Projects on show

There was a real buzz in the Common Room at University House at ANU last week as Bushfire CRC researchers and students presented updates on their projects at the Research Advisory Forum. There was also time to engage in less formal interactions with other researchers and end users. 

It was obvious to all that most projects were now making good progress and the calibre of the work being undertaken was high.  This progress is reflected in the number of journal papers already in preparation or indeed submitted, based on this work.  End users again observed that the projects are ambitious – but at the same time recognised that the researchers are very focused on delivering answers to the questions that end users had identified. 

The ongoing engagement with Lead End Users and their involvement as members of the research teams was evident in the way each was able to speak authoritatively about the projects that they were involved with.  Of course, not everything goes entirely to plan and some projects reported that factors beyond their control (for example, the Perth Hills fires in early 2011) had caused them to amend the research process while at the same time respecting and addressing the key questions they were tasked to explore. The next Research Advisory Forum will be held in Tasmania in May 2012.