Review focusses on our strengths

Last week we concluded a three-day Performance Review of the Bushfire CRC. The Review was conducted by the Cooperative Research Centre’s Committee on behalf of the federal Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science, Research and Tertiary Education.

The five-member Review Panel spent the last three days looking thoroughly at all aspects of the Bushfire CRC’s governance and performance.

The Panel is preparing a report but at this stage, on behalf of the Chairman Len Foster, I sincerely wish to thank the many people involved in the preparation and presentation to the Review panel. I won’t name anyone personally as everyone, whether on the phone or in person, made an important contribution. We appreciated those who phoned in from the Human Dimensions of Wildland Fire Conference in Seattle, those on the phone from all around Australia and New Zealand, and those who made a particular effort to be in Melbourne to address the Panel personally.

My thanks goes to the students who spoke about the benefits of being in the education program, the researchers who enlightened the Panel on the vision and objectives of their projects, our partner representatives who emphasised the purpose and the utilisation of the research, the Board who spoke about governance and management structures, and the Bushfire CRC staff who presented overviews of their operational areas and managed the entire three-day Review program.

The Review took an enormous amount of time and effort for so many of us. Although it distracted us from the regular daily tasks of a research centre the real benefit out of the process is that it allowed us to focus on why we exist and where we want to be in the coming years. I will provide an update on the Review Panel report when it becomes available.

However, I am positive that the Review Panel will be impressed by the enormous commitment by so many people to the Bushfire CRC, the genuine value that end-users place upon the quality research, the supportive education program and the good uptake of research outputs resulting in a positive cultural change throughout the industry.