Managing Australian landscapes and natural resources — design principles for intelligent research investment Andrew Campbell Triple Helix Consulting
Outline 1. The intent of this conference
2. Drivers for ‘big picture’, integrated NRM research 3. The funding and management of applied R&D – lessons from LWRRDC and LWA
4. Design principles for intelligent research investment
For more information e.g. The Getting of Knowledge Paddock to Plate Policy Propositions for Sustainable Food Systems & Background Paper
Powerful Choices: towards a biofuel economy with Barney Foran
Climate Change Primer for regional NRM Managing Australian Soils
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www.triplehelix.com.au
The intent of this conference • A content-rich celebration of an important knowledge legacy • An opportunity to reflect, and to distil key lessons and insights – about important knowledge gaps that remain – about how best to fill such knowledge gaps
• A ‘message in a bottle’ for future research investment
2. Drivers for ‘big picture’, integrated NRM research • • • • • • •
Climate Water Energy Food Resource degradation Competition for land & water resources Risks of collateral damage and unintended consequences
Climate The core problem: population & carbon emissions
Source: WBCSD & IUCN 2008; Harvard Medical School 2008
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Water • Each calorie takes one litre of water to produce, on average • Like the Murray Darling Basin, all the world’s major food producing basins are effectively ‘closed’ or already over-committed
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Food • The world needs to increase food production by about 70% by 2050, & improve distribution
• We have done this in the past, mainly through clearing, cultivating and irrigating more land – and intensification, better varieties, more fertiliser, pesticides etc
• Climate change is narrowing those options, with limits to water, land, energy & nutrients • Concern among rich consumers about modern industrial food systems – human health, animal welfare, environment, fair trade
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But maybe we ain’t seen nothin yet….
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World
Energy & nutrients • The era of abundant, cheap fossil fuels is coming to a close
Australia
• Rising oil costs = rising costs for fertiliser, agri-chemicals, transport and food
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Energy (2) “ a significant risk of a peak in conventional oil production before 2020. The risks presented by global oil depletion deserve much more serious attention by the research and policy communities.” UK Energy Research Centre, An assessment of the evidence for a nearterm peak in global oil production, August 2009
“we have to leave oil before oil leaves us, and we have to prepare ourselves for that day” Dr Fatih Birol, Chief Economist IEA, 3 August 2009 “The challenge of feeding 7 or 8 billion people while oil supplies are falling is stupefying. It’ll be even greater if governments keep pretending that it isn’t going to happen.” George Monbiot, The Guardian 16.11.09 12
Resource Degradation
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Perspectives from the top (1) Terry Moran, Institute of Public Administration, 15 July 2009: Reflecting on the challenges of public sector reform:
“ By and large, I believe the public service gives good advice on incremental policy improvement. Where we fall down is in longterm, transformational thinking; the big picture stuff. We are still more reactive than proactive; more inward than outward looking. We are allergic to risk, sometimes infected by a culture of timidity…. The APS still generates too much policy within single departments and agencies to address challenges that span a range of departments and agencies… We are not good at recruiting creative thinkers. ” 17
http://www.dpmc.gov.au/media/speech_2009_07_15.cfm
Perspectives from the top (2) Dr Ken Henry, QUT Business Leaders’ Forum, 22 October 2009: “Are Australia’s natural resource endowments, including water, capable of sustaining a population of 35 million? What are the implications for environmental amenity of this sort of population growth? Must it mean an even greater loss of biodiversity…? …with a population of 22 million people, we haven’t managed to find accommodation with our environment. Our record has been poor and in my view we are not well placed to deal effectively with the environmental challenges posed by a population of 35 million.” 18
http://www.treasury.gov.au/contentitem.asp?NavId=008&ContentID=1643
Perspectives from the top (3) Dr Ken Henry, QUT Business Leaders’ Forum, 22 October 2009: “…substantial additional investment, in both private and public infrastructure, economic and social, will be required to support our larger human population. … quite sophisticated infrastructure planning is going to be required… …the imposition of a price signal to reflect the negative externalities of greenhouse gas emissions is intended to cause a significant shift in the structure of the Australian and global economies over coming decades; quite possibly the largest structural adjustment in economic history. That is the point of doing it. ” 19
http://www.treasury.gov.au/contentitem.asp?NavId=008&ContentID=1643
Perspectives from the top (4) Kevin Rudd, Westminster Abbey, 31 March 2009, suggesting that the free market needs a moral compass: “To these values of security, liberty and prosperity must also be grafted the values of equity, of sustainability and community.”
