Funding for natural hazards research and a time of delivery

This week we received the fantastic news that the Australian Government is going to support further research in natural hazard resilience and disaster risk reduction. A substantial commitment over 10 years from July next year to transition this CRC to a new research centre is a very welcome development. It is also good that the current CRC will receive $2 million this year to consider research arising from the Black Summer bushfires. The CRC will be working with the Australian Government and our many partners around the country to scope what this research should focus on, both in the short-term and over the longer-term. View the media release from The Hon. David Littleproud MP, Minister for Agriculture, Drought and Emergency Management, and The Hon. Karen Andrews MP, Minister for Industry, Science and Technology.

We are now in the middle of an exciting period for the CRC with the launch of the many products that have been in the research phase for many years. This month, the Prescribed Burning Atlas was released in partnership with the University of Wollongong, Western Sydney University and the University of Melbourne. The Atlas is a decision support tool that assists fire agencies and land management departments by presenting options for their prescribed burning strategies and providing insights into burn effectiveness. Check out the Prescribed Burning Atlas here.

There are many more webinars and launches coming up in the next month too. Next week we launch the Australian Disaster Resilience Index on 29 July in collaboration with the University of New England. You can register here. And we've got two online events in August - a webinar on the economics of disaster recovery on 11 August, and the Dr Laurie Hammond Oration on 19 August with Australia's Chief Scientist Dr Alan Finkel. All these events are open to anyone to attend.

It has also been great to see some of the products we had previously launched being used and referenced widely by many working in the sector, including the Australian Exposure Information Platform and the Inquiries and Reviews database. 

Other significant outputs have included a number of books involving CRC researchers and PhD students including Natural Hazards and Disaster Justice, Feeling the Heat, Disasters in Australia and New Zealand and Prescribed Burning in Australasia, the latter of which I was a co-editor and author.

Watching the progress of the Royal Commission into Natural Disaster Arrangements, it is always interesting to see references to the work of the CRC. Not only have we been mentioned in many of the submissions, several of our documents have been referenced and used in the Royal Commission proceedings, most recently the July Australian Seasonal Bushfire Outlook. A number of our researchers have given evidence, with Prof Alan March from the University of Melbourne leading the discussions on land-use planning and explaining the complexities arising from the CRC research. The CRC was also extensively referenced in the recently released South Australia Inquiry into the 2019-20 bushfires.