2014 – Thank you for another successful year

From the CEO

As the year draws to a close, I reflect on yet another successful year and indeed feel a strong sense of privilege in being the Chief Executive of such a exhilarating organisation, committed to excellence in research and innovation in practice. I would firstly like to sincerely thank everyone for their hard work this year and their commitment and dedication to our vision and mission. Our good work is increasing the profile, output and reputation of the CRC for Water Sensitive Cities.

Our research to date has led to a number of significant achievements. Building on a foundation of research excellence, we focussed more of our efforts this year towards consolidation/integration of research activities, synthesising interim research outputs, and developing productive connections for research impact. Connections amongst our researchers, between our researchers and our government and industry partners, and amongst our end-user community are all vital ingredients in achieving research impact for our mission in addressing the grand challenge of sustainable and resilient urban water management in supporting liveable cities. In October this year, we reported to the Australian Government that we have convened 64 stakeholder engagement, research dissemination and training activities in total across our three activity hubs over the 12 month period of the last financial year.

We celebrated National Water Week by bringing together more than 320 leading researchers and industry champions at the first Water Sensitive Cities Conference in Melbourne in October. Our research projects have reached a stage where the richness and diversity of water sensitive city research outputs were clearly evident. At the conference, we launched Research 2012-2016 the first comprehensive catalogue of CRCWSC research projects and associated post-graduate research. If you missed the conference, CRCWSC participants can view the presentations online here and Research 2012-2016 here.

Internationally, we continue our engagement with the PUB, Singapore’s water agency and the National University of Singapore. The CRCWSC is also leading the development of an urban flood resilience framework for the International Water Association, and ran the inaugural workshop in June as part of the Singapore International Water Week. Our collaborations in China were cemented further when the City of Kunshan became our first Chinese Incubator City and South East University in Nanjing joined the CRCWSC. As an incubator city, the City of Kunshan hosted a research synthesis workshop in March 2014 around the topic of creating ecological landscapes along its roads and waterway corridors as part of its overall city wide open space strategy. The City also sponsored and hosted a 2-week long architectural studio for our final year architectural students that resulted in some very innovative ideas from our students on guiding development in the city into 2050.

Our rising Australian and international profile has no doubt assisted in CRCWSC researchers being