: Business, Government and Law 
Role: Lecturer in Strategic Management

This is a new feature for Inspiring Research where we profile Flinders’ Early Career Researchers (ECRs) in our ECR Spotlight. This initiative will appear regularly and aims to connect our research community and strengthen research communications within the University. You will get insight into who our ECRs are and how their research and achievements are making a difference.

The featured ECRs welcome dialogue, debate, and conversation and we hope that it may shape future intra-, inter- and/or trans-disciplinary collaboration with Flinders’ colleagues. Please feel free to comment on their spotlight, and/or contact them directly. Also, you can contact the ECR Spotlight coordinator, Dr Marina Delpin, with your queries and comments.

Research Engagement and Impact2018 Flinders Endeavour Scholars and Fellows announced

Endeavour Scholarships and fellowships

The outcomes for the 2018 Australia Awards – Endeavour Scholarships and Fellowships have been announced. In 2018, six recipients from Flinders University have been offered a place to undertake professional development, study or research overseas. In addition, 12 international students and researchers have been awarded to come to Flinders.

Ms Lisa Alcock has been awarded an Endeavour Postgraduate Scholarship to study in the UK. Mr Farid Anvari, Dr Kacie Dickinson, Miss Christine Evans, Dr Katharina Peters and Mr Alan Taylor have each been awarded an Endeavour Research Fellowship. The Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand and Brazil are the countries where our researchers will spend part of 2018.

Coming to Flinders in 2018 are three Endeavour Executive Fellows in Dr Mike Charles (USA), Dr Julia Clark (USA) and Dr Piya-on Numpaisal (Thailand). The three Endeavour Postgraduate Scholarship (Masters) students are Ms Nimesha Didulani Dantanarayana (Sri Lanka), Ms Simonee Monott (Jamaica) and Mr Alessanddro Sereni (Italy). Mr Nelsensius Klau Fauk (Indonesia) and Ms Thi Huong Nguyen (Vietnam) will be at Flinders as Endeavour Postgraduate Scholarship (PhD) holders. Flinders will also be welcoming as Endeavour Research Fellows Assistant Professor Maysaa AL Mohammedawi (Iraq), Mr Thang Bach (Vietnam), Ms Amanda Fleury (Canada) and Dr David Murphy (Canada).

New OpportunitiesFirst round of funding from Diabetes SA

Diabetes SA logo

Diabetes SA has now opened their first round of research funding. Funding for up to $100,000 per year for two years will be available to successful applicants. Applications close on to Diabetes SA on 22 December 2017. Flinders applications are due to Research Development and Support by 5 December 2017.

The Association is inviting applications from health professionals and researchers to support new or continuing research that is directed towards prevention, detection, management of diabetes and the identification, delivery and performance of services for people with diabetes.

All projects submitted for consideration should fit with one of the priority research areas (listed below), have the ability for the project to be completed within two years or less, a potential time-frame for outcomes of the research to be implemented, and the extent of involvement of other funding sources. The application form and guidelines can be downloaded from Diabetes SA. If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact research.grants@flinders.edu.au or Mary Lyons on extn. 12045.

The key Diabetes SA priority research areas will be:

  • The development of intervention or prevention strategies that reduce the risk of diabetes in the South Australian community or a defined group.
  • The development of tests, tools and/or methodologies for the early detection/diagnosis or assessing risk in an individual of diabetes.
  • The investigation of new and innovative ways of treatment and management of diabetes.
  • The examination of the psychosocial consequences of diabetes at the individual or community level.
  • The examination of the organisation, effectiveness and/or optimisation of delivery of multi-disciplinary diabetes services to the community.



Research Engagement and ImpactTime to Bragg about science writing

The Breakaways, Coober Pedy

Dr Alice Gorman, College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, has been announced as the winner of the Bragg UNSW Press Prize for Science Writing. Her essay on the trace fossils of South Australia appeared in the Conversation as "Friday essay: trace fossils – the silence of Ediacara, the shadow of uranium". It first appeared as an essay in the Griffith Review 55th edition, State of Hope and with her win, it has now also been published by the Guardian Australia as "From the Nullarbor to the nuclear age: what fossils reveal about South Australia's past". Alice traced the history of South Australia from an ancient shoreline, through the Gondwana supercontinent and then into the advance and retreat of glaciers, the arrival of Europeans and, finally, the impact of uranium and a rocket test range. All these era's have impacted on archaeological discoveries over time and from different areas of South Australia

"I’m so pleased to have been acknowledged for doing something I love. Science writing allows scope for creativity and making connections between tiny details and big pictures to tell a story. It’s even more wonderful to take others along with you and help them see what excites you about the science," said Alice.

