Jane O’Dwyer to lead CRC Association
Jane O’Dwyer, currently Vice-President (Engagement and Global Relations) at The Australian National University will become the Chief Executive Officer of the Cooperative Research Centres Association (CRC Association) in January 2021. She will succeed Tony Peacock, who has led the CRC Association for the past decade with great distinction.
“We are delighted to have Jane join us after what was a highly competitive process,” said CRC Association Chair, Belinda Robinson. “Her leadership skills, energy and unique experience across peak bodies, industry, academia, media and politics, make her an ideal fit to lead the organisation in its next chapter.”
“Along with my colleagues on the Board, I’m looking forward to working with Jane to support and represent our members and advance the benefits of cooperative research in Australia.”
“I would also again like to thank Tony and recognise the tremendous work he has done for the CRC Association and the Australian innovation community. He has been very well respected by our members and stakeholders and I would like to wish him and his wife Ros the absolute best for his next chapter.”
Jane joins the CRC Association after a more than 25-year career that has spanned Australia, Japan and the United States. Commencing her career as a political advisor, Jane held key roles in the Australian Local Government Association and Sports Medicine Australia. She joined ANU more than 15 years ago after 4 years in Japan, and has been a close and trusted advisor to three consecutive ANU Vice-Chancellors across media and public affairs, policy, international relations and global engagement. She spent three years in the United States, where she established the ANU North America Liaison Office attached to the Australian Embassy in Washington DC.
Ms O’Dwyer holds a Bachelor of Arts (Curtin), Masters degrees in Management (ANU) and Journalism (Wollongong) and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. She is Deputy Chair of the Canberra Writer’s Festival and a Director of the Canberra Convention Bureau.
“I’m delighted to join the CRC Association and know I follow in the footsteps of a highly respected and active CEO in Tony Peacock. Cooperative Research Centres are a great Australian success story, and a testament to the profound national value of industry-university research cooperation.
“I relish the opportunity to work with the Board to write the next chapter for the CRC Association at a time when research and the development, and retention, of a highly skilled research workforce that can transition between universities and industry, will be essential to emerge from the impacts of COVID-19.
“Cooperative research is critical to Australia’s future.”
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Tough competition sees five CRC bids through to Stage 2
Tony Peacock, CRC Association
Five bidding groups were delighted to hear last Thursday that they had been invited forward to Stage 2 of the 22nd Selection Round for Cooperative Research Centres. They were:
Nine other groups were disappointed in equal measure that they had not received the invitation to proceed in the round. The CRC Association understands two other bids were knocked out earlier in the process as non-compliant, giving a total of 16 bids that submitted Stage 1 applications. This was a significant increase on past years, where the process had seemed to settle at about a dozen applications a year.
The professionalism of bids and the level of industry support continues to lift with each selection round, making the bidding in Round 22 incredibly intense. Of the bids through to Stage 2, only one has been previously submitted for consideration.
Stage 2 consists of answering issues raised by the CRC Advisory Committee arising from Stage 1 and submitting the Impact Tool, both due in January 2021 and undertaking an interview in February 2021. The CRC Advisory Committee will make recommendations to Minister Karen Andrews shortly afterwards and the Minister will choose those to be offered a CRC grant.
Five grants were made last year and four in each of the previous two years.
What made these five stand out from the 16 submitted? Firstly, Departmental Officers have no leeway to allow non-compliant bids to be considered by the Advisory Committee. Imagine the feedback from compliant bids that fail to be invited forward if a non-compliant bid got the go-ahead. So it is a certainty that if you want to bend the guidelines even a little bit, it is not worth proceeding.
The most common question I've been asked this week is "what was the Committee looking for?" Of course, the Committee is merely a group of seven people who will each form their own view of bids and come to an agreed position. The Committee is not really tasked with "looking" for anything in particular (no government or ministerial priorities were issued for this selection round). Rather, they are judging each bid on its own merits against a set of assessment criteria that are very well articulated and published for everyone to see. While passion for the subject is appreciated by members of the Committee, there is a clinical aspect in that each of the four merit criteria are scored out of 25 points. Within those four assessment criteria, there are 13 scoring opportunities that are actually spelt out in detail - seven are worth 10 points, one is worth eight points, four are worth five points and one is worth two points.
The detailed information on how the Committee scores an application is relatively recent, coming in a few years ago. But it is relatively rare that in discussion with a bidding group that more than one or two involved know the details of the guidelines. Ensuring that those involved in a bid are highly aligned with each other and with the CRC guidelines is a crucial step before embarking on a CRC bid. The broader the mission and the broader the group, the more opportunity there is for misalignment. I suspect a mistake that may develop in some bids is that the transactional nature of building the bid overwhelms the focus and mission. Bids that are trying to do too much are much more difficult for a reader to understand than focussed bids.
Focus doesn't mean small or unambitious. The current Chair of the CRC Advisory Committee has said at the CRC Association conference that bids that are transformational for an industry stand out. A CRC is a big deal. It's a lot of time and a lot of money, so an incremental change in an industry is unlikely to be sufficiently attractive. A previous Chair of the Committee has spoken in terms of getting the 80:20 rule right - bids tend to focus 80% on the problem and 20% on the solution whereas it should be the other way around - the Committee is looking to invest in solutions. Still another previous Chair has been blunter: "Answer the *#@%ing questions". Perhaps that's why the detailed scoring information now forms part of the guidelines?
Each bid will receive individual feedback over the next week or two. It's important that the emotion of not getting through to Stage 2 has receded enough to really listen to the feedback. Both the Committee and departmental staff go to considerable trouble to try and provide useful feedback. It is very common to hear bids say that the feedback was extremely useful and the Committee did make the right decision. At the closure of the Dairy CRC some years back, the Chairman's first thank you was to the Advisory Committee for rejecting their first bid, ensuring the second was truly transformational.
