What’s new?
- Impact Framework
- CRC TiME HDR scholarships
- Strategic Initiatives
- Regions in Transition’ Initiative workshops in Brisbane and Morwell
- Join a Project
- Dig Deeper Webinars
- Upcoming Conferences
From our CEO…
I was delighted to join colleagues last week from other CRC’s across Australia as we celebrated 30 years of the Cooperative Research Centre Program at the #CollaborateInnovate2022 conference in Canberra. The forum included a showcase at Parliament House where Parliamentary Members, Senators and senior leaders connected with CRCs from across industry. The CRC Program is unique globally and underpinning it all is the innovation that emerges when you truly connect and create valued partnerships between end users and researchers and build value chains that connect knowledge generation directly with knowledge use.
It was hard not to leave Canberra feeling inspired by the many amazing speakers such as past Telstra CEO and CSIRO Chair, David Thodey :
- Be bolder (innovation needs us to think past business as usual!)
- Partner with industry (industry wants to connect with research!)
- Strive for consistent policy (innovation takes time!)
CRC TiME has published a number of significant reports this year including the Impact Framework – this talks directly to how we connect research with user pathways and short, intermediate and long term outputs that will deliver on our strategic goals and objectives. I’d like to acknowledge the work of Dr Emma Yuen and Tira Foran and the Board Research & Impact Committees in its development.
To dive deeper into our research findings, be sure to register for the Dig Deeper webinar series commencing this Friday. The first 10 webinars will be sharing the outcomes of the Foundation Projects so keep your eye out on our social media for the wide range of topics being covered over the coming weeks.
Our partnership is focussing on critical initiatives for the next phase of investment and bringing our research, industry and regional hub partners together to co-design projects. I encourage you to reach out to us if you would like to participate in this process. If you are a student, and these initiatives interest you, please consider applying for the
CRC TiME scholarship program. It was great to meet with our University of Queensland based scholarship recipients while visiting our Brisbane office last week.
Impact Framework
We have recently published our Impact Framework, detailing how and in what time frame CRC TiME can achieve its goals. It assists directing research investments to ensure they target leverage points for regional transformations. The framework identifies five long term objectives we can influence:
- Mines are closed in ways that deliver social, economic and environmental value.
- Closed sites are repurposed to enable a faster transition to diverse and resilient local economies
- Mine closure business solutions drive new commercial and/or regional closure opportunities
- Policy, decision and management systems reduce risks across stakeholders
- Continued investment in the Australian resources industry The framework discusses how these objectives can be achieved through research and adoption activities, whilst identifying indicators used to track we are on the right path.
CRC TiME has opened its latest round of Higher Degree Research (HDR) scholarship applications closing 10 May, 2022. HDR scholarships also provide support for industry placements and training programs, increasing the employability of CRC TiME postgraduates.
Scholarships of up to 4 years are available to eligible students including PhD, professional doctorates and MPhil or equivalents. Generally, top up scholarships are offered to individuals enrolled or about to enrol in a partner university. Applicants are encouraged to review CRC TiME’s initiatives which outline the priority areas of research over the next three years.
Interested in becoming part of the solution? During our first 18 months, CRC TiME and partners have collaborated on Foundation Projects, new projects and strategic planning, leading to the identification of fifteen research initiatives that will drive transformation. We invite you to join CRC TiME in developing these initiatives and become part of a transformative CRC TiME project.
The relationship between ‘initiatives’ and ‘projects’ can be one to one, or one to many where multiple projects deliver as part of one initiative. Critically, these initiatives signal the start of a co-design process where CRC TiME will provide opportunity for partners to actively participate in the design of the work for delivery within each initiative. The fleshing out of the initiatives also provides transparency on where partner and CRC TiME cash and in-kind resources are being invested.
The first seven initiatives are expected to be scoped by July and the remainder by October. Prospectus’ are available for three initiatives that are already underway with more to follow over the coming weeks.
Regions in Transition’ Initiative workshops in Brisbane and Morwell
As part of implementing the strategic initiatives and developing the next generation of projects, CRC TiME is hosting a coordinated series of workshops around the country across regional hubs, colleges and thematic areas. These kicked off with workshops held in Brisbane in late February and in Morwell (LaTrobe Valley) in early March for the Regions in Transition initiative, bringing together representatives from regional development, industry, state/local government and researchers. Like all the recently released initiatives, a key focus for developing the Regions in Transition initiative is bringing partners together to co-design transformative research that addresses the strategic goals of CRC TiME.
At the Brisbane workshop, preparedness for closure was a key focus. Peter Dowling of Central Highlands Development Corporation and representing the Hub at the Brisbane workshop, expressed that “There’s lots of good things happening but regions aren’t currently ready for closure. Also the language of closure is really important: it can mean different things to different people”.
There was interest in developing tools to support a structured approach to incorporating diverse perspectives into transition planning to develop a shared understanding drawing on regional dialogue. There was also interest in tools which measure socio-economic readiness for closure and economic resilience. The importance of understanding the drivers of collaboration and how they can be enhanced to underpin transition to post-mining land uses was also a key topic.
In Morwell, partners noted that mine closure in the LaTrobe Valley is underway with one mine already closed and others soon to follow. There was strong demand for CRC TiME to help guide further economic transition. The demand for new dialogue tools was offset by the significant consultation that has already occurred in the region to date. It was also noted that a range of economic studies focusing on individual industries have already occurred, though not always in an integrated way. There was high demand for a synthesis of past work to help clarify where the region is at and the lessons learned to date, to avoid duplication of work already done.