The Prize is an annual prize for the best short non-fiction piece on science written for a general audience. It is named in honour of Australia’s first Nobel laureates, William Henry Bragg and his son William Lawrence Bragg. The Bragg Prize winner receives a prize of $7,000 and two runners up each receive a prize of $1,500.

Alice's science writing can be found at her blog Space Age Archaeology and also on twitter as DrSpaceJunk. Space Age Archaeology has been selected for preservation by the National Library of Australia as a significant scientific blog.

Flinders Research NewsReminder - NHMRC Consultation on Peer Review

hand and documents

A reminder that the NHMRC is currently still inviting submissions to its consultation paper on peer review in the new grant program. Submissions close 5:00 pm (AEDT) on Monday 4 December 2017. The consultation paper is now available.

If you are an early or mid-career researcher, the Australian Academy of Science's EMCR Forum is writing a submission. They have a three question survey that early or mid-career researchers can partake in to be part of the EMCR's response. The EMCR Forum survey closes 20 November 2017.

The new NHMRC grant program, which is summarised below, was announced on 25 May 2017 after extensive and targeted consultation. That consultation did not include the peer review system which supports the strategic aims of the programs.

Grant type

Investigator Grants

Synergy Grants

Ideas Grants

Strategic and Leveraging Grants

Purpose

To support the research programs of outstanding investigators at all career stages

To support outstanding multidisciplinary teams of investigators to work together to answer major questions that cannot be answered by a single investigator.

To support focussed innovative research projects addressing a specific question

To support research that addresses identified national needs

Duration

5 years

5 years

Up to 5 years

Varies with scheme

Number of Chief Investigators

1

4-10

1-10

Varies with scheme

Funding

Research support package (RSP) plus optional salary support

Grant of a set budget ($5 million)

Based on the requested budget for research support

Varies with scheme

Assessment Criteria

Track Record
Knowledge Gain

Track Record
Knowledge Gain
Synergy (team diversity and collaboration)

Innovation & Creativity
Significance
Knowledge Gain
Feasibility

Varies with scheme

Indicative MREA allocation

About 40%

About 5%

About 25%

About 30%

Research Engagement and ImpactFlinders Forensic Science cleans up at Awards


From left to right: Emily Rowe, Paul Kirkbride, Jared Castle, Stewart Walker, Jackie Wright, Duncan Taylor, Michaela Kenneally, and David Powers

Flinders has become 'Best in Show' at the National Institute of Forensic Science (Australia and New Zealand) Best Paper Awards. Out of the five awarded categories: Best Paper in a Refereed Journal; Best Chapter; Best Literature Review; Best Technical Note; and Best Case Study, Flinders has won four, and received a high commendation in Best Paper in a Refereed Journal. The Best Paper Awards were created to recognise the contribution of members of the Australian and New Zealand forensic science community in sharing their work and experiences with other members of the forensic and wider communities and to encourage all members of the forensic science community to so contribute.

"This shows the strength of collaboration between Flinders and Forensic Science SA and other research institutes," said Associate Professor Stewart Walker."The outstanding results show that our graduates - Danielle, Duncan, and Michaela - are making an impact in the workforce and are being followed by the next generation of researchers - Emily, Jared, and Jackie - who are making a difference."

The Best Paper in A Referred Journal was awarded to Professor David Powers and Dr Duncan Taylor (who is also employed at Forensic Science SA (FSSA)) for their article "Teaching artificial intelligence to read electropherograms". David and Duncan looked at artificial neural networks (ANN) which have been inspired by the workings of the human brain. These ANNs have been successful in analysing large datasets, performing medical diagnoses, identifying handwriting, playing games, or recognising images in other areas. To assist forensic DNA laboratories, David and Duncan trained an ANN to ‘read’ electropherograms and show that it can generalise to unseen profiles. Electropherograms are produced in great numbers in forensic DNA laboratories as part of everyday criminal casework. Before the results of these electropherograms can be used they must be scrutinised by analysts to determine what the identified data tells the forensic scientists about the underlying DNA sequences. The advantage of using an ANN for this purpose in forensic DNA laboratories would be the saving of resources and reduce the subjective and laborious task of manually classifying data.