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Equity, Sustainability and Community…
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Scaffolding values for a 21st century NRM agenda? 20
Water, energy, and GDP Water and energy have historically been closely coupled with GDP in Australia
Energy & GDP
Water & GDP
Our challenge now is to radically reduce the energy, carbon and water-intensity of our economy
from Proust, Dovers, Foran, Newell, Steffen & Troy (2007)
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Climate-water-energy feedbacks • Saving water often uses more energy, and viceversa • Efforts to moderate climate often use more energy +/or water • E.g. coal-fired power stations with CCS will be 25-33% more waterintensive
• Using more fossil energy exacerbates climate chaos
from Proust, Dovers, Foran, Newell, Steffen & Troy (2007)
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Profound technical challenges 1. To decouple economic growth from carbon emissions 2. To increase water productivity —
decoupling the 1 litre per calorie relationship
3. To increase energy productivity – –
more food energy out per unit of energy in while shifting from fossil fuels to renewable energy
4. To develop more sustainable food systems – –
while conserving biodiversity and improving landscape amenity, soil health, animal welfare & human health
5. To achieve all of the above simultaneously! 23
— improving equity, sustainability and community…
We need a third agricultural revolution • Closed loop farming systems, not leaking: (water, energy, nutrients, carbon, biodiversity) • Smart metering, sensing, telemetry, robotics, guidance • Better understanding of soil carbon & microbial activity • Radically reducing waste in all parts of the food chain • Farming systems producing renewable bioenergy (2nd generation) 24
“Carbon plus” wool, beef and sheep meat
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Transition to carbon-neutral, energy-positive rural landscapes • We should market ‘carbon plus’ grass-fed, rain-fed, red meat, cereals and oilseeds – Significant offsets built-in to grazing & cropping systems – Benefits for habitat, micro-climate, aesthetics, water quality, shelter, bioenergy and carbon
• BUT: MIS schemes show that, without good planning & controls, the market will default to large monoculture plantations replacing agriculture, not integrated into farming (sub-prime carbon!)
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Forestry integrated with farming vs replacing farming
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Forestry integrated with farming vs replacing farming
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We need a third AG/NRM revolution (2) • Urban food production, recycling waste streams & urban water • New/old food marketing systems, with detailed product specification • ‘Carbon plus’ offsets and incentives • Juicier carrots and smarter sticks (especially for biodiversity) • Integrated regional land use planning: infrastructure, transport, water, energy, bushfires, food, waste, carbon, biodiversity, landscape amenity, communications etc – Robust against steeply rising price scenarios: energy, carbon and water 30
SO… • the integrated landscape science agenda is huge
• it has profound social, economic and biophysical dimensions • it extends across many policy portfolios and all levels of government • it demands national oversight and coordination (without stifling local/regional innovation) 31
3. The funding and management of applied R&D — lessons from LWRRDC and LWA • Acknowledgments – EDs, directors, staff , coordinators, partners, end-users
• Knowledge 101 • Characteristics of applied R&D • Crucial capabilities and processes for professional research investment & management
Knowledge 101 • Knowledge happens between the ears • An individual cognitive process and highly contextual: – “I only know what I know when I need to know it”
• Revealed in artifacts (writing, art, formulae, products etc), skills, experience, rules of thumb and natural talent (Dave Snowden) • Across quite different domains: – Including local, Indigenous, scientific, strategic (organisational)
• And different sectors: – research, policy, management, planning, extension, education, monitoring
• people default to known, trusted, accessible sources: – credibility, dialogue, easy access & honesty all critical – timing is crucial: knowledge is most useful when it is needed
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Knowledge From a public policy perspective, there are three main reasons to invest in knowledge:
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To help us make better decisions & policy
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To underpin the innovation process
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So that we can learn as we go along — in the words of Peter Cullen: “at least we should be making new mistakes”
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Applied R&D ABS defines four types of research: pure basic; strategic basic; applied; and developmental Applied research: “seeks to acquire new knowledge with a specific application in view” • We know the application context • We know the intended end-users & beneficiaries • We can tease out the nature of the knowledge need • We can identify prospective adoption pathways
