The CRC is progressing with a re-bid for a further seven years
of funding for a new and in many ways quite different CRC for
2007–2014. Following the CRC's Annual Meeting last October,
the proposed new Tropical Savannas CRC will be focused on savanna
futures, and will support sustainable livelihoods for people living
and working in the savannas.
Natural resource management, economic options and opportunities,
improved approaches to management of land and existing enterprises,
development of new enterprise opportunities and the building of
knowledge and human capacity will all continue as core themes for
the new CRC.
In late August the CEO, Theme Leaders, Business and Contract
Managers met with David Young and Ashley Newcombe from the
professional services firm KPMG who will be helping to manage the
re-bid. Workshops planned to flesh out the themes for the new CRC
will include a high proportion of stakeholders and research users,
to ensure the continuing relevance of CRC projects and
activities.
A key part of the re-bid process will be to assess the impact
the TS–CRC has had on sustainable NRM in the tropical
savannas. The Centre for International Economics (CIE) has been
contracted to conduct this assessment. CIE specializes in economic
analysis, particularly taking social and environmental factors into
account. They anticipate having a draft report in early 2006.
There will then be a fifth year review and CRC-wide meeting in
February 2006. It will be an opportunity to showcase much of what
the CRC has accomplished in the last 5 years, a chance to have a
preliminary look at the impact assessment, and a good opportunity
to present and discuss the re-bid.
The anticipated timetable for the re-bid is then:
- March 2006—a preliminary business case is submitted to
the CRC.
- Secretariat June 2006 - if the preliminary case is judged to be
meet the criteria required, a full business case will have to be
submitted in late June.
- Late 2006—if the full business case is seen as being
competitive, an interview will be required.
- Late 2006, early 2007—notification of a success or
otherwise.
For more information contact Gordon Duff via Cheryl Arnott,
details below.
Indonesian academics visit CRC
Under the auspices of the ACIAR-funded Fire in eastern Indonesia
project, two scholars from Satya Wacana Christian University (UKSW)
visited the TS–CRC at CDU recently. Both trips were funded by
the ATSE Crawford Fund, and hosted by the ACIAR Fire Project and
TS–CRC Higher Education Project.
Dr Ferry Karwur is the Director of the UKSW Centre for Studies
in Eastern Indonesia, and coordinator of the UKSW Master of Biology
and a researcher and lecturer in the Faculty of Biology.
Dr Karwur visited Darwin in May to attend a workshop on
sustainable livelihoods, hosted by the Institute of Advanced
Studies at CDU. He also met with TS–CRC and CDU lecturing
staff to further plan the integration of CDU/TS–CRC learning
materials into UKSW curriculum, and to develop longer-term
collaborations under the recently signed MoU between the two
universities.
Mr Dharma Palekahelu Flexible Learning Coordinator, researcher
and lecturer, and GIS professional at UKSW, visited CDU and other
TS–CRC partners in Darwin in July. Mr Palekahelu attended the
NARGIS workshops and then met with TS–CRC Education and
Communications Coordinators, and CDU staff in the GIS unit and
Teaching & Learning Development Group at CDU.
Mr Palekahelu also hopes to return to CDU to complete a research
higher degree which combines his interest in education design and
technology with GIS applications in natural resource management