Duncan noted, "The work was extended in scope with the input of Information Technology student Ash Harrison, leading to a second publication, and continues with many additional avenues that future students could pursue." David added, "Currently, Computer Science student Michael Kitselaar is using the Colossus supercomputer to optimise the generalisability of the ANNs."

"Observations of DNA transfer within an operational Forensic Biology Laboratory" by Dr Duncan TaylorDr Damien Abarno (who is also employed at FSSA), Ms Emily Rowe (FSSA), and Ms Lauren Rask-Nielsen was awarded the Best Technical Article or Note. Emily was a third year student at Flinders when the work for this paper was produced. In court cases, one concern about the very low levels of biological materials on items is how that DNA came to be on the item, rather than questioning that there is biological material on the item. A number of studies in tightly controlled conditions have been done previously about DNA deposition and transfer, but the Flinders and FSSA team added to this knowledge by investigating the extent to which individuals at FSSA deposited their own DNA on objects throughout the floor of the building where DNA examinations took place. By adding to this knowledge base it can allow more informative answers than 'it's possible' to be given during court cases on how DNA came to be on an item.

These two awards for Duncan add to his recent success as the STEM Professional at the 2017 South Australian Science Excellence Awards for improving forensic evidence interpretation, which included this work on ANN. 

Best Chapter was won by "Microbial impacts in postmortem toxicology" by Jared Castle (PhD student) and his supervisors - Professor Paul Kirkbride, Professor Claire LenehanAssociate Professor Stewart Walker, Frank Reith (CSIRO), and Dr Danielle Butzbach (FSSA). Danielle is a past Flinders' honours and PhD student. This chapter, in Forensic Microbiology, was a review of past studies focused on microbes destroying or forming drugs after death. When determining the circumstances of an individual's death, the identity and quantity of drugs or poisons can assist with the determination of the cause. Microbial activity can affect this by either limiting the amount of biological specimens available for testing or altering the drugs, poisons etc within the body.

Best Case Study was awarded to Dr Jackie Wright (PhD student) and her Flinders supervisors Associate Professor Stewart Walker and Associate Professor John Edwards and co-author Michaela Kenneally (FSSA) for their article, "Adverse health effects associated with living in a former Methamphetamine drug laboratory - Victoria, Australia, 2015". For the nomination of the Best Case Study, the impact this article had created included the information that its Research Output was included in the 99th percentile - in the top 5% of all research output ever tracked by Altmetric, it's Attention Score was higher than 98% of contemporary articles, and 20 news stories were created from the article. The case study considered the effect on a family, including three children, who were living in a home that had been used to make clandestine drugs by the previous owner. All family members were discovered to have traces of methamphetamine in their hair.

Professor Paul Kirkbride et. al. received a High Commendation for their article, "Spatial variations in the consumption of illicit stimulant drugs across Australia: A nationwide application of wastewater-based epidemiology" in Best Paper in A Referred Journal. Obtaining representative information on illicit drug use and patterns across a country remains difficult using surveys because of low response rates and response biases. A range of studies have used wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) as a complementary approach to monitor community-wide illicit drug use. In Australia, no large-scale WBE studies have been conducted to date to reveal illicit drug use profiles in a national context. In this study, the researchers performed the first Australia-wide WBE monitoring to examine spatial patterns in the use of three illicit stimulants (cocaine, methamphetamine; and MDMA). The research found that cocaine was the main drug that differed distinctively among jurisdictions across Australia, that cocaine and MDMA use was higher in large cities and on weekends, and methamphetamine use was relatively widespread and steady throughout the week.

Each paper nominated must have one forensic practitioner as an author.

The achievement of winnign five awards - four best and one highly commended - goes two steps further than the results last year, which saw Flinders' researchers and research students take out two awards and a third paper receive a highly commended technical article or note award.

Research Engagement and ImpactFlinders successes in the recent ARC grant round

pouring a soft drink from a can into a glass

Flinders researchers have been awarded nine Discovery Projects, two Discovery Early Career Researcher Awards, and a Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities (LIEF) grant in the latest Australian Research Council (ARC) awards round. The projects include asking why people think things really are better with Coke, decolonisation of the archives of Aboriginal domestic history, a virtual human knee, the life and death of Australia’s most iconic megafauna species, and institutional abuse and reform in the Australian defence force. Discovery Projects include collaborations with universities overseas - the USA, the UK and South Africa, and with other Australian institutions. The LIEF grant will enable the purchase of a large-volume micro-CT scanner. This will enable three-dimensional scanning of large and heavy samples including whole machine parts, limbs/segments, prosthesis devices, large animals and vertebrates, fossils and plant root systems. 