• We can predict adoptability, and measure impact and ROI
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Crucial capabilities and processes • • • • • • • • • •
Strategic planning Getting the questions right — scanning and scoping Prioritisation Portfolio planning and management Research procurement Research governance Research design at project and program level Managing knowledge for adoption Evaluation: project, program and portfolio levels Knowledge legacy and knowledge management
4. Design principles for intelligent research investment •
Long institutional memory and outlook
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Mandate and Governance
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Capabilities in people, systems and processes
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Explicit investment in strategic, formative evaluation
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Stakeholder/end user engagement — without capture
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A collaborative, partnership-oriented institutional culture
R&D Corporations
CSIRO
Some components of the Australian NRM Knowledge System
ANU
•Cotton •Fisheries •Forest and Wood Products •Grains •Grape and Wine
•Land & Water Australia •Rural Industries •Sugar Australian Pork Limited
Meat and Livestock Australia
Australian Bureau of Statistics
Horticulture Australia
Geoscience Australia
Australian Wool Innovation
•E-Water •Future Farm Industries •Irrigation Futures •Invasive Animals •Cotton Catchment Communities •Desert Knowledge •Sustainable Forest Landscapes •Spatial Information •CARE
Legend Departments of State (FMA Act) Statutory Agencies (FMA Act) within portfolios
Water Authorities
ABARE
Bureau of Rural Sciences
Statutory Agencies (CAC Act) within portfolios Corporatised R&D Corporations (Statutory Funding Agreement)
Knowledge Adoption
Commercial Advisory Services
Commercial Farmers
Cooperative Research Centres
Funding Programs
Regional NRM Bodies
Universities
Knowledge Generation and Management
Dairy Australia
Community Landcare groups Hobby Farmers Indigenous Communities
Indigenous Land Corporation
Local Governments
Australian Govt NRM Facilitators
State NRM & Ag Agencies
DAFF DCC
DEWHA MDBA
Water Smart Australia National Landcare Program
Caring for our Country
National Water Commission Productivity Commission
Policy and Programs National Water Initiative
Envirofund
Water for the Future
Rural residential
Why use dedicated CAC Act agencies? Compared with CAC Act agencies set up to fund and manage R&D, policy agencies/branches/sections under the FMA Act struggle to be intelligent purchasers of R&D because: – they perform a wide range of roles other than research management; – the FMA Act makes multi-year $ and commercial partnerships more difficult; – staff turnover undermines continuity, cohesion, credibility and corporate memory; – they find it difficult to train and retain sufficient staff in R&D or KM roles; – they lack specialised R&D project and contract management systems; – they lack dedicated outreach systems to extend research outputs (especially if results contradict the policies of the government of the day); – they find it difficult to manage knowledge legacy issues; – evaluation processes oriented to accountability within particular programs, rather than adaptive learning across a whole portfolio through time.
A thought experiment —what might the application of these principles look like? • A Water, Energy & Land (WEL) R&D Corporation? • A Sustainability Commission with a research mandate? – sister agency to the Productivity Commission? – or an expansion of its mandate? – or completely independent and whole of government, like the New Zealand Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment?
• Much greater capacity for national leadership, coordination and management of the NRM knowledge system – To direct research priorities and resources • Common reporting framework across all jurisdictions and agencies
– To ensure sufficient critical mass on the big, cross-cutting issues – To build capacity strategically in critical areas (people and systems) – To make data, information and knowledge assets more transparent and accessible, and manage them better through time
Take home messages • This conference is about reflection, analysis, synthesis, celebration and imagination • The knowledge legacy of Land & Water Australia is a credit to thousands of people over twenty years • Drivers for the sorts of science funded by LWA are intensifying, not dissipating • The best return on this legacy is to distil the many insights and to look forward, to envision and drive much better ways of organising and funding such research in Australia
GO FOR IT!
For more information e.g. The Getting of Knowledge Paddock to Plate Policy Propositions for Sustainable Food Systems & Background Paper
Powerful Choices: towards a biofuel economy with Barney Foran
Climate Change Primer for regional NRM Managing Australian Soils
www.triplehelix.com.au
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