India Water Week 2013 SEMINAR: RESEARCH & INNOVATION FOR INCREASING WATER USE EFFICIENCY
Bridging the gap between water scientists and policy makers: the Australian experience Professor Gary J. Jones
Chief Executive, eWater Australia Chairman, International Riverfoundation Adjunct Professor, University of Canberra
The challenge, put simply …. Water policy and management should be informed by ‘best available science and technology’ but …… Water scientists (researchers and academics) are generally poor at influencing good water and river basin management
Why? 1. Scientists tend to be poor communicators (rely on paper writing and use scientific jargon) 2. Scientists esp. environmental scientists, tend to confuse advisory and advocacy roles 3. Governments funders of scientific research focus on the what and the who, and not on the how •
How research is undertaken significantly affects the outcomes for management and policy
The reform challenge for IRBM “To re-build the institutional processes and relationships, within and between, the water research community and the public water management sector” “To create a collaborative, multi-disciplinary culture focussed on water policy and management in river basins”
Developing a new ‘River Basin’ Culture ‘Cultural divides’ that need to be overcome: •Between scientific disciplines – Hydrologists see rivers as physical systems – Ecologists see rivers as biological-social systems
•Between Scientists and Engineers – Engineers are problem-solvers – Scientists are problem-definers
•Between Scientists & Policy-Makers – Scientists need absolute certainty (“p < 0.05”) – Policy Makers need sufficient certainty
Aim: Build Trusted Relationships • Between research groups from different institutions
– overcoming rivalry and competition (wise use of $$$)
• Between researchers and policy-makers
– Suspicion and mistrust about the motivation of environmental scientists
• Between government agencies
– within and between government agencies eg. federal and state agencies eg. water supply and environment agencies
Case Study
eWater Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) 1992-2012 Part of the Australian Governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s national CRC Program
Government
Cooperative Research Centres Research & Education
Industry
Funding and Staffing • $$$$ from Federal Government (CRC Department) • $$$$ from Government & Industry partners • $ from Research & Education partners
• Staff
from Research & Education partners
• Staff from Government & Industry partners (joint participation in projects)
Good Governance • Agreed rules of partnership participation • Partnership Agreement and Project Agreements • Fairly and consistently applied
• Board and Committees…… – Organisation – Board elected by the partners • skills-based, acting in the interests of the partnership – Project - Multi-layer governance committees (3) • Executive, Technical Manager, Technical Officer levels
• Balanced by good leadership – Staying focussed on core business objectives – Making the hard decisions, as fairly as possible
eWater CRC: 35 industry & 10 research partners CENTRAL GOVERNMENT
Department of Sustainability and Environment Department of Primary Industries Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Victorian Catchment Management Authorities
Department of Environment and Resource Management Queensland Primary Industries and Fisheries â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation
WATER INDUSTRY
RESEARCH & EDUCATION
Hydrology & Climate
Source: New generation river basin river basin planning system Decision science
Ecology & Restoration
Integrated Modelling System for river basin water management LAND LANDUSE USE CLIMAT CLIMAT EE
DAMS DAMS&& WEIRS WEIRS
ECOLOGICAL ECOLOGICAL ASSETS ASSETS
IRRIGATION IRRIGATION
CITIES CITIES
Pathways to success • Break-down discipline and organisational siloes • Wisely use funding to minimise ‘unhelpful’ competition amongst research groups/organisations • Provide incentives and rewards for effective collaboration • Ensure research is informed by actual management and policy needs, not just scientists’ perception of them • Effective governance and coordination of research within and across organisations • Timely public access to new scientific data and knowledge, and • Building of open lines of communications and trust between water scientists, policy makers and politicians.