Congratulations to all researchers, research teams and support staff involved in the submissions. Over the coming months, we will have articles highlighting individual successes from this round.

 

2018 Discovery Projects – led by Flinders University researchers

Monarchy, democracy and empire: German imperial policy before 1914
Associate Professor Matthew Fitzpatrick
Amount Awarded: $152,876

Reducing Aboriginal imprisonment: An offence-specific study
Professor Mark Halsey, and Associate Professor David Bright
Amount Awarded: $378,756

Things don’t always go better with Coke
Professor Eva Kemps, and Professor Marika Tiggemann
Amount Awarded: $420,077

The virtual human knee
Dr Saulo Martelli, Professor Mark Taylor, Associate Professor John Costi, Dr Claudia Mazza (University of Sheffield), Dr Kevin Shelburne (University of Denver), and Professor Lucian Solomon (University of Adelaide)
Amount Awarded: $368,636

Closing the loop between salience and brain activity
Associate Professor Karin Nordstrom, and Associate Professor Bruno van Swinderen (University of Queensland)
Amount Awarded: $475,383

Target Of Rapamycin control of nutrient uptake
Associate Professor Janni Petersen, and Dr Sean Humphrey (University of Sydney)
Amount Awarded: $389,030

Managing migrants and border control in Britain and Australia, 1901-1981
Dr Andrekos Varnava, Emeritus Professor Eric Richards, Associate Professor Marinella Marmo, and Dr Anastasia Dukova (Griffith University)
Amount Awarded: $206,531

Institutional abuse and organisational reform in the Australian defence force
Associate Professor Ben Wadham, and Dr James Connor (University of New South Wales)
Amount Awarded: $128,152

Extricating an extinction histories at Lake Callabonna's megafuna necropolis
Associate Professor Trevor Worthy, Dr Lee Arnold (University of Adelaide), and Professor Anusuya Chinsamy-Turan (University of Cape Town)
Amount Awarded: $416,584

 

2018 Discovery Early Career Researcher Award

Decolonising the archives of Aboriginal domestic history
Dr Natalie Harkin
Amount Awarded: $410,022

Characterising wind farm noise to reduce community disturbance
Dr Kristy Hansen
Amount Awarded: $368,446

 

2018 Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities grant

Large-volume, multi-use micro-computed tomography
Dr Egon Perilli, Professor Mark Taylor, Professor John Long, Dr Youhong Tang, Associate Professor Karl Sammut, Professor Benjamin Cazzolato (University of Adelaide), Associate Professor Zonghan Xie (University of Adelaide), Emeritus Professor Roger Seymour (University of Adelaide), Dr Togay Ozbakkaloglu (University of Adelaide), Dr Sarbin Ranjitkar (University of Adelaide), and Dr Mark Hutchinson (South Australian Museum)
Amount Awarded: $557,389

 

There are also a number of Flinders researchers who are investigators on other institution led grants. We congratulate those researchers and their collaborators on their success.

New OpportunitiesUrban and environmental research funding between Japan and Australia

Mawson Lakes Fellowship Program

The Mawson Lakes Fellowship Program (MLFP) is an agreement between the three SA universities to enhance the relationship and the knowledge surrounding research in the area of urban planning, urban design, urban architecture, environmental management and related disciplines between three Japanese universities (Nagoya, Waseda and Tsukuba) and South Australia. Funding of up to $20,000 will be made available for travel and seed research costs. Up to 2 projects will be funded for Flinders' researchers.

These grants are designed to provide pump-priming and early contact partner outreach with the expectation that they will lead onto more substantive engagement resulting in high quality outputs, such as international research training for graduate students or early career faculty, publication of joint papers from collaborative research, or follow-on applications for joint research funding. Jointly drafted proposals should be submitted to rbinternational@adelaide.edu.au by the lead faculty/Principal Investigator from a South Australian University. The external deadline is 31 January 2018. A submission-ready or final draft application for review is to be submitted to Research Development and Support 10 working days prior to the external deadline.

Attached below are the guidelines and the application form.