There was strong interest in looking at integrated scenarios that can help the region navigate next steps in the transition process. Rhonda Hastie, CEO at Mine Land Rehabilitation Authority noted, “The workshop highlighted to me not just the need, but the collective desire for integrated transition planning in the region which has a strong community focus. I hope that research can not only coalesce the work already undertaken in this space, but assist the region in understanding how to move forward collectively”.
Tom Measham, Research Director for CRC TiME said “It’s great to see the co-design process in action through these workshops: bringing partners together, listening to their needs and engaging in an interactive, co-design process to develop the next generation of projects for CRC TiME”.
View ‘Regions in Transition’ Prospectus
Over the next month, CRC TiME are seeking partners to support a new project “Robust management of mine pit lakes: Reduced post-mine risk and value for communities”. This project would produce a range of tools and approaches to reduce risks, expanded opportunities and create sustainable value from mine pit lakes.
View ‘Mine Pit Lake’ prospectus
View ‘Calculating risks and costs over long time frames’ prospectus
View ‘Residual Risk trade-offs and transfer models’ prospectus
View ‘Implementing CRIA for mine relinquishment’ prospectus
View ‘Identifying post-mining pathways’ prospectus
Want to dig deeper into our research findings? Open to everyone, our newly launched Dig Deeper webinar series gives you the opportunity to hear from our researchers and project participants first hand. Be challenged, ask those burning questions and you might want to get involved in follow up projects!
Our first series of Dig Deeper webinars is focussed on CRC TiME Foundation Projects. We will present two projects over 45 – 60 minutes approximately fortnightly. However, the first webinar is a little longer with all three Regional Economic Development Program projects together:
Project 1.2 Post mining land use – Andrew Beer
Project 1.3 Mapping the regulation of mine closure – Alex Gardner
Project 1.1 Towards a framework for Regional Cumulative Impact Assessment – Renee Young
When: Friday, 8 April at 12:00-1:30pm AWST, 1:30–3:00pm ACST, 2-3:30pm AEST
Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn for the next topics in the series, or check the Dig Deeper web page. Contact nicole.phelan@crctime.com.au with any questions.
Some important conferences on the horizon:
- Abstracts are due on 5 April for Mine Closure 2022 , Brisbane 4-6 October
- Sustainable Minerals ’22 from 5-12 July 2022. Abstracts due 30 April 2022
- Planning for Closure 2022 from 10-13 May 2022. Register here
Project 4.1: Dynamically transforming environmental assessment through a shared analytics framework
This six month project has been led by the University of Queensland in partnership with The Western Australian Biodiversity Science Institute (WABSI). Working collaboratively with government and industry partners (across coal seam gas (CSG) and mining), it explored how data sets held in the public domain can be supplemented with data collected by resource companies. It has identified opportunities for streamlining data coherence between industry, Queensland and Commonwealth data management systems and articulated some of the benefits that will result from streamlined data access and sharing.
The project has leveraged the Shared Analytic Framework for the Environment (SAFE) which has been developed by The Western Australia Biodiversity Science Institute (WABSI) and the Commonwealth Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment (DAWE). This framework provides a structured way to plan and align the data capabilities required for environmental analysis and assessments generally to:
Improve & sustain environmental outcomes, via:
- Cumulative regional impact assessments
- Ongoing data management to enable continuous environmental monitoring
Assist organisations to meet their ESG objectives, via:
- Pre-defined and consistent reporting
- Improved public trust and transparency
Increase investment certainty and efficiency, via:
- Rapid current state regional assessments
- Access to data and models as input into Environment Impact Assessment.
Using the Bowen Basin region as a case study the project has:
- Documented the status of current processes for data submission to the Queensland government, outlining types, formats, storage locations and access protocols;
- Documented the status of data submission to Queensland government data repositories by resource companies and identified opportunities to refine;
- Identified challenges faced by resource companies with respect to data submission;
- Proposed a pathway for incremental improvements that can be implemented by resource companies; and
- Developed recommendations for improving data coherence at that will support data access by a range of stakeholders, from regional to national level.
Chris Gentle, Project Leader
Our first Hub meeting for the year was held in Adelaide at the end of March with strong attendance across our stakeholder groups. In particular, there was much interest from regulators, mining companies and METS to continue the dialogue in South Australia.In April, hub meetings are planned for South West Western Australia, Bowen Basin, Queensland and Latrobe Valley ,Victoria. Upcoming regional hub engagement is focussed on progressing the strategic initiatives, identifying case studies and ensuring they are end-user driven, and identifying areas of shared interest around which to build partnerships and co-investment in ways that deliver value on the ground.
If you would like to engage with the ideas development process in Hub regions please contact emma.yuen@crctime.com.au who can connect you to your local hub secretariat.
Our newest partner is Isaac Regional Council in central Queensland. Isaac Region covers a resources rich area from the coast to the coalfields. They join other regional councils throughout Australia who are actively participating in our projects.
If your organisation would like to become part of this globally significant effort to improve lives, communities, the environment and industry, please contact guy.boggs@crctime.com.au or phone 08 9263 9805.
TiME is flying by and we’re already three months into 2022. At CRC TiME, we have many exciting projects in the works, and we need your help sourcing photos of Transformations in Mining Economies. We cover a lot of ground, from social impact to land repurposing, engineering to environmental. Your photos may even appear on our website!
Email your photos here.
We welcome hearing and sharing updates from our partners. Contact jane.stacey@crctime.com.au with your news.
We acknowledge the traditional custodians across all the lands on which we live and work, and we pay our respects to Elders both past and present.