Leading Charles Sturt University research ranging from addressing the scourge of cereal cropping in southern Australia - annual ryegrass - to developing a computer game to simulate a major national crisis has won major funding in the latest round of Federal Government grants.

The Prime Minister John Howard flies to Fiji today for the Pacific Islands Forum, and once again the Solomon Islands is expected to be the focus of discussion. While relations between Australia and the Solomons becomes increasingly more strained, a CSU PhD student, Cliff Bird, described as “one of the prime intellectuals of the country” is preparing to address a Solomon leadership forum on conflict resolution.

More CSU journalism students will be heading overseas thanks to a scholarship program funded by the Copyright Agency Ltd (CAL) Cultural Fund.

Charles Sturt University Vice-Chancellor, Professor Ian Goulter, has welcomed the Rudd Government's announcement of a further $500 million in special one-off infrastructure funding for the development of 21st century teaching and learning spaces in Australia's universities.

Would a human baby brought up in space look a lot like ET? “Possibly,” says Dr Graeme Wren Adjunct Associate Professor at the School of Science & Technology, Charles Sturt University (CSU), Wagga Wagga. Dr Wren will present the public lecture Space Medicine: Physiological Adaptation to Microgravity on Wednesday 25 October 2006 at 6.00pm at the Dubbo Campus of CSU.

"Frankly, it’s been so low this whole season so far, that we haven’t started reporting it yet!" says Dr George Car of CSU’s School of Biomedical Sciences. He says the pollen count is the lowest ever in the ten years he has been monitoring it in the Wagga Wagga area. "In previous years, the grass pollen count would have been well into the moderate or even into the high range by mid-October."

CSU today announced that it has asked the Federal Government for more than $2 million in funding to establish a major Regional Inter-Professional Clinical Simulation Centre for CSU at Bathurst. The application was made under the Capital Development Pool Program administered by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.

CSU Vice-Chancellor, Professor Ian Goulter, today welcomed the release of the Report of the Bradley Review of the Australian Higher Education System. The Report follows the announcement last week that Charles Sturt University and Southern Cross University had been invited by the Deputy Prime Minister, the Hon. Julia Gillard, MP, to request funding for a feasibility study for their proposal to integrate with one other inter-state university.

Despite optimistic expectations for significant action, the Rudd government announcement on Monday 15 December of its long-awaited climate change targets, including a five per cent cut in carbon emissions by 2020, has been met with scepticism and disappointment.