MLFP Research Grant Guidelines 2018

MLFP Starter Grant Application Form

Examples of research areas include, but are not limited to:

• Smart cities in Australia and Japan
• Urban infrastructure
• Land use planning
• The urban development process
• Urban environments
• Urban quality of life
• Remote sensing for cities

Enquiries should be directed to mlfp@adelaide.edu.au or to the Flinders MLFP Steering Committee member, Professor Okke Batelaan -okke.batelaan@flinders.edu.au.

Seminars Conferences and WorkshopsDeep Dive Workshop on Collaboration for Industry Impact

CRCA banner

The Cooperative Research Centres Association (CRCA) is offering a presentation on Collaboration for Industry Impact – Deep Dive Workshop here in Adelaide on 7 - 8 December 2017. The Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) Programme supports industry-led collaborations between industry, researchers and the community. In its 27-year history, it has proven to be an effective model for linking researchers with industry to address R&D challenges with commercial outcomes. Bidding for a CRC is a highly competitive process requiring cross-disciplinary teams to come together and collaborate. This takes planning, time and patience. Developed by the CRC Association and Collabforge, this workshop (two half-days) will combine practical bid-creation content with a deep dive into the theory and practice of collaboration.

The two day workshop will commence at 1:00 PM on Thursday, 7 December 2017 and finish at 5:00 PM that day. The Friday presentation will commence at 9:00 AM and finish at 12:30 PM. Members of the CRCA, which all Flinders staff are, will pay $500 to attend the workshop. Contact Jordan.Gardner@crca.asn.au for the discount code. The non-members price is $600. Register at the eventbrite page for the workshop.

The workshop will teach participants what makes a great bid, what the process of bid development entails, the roles of all bid participants, and how to build effective relationship / communication between researchers and industry to develop a compelling bid. Participants will be provided with the opportunity to develop their ideas in conjunction with guidance materials and feedback, finishing with substantive parts of their bid concepts being fleshed out (these can be hypothetical CRCs, bids planned for submission, or even ARC Linkage type concepts).

This will help researchers to better understand how they can build successful partnerships with their industry partners, and form a bid concept that will deliver industry impact.

Who should attend:

  • Researchers who have the responsibility for or interest to develop CRC and CRC-P bids
  • Administrators who have the responsibility for helping coordinate, develop, approve and or administer CRC and CRC-P bids (eg from Commercialisation, Research, Scholarships, etc)

Key learning outcomes:

  • Improved capability in developing and progressing CRC bids
  • Understanding the role of 'impact thinking' in successful bids and CRCs
  • Common language, frameworks and methods for collaboration
  • Methods for stakeholder and partner analysis, tips and tricks for involving industry participants in the best way at the right time, and for developing and testing bid ideas
  • Generally improved collaboration capability through applied collaboration experiences with those in the room on the day

How it works:

  • Key concepts, methods and reference materials for successful CRCs and industry collaboration are presented across two, consecutive half-day sessions.
  • Participant ideas and plans are applied directly to the materials presented, with groups learning from one another, as well as receiving feedback from the presenters.
  • Both half-day sessions are appropriate for a general audience, as well as those developing specific bids, and we strongly encourage participants to attend both sessions.

About the Speakers

Dr Tony Peacock, CEO, CRC Association
Dr Tony Peacock is the Chief Executive of the Cooperative Research Centres Association. With more than two decades as CEO of industry research organisations, Tony is an expert on collaboration between industry and academia. He was a 2014 Monash University Churchill Fellow, investigating how business and universities around the world work together to create innovation.

Hailey Cooperrider, Collaboration and Strategy Lead, Collabforge
Hailey Cooperrider is collaboration designer and strategist with Collabforge, where she has been responsible for some of the firm's highest profile projects and core frameworks. Her capabilities include workshop facilitation, digital platform design, innovation methodologies, and strategy cocreation. Hailey is currently researching how gameplay can be used to help spread collaboration capability more broadly.

Mark Elliott, Founder and Director, Collabforge
Dr Mark Elliott is the founder and managing director of Collabforge, and author of the world’s first and only general theory of collaboration. Since finishing a PhD in 2008 on mass collaboration, he has led the development Collabforge’s unique capability to deliver collaboration in any context, at any scale, both face-to-face and online. Mark has worked with governments, leaders and influencers to deliver some of the world’s most ambitious and trailblazing collaborative projects.

For more information contact Jordan Gardner, Communication and Marketing Manager, at the CRC Association on 02 6273 1124 or at Jordan.Gardner@crca.asn.au.

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