How does any of this inform future bidders or re-bidders? My own view is that bidders should devote more time on a reality check on the alignment and focus for a proposed CRC before they decide to bid. The CRC Association offered a one-day workshop on alignment and focus early in the bidding process last year that I think would have benefitted many of the rejected bids. Unfortunately, by the time the Association knows about a bid, the decision to proceed has already been made. Were I in charge of a potential bid, I would only support it to the stage where I could be confident that the industry and academics involved were truly aligned. Spending more time considering whether a CRC is the right vehicle is probably the best investment I could recommend before deciding to set out on the journey.
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Landmark report on evidence for autism interventions
Autism CRC is pleased to announce the publication of a landmark report for families, clinicians, researchers and policy makers, which synthesises the best available high-quality evidence about interventions for children on the autism spectrum aged up to 12 years. The report, Interventions for children on the autism spectrum: A synthesis of research evidence, was commissioned and funded by the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) and produced by an expert team of researchers engaged by Autism CRC.
This report is critical because it provides families and clinicians with the best opportunity to make informed decisions when choosing interventions.
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Minister Ley talks food waste and tastes potato ice cream with the CRC
The Fight Food Waste CRC was honoured to host Minister for Environment, the Hon Sussan Ley, MP, on Monday 16 November at the Adelaide headquarters based at the Waite Campus of the University of Adelaide.
This was a great opportunity for the Fight Food Waste CRC to share updates on their project portfolio (currently 34 projects after 2.5 years of operation) as well as future plans. Key industry representatives shared the latest from their projects, including our South Australian based potato project looking to develop a brand new starch industry with Potatoes SA, Mitolo, Thomas Foods, Zerella, SA Potato Company and the University of Adelaide. Also providing the Minister with an update was East Waste, representing 7 councils in Adelaide who are really getting into the bins to understand household food waste. And the third industry representative was Peats Soils and Gardens who are working with the University of Queensland to develop smart compost formulations that convert food waste into compost, focussing on nutrient delivery.
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Diversity and inclusion in emergency management: from policy to practice
How do we effectively implement diversity and inclusion policies in emergency management sector practices? Join the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC to find out about the latest research and how it is being applied.
In partnership with Women and Firefighting Australasia (WAFA) and Victoria University, the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC is hosting a free online forum, Diversity and inclusion in emergency management: from policy to practice, on 2 December 2020 at 12pm AEDT.
This online forum will discuss the evolution of inclusive practice over the last three years, the purpose of diversity and the critical role inclusion plays in the management of social, human and natural hazard risk in communities and organisations.
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Assessing floodwater and communicating risk
The latest flood warnings research from the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC shows that risk is often difficult to assess.
A poor ability to perceive risk is likely to result in increased engagement in risky driving behaviours. To better understand the decision-making processes involving drivers’ decisions to enter floodwaters, the Flood risk communication project team explored the ability to recognise floodwater hazard and adequately assess the level of associated risk.
The results of this research are now informing the co-development of a set of public communication guidelines and the establishment of a set of national community safety announcements for use by the ABC in emergency broadcasting.
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Blue Economy CRC launches PhD Scholars Program
The Blue Economy CRC is pleased to announce the launch of the PhD Scholars program with PhD topics available across its five research programs now open for applications.
Deadline for applications is 10th January, 2021.
A PhD Scholarship with the Blue Economy CRC places students in a unique cross-disciplinary research environment, enabling them to develop solutions that will help revolutionise the aquaculture and ocean-based renewable energy sectors.
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FEnEx CRC Opens PhD Scholarship Round - Future Energy Exports
Are you a future energy leader keen to contribute to the energy transition? In just 3 1/2 years you could be at the forefront of the energy industry.
FEnEx CRC is offering exciting PhD opportunities across our four Research Themes:
- LNG productivity and emissions reduction;
- Hydrogen: production, transport, storage & utilisation;
- Digital technologies and interoperability; and
- Market and sector development for hydrogen and/or LNG.
Studying with FEnEx CRC's University Partners:
- The University of Western Australia
- Curtin University
- Queensland University of Technology
- University of South Australia
- Swinburne University
- The University of Melbourne
The value of these scholarships is $30,000 stipend per year for up to 3 1/2 years. These scholarship awards are tax-free to full time candidates.
Submit your application online by Thursday 12 November 2020.
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iMove is looking for Industry Pathfinders
Are you a well-connected expert in the Food, Agriculture or Health sector with an eye for opportunities for transport improvement?
iMove is seeking well-connected individuals in these sectors to help identify needs and opportunities for applied research and development to improve the sector transport processes. iMove hopes to engage one or more people on a part time consulting basis over the coming year.
Skills and experience
Must have
- Extensive knowledge of the sector
- Extensive networks of connections in the sector
- An exploratory and ‘opportunity seeking’ mindset
- Some understanding of research and development processes
- A track record in identifying and consolidating collaboration opportunities.
- Be willing to work for MOVE as a consultant on a part time basis (probably 40%)
Nice to have
- An understanding of universities
- An understanding of CRC’s
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Bidding for a CRC? Let us know
Bidding for a CRC or a CRC-P is a very competitive process. Not all bids make themselves know to the CRC Association but those that do, are more competitive. We can help you make the connections and introduce you to the people you should be talking to.
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 Innovation Thoughts, a podcast by the CRC Association
Hosted by CEO Tony Peacock, each episode of Innovation Thoughts sees Tony interview a different expert in science or industry.
Subscribe via your preferred podcast platform to be notified of new episodes, or see them on our social media channels.
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Stories wanted
If you know of any stories you think would interest the CRC community, please send them to stories@crca.asn.au
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