A collaboration of nine Australian universities, including Charles Darwin University, has secured a $3million grant from the CSIRO to help improve the way science is communicated to the public.
The grant, through the CSIRO Flagship Collaboration Fund, is for a project entitled Institutional and Social Barriers to Science Impact.
CDU researchers will join with Australian National University colleagues on a project, Coastal Zones in Indigenous, Remote and Tropical Contexts, one of six themes being funded under the program.
CDU academics Professor Stephen Garnett, Drs Neil Collier, Natasha Stacey, Kerstin Zander, Heather Aslin, Adjunct Professor Karen Edyvane, Professor David Parry and Dr Nani Concu will work on the Coastal Zones project with ANU researchers Professors Jon Altman and Stephen Dovers.
This project will address the institutional and social barriers to communicating science in a number of coastal contexts around Australia.
It will:
- Identify the barriers (e.g. social/political/institutional) to the adoption of scientific evidence and conclusions
- Develop multi-disciplinary and practical solutions to overcome these barriers
- Develop strategies to enhance effective and integrated management of Australia’s coastal zone in the face of future change.
The researchers will examine mechanisms to overcome social and institutional barriers through five research themes: governance and institutional arrangements; socio-cultural context; knowledge systems; adaptive learning; and coastal communities in an Indigenous, tropical and remote context; as well as integration and synthesis.
The total project budget over the three years, including cash and in-kind institutional contributions, is $10.57m.