Evaluating the impacts of the CRC

Australian communities are greatly benefiting from eight years of research into the response, recovery and mitigation of natural hazards, an independent report finds. 

SGS Economics & Planning (SGS) were commissioned to undertake an evaluation of the value delivered by the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC since its inception in 2013. The results of the study are presented in an independent report outlining the many and varied benefits of the CRC’s research to the Australian community.  

The CRC’s work is closely guided by the needs of its end-user partners, working across the before, during and after spectrum of natural hazards, including bushfire, flood, storm, cyclone, tsunami, earthquake and heatwave.  

A survey of CRC end-users—including emergency services, the Australian Government, states and territories, local government, businesses, households, regional and rural communities, landowners, infrastructure providers, volunteers, the environment and academia—shows that the CRC is strengthening research capacity in natural hazards, using and building capacity in leading researchers from around the country.  

With over 100 ongoing or completed research projects, involving around 250 researchers and 150 PhD students across Australia and New Zealand, the CRC has generated benefits for its end-users and the wider Australian community that SGS groups under three key benefit areas. 

As a large, independent and trusted institution, the CRC delivers reliable, necessary and unbiased information in an efficient manner for a range of end-users. The CRC’s role enables a host of benefits for Australia including providing trusted advice for the community and efficient planning and decision making for government and emergency services. 

“The CRC’s reliability as a source of respected truth and knowledge enables it to be a pillar upon which decisions are made by agencies,” one end-user responded in the SGS survey. 

As a network of knowledge holders for natural hazards, the CRC enables knowledge sharing, collaboration and education of experts from a range of fields at both a national and international level, producing new research, innovation and products for end-users, and allowing better use of existing research. This provides a central role in building and maintaining the capacity and working knowledge of industry members across Australia. 

The CRC, as a creator of higher impact and new research, delivers information, products, services and tools that drive better decision making, behavioural changes in the community, and improved disaster recovery. The CRC has driven research proven to reduce natural hazard impacts on property, infrastructure, health and wellbeing; reduce disruption of economic activity and the impact on the environment during and after natural hazard events; and have enabled better decision making in emergency management.  

SGS found that for every dollar invested in the CRC, six dollars of benefit is received by end-user partners – reducing loss of life and injury, reducing government costs, and reducing insurable losses. This 6:1 economic return of six dollars is expected to deliver a total benefit of $513 million over the 15-year period of 2013/14 to 2027/28. 

As the CRC enters its final 12 months in its current form, quantifying the impact of the last seven years of research and other outcomes is essential to its future scoping. SGS writes that the national investment in the CRC’s research agenda is just a small investment in prevention, reducing larger impacts from inevitable hazards and providing essential national coordination for research and research utilisation. 

Read the full independent review of the CRC’s value and benefits to the Australian community here.