• Webinar will examine ways researchers, government agencies and communities can improve collaborative research for natural resource management in regional Australia

The webinar, ‘Can birds of different feathers flock together? Developing better research collaborations in regional Australia’, will be presented by Dr Wes Ward, adjunct research fellow in the Charles Sturt Institute for Land, Water and Society (ILWS).

Dr Wes Ward has worked in science communication and training in the Pacific islands, South-East Asia and Australia for 32 years.

Since completing PhD research, he has investigated collaborations between scientists, government agents and landholders for natural resource management and sustainable agriculture in Australia.

“Collaboration is vital in the natural resource management (NRM) space, as no one person or organisation can successfully address all the complex socio-ecological issues facing NRM in Australia,” Dr Ward said.

“Research institutes and NRM practitioner agencies bring complementary expertise, experience and resources to complex - and at times conflicting - social, institutional and external contexts.”

Dr Ward said limited literature has recorded successful instances of long-term collaboration between research and practitioner NRM agencies in Australia, and there are even fewer peer-reviewed studies investigating possible barriers to the relationships and communication on which these collaborations are based.

“Our study investigated the perceived barriers for establishing and maintaining agency-researcher collaborations, using a qualitative analysis of transcripts of interviews with ILWS researchers and practitioners from North East Catchment Management Authority, based in Victoria,” he said.

Register to attend the free webinar which runs from 6pm to 7pm on Wednesday 9 September.