One of the requirements of the Commonwealth in the funding agreement is that the CRC undergoes a three month review, to ensure that the CRC is tracking well and has the systems and processes in place. The review included two members of the CRC Committee, including its Chairman as well as members of the department. The CRC was represented by its Board and staff. Although we are still waiting on the formal feedback the informal feedback was positive, which is a great outcome for all involved in the progress to date especially all the research and end-user groups.
Following the review the Board met, this was the first Board meeting to be chaired by the new Chairman Dr Laurie Hammond. This meeting covered topics including processes for filling the vacant positions on the Board, and engagement with the numerous partners.
Participants’ Agreement
The second version of the agreement has been sent to participants for final comments. A number of minor changes are being addressed. The final version has now been received from the lawyers and is expected to be circulated to the partners during the next week with a signing deadline of the end of October.
There are still a number of minor contributors who have not yet been engaged in the participants’ agreement discussions to this point. They will be involved in the lead up to the variation later in the year.
Commonwealth Agreement
A number of pieces of work needed to be submitted to the Commonwealth in the last week. These included the draft research agenda, the updated partner details, the specified personnel and a first draft of the Impact Template. This was a large amount of work to be undertaken in a short period of time. Discussions are now underway with the CRC Program Branch of the Australian Government to ensure that the material delivered meets its requirements.