Meeting industry needs

Post June 2014 the Bushfire CRC shall cease to operate under the Commonwealth CRC Program. However, to meet industry needs, two aspects of the work of the Bushfire CRC have been identified as continuing beyond June 2014. With this in mind, at the Annual General Meeting on 21 November 2013 all Bushfire CRC members agreed to establish a Trust. It will have a limited lifespan to ensure that the Bushfire CRC Ltd’s objectives are fully met in a transparent way, enabling all members of the Bushfire CRC to fully realise the benefit of their investment over the last decade. Once a Trust has been established and all legal requirements associated with the wind-up of the Bushfire CRC are completed, the remaining (net) assets will be transferred to the Trust. The Bushfire CRC Board is currently being guided in the legalities of setting up the Trust.

The work to be funded by the Trust will be ongoing research utilisation, and further work on bushfire predictive services.

We are now five years on from the devastation caused by Black Saturday, with the extension program of the Bushfire CRC funded to explore the national issues resulting from these terrible bushfires. With this in mind, the major final events for the Bushfire CRC are now being organised, with your participation vital. The essential first step for all partners is to access the research outcomes so they can best utilise the science.

To allow all research findings to be made accessible to a wide audience, and to better target specific interest areas, a series of online, interactive and archived forums are being organised for May, June and July. These will be regular sessions lasting one to two hours each on specific areas of bushfire science. This will allow as many staff and volunteers as possible to participate. Attendees will be able to interact with the presenters and download publications. Each session will be recorded and made available online, leaving a strong legacy for the future. This is crucial.

Research Utilisation Manager Dr Noreen Krusel will shortly contact researchers and lead end users to coordinate the roll out of the program. Keep an eye on the 2014 events section of the website for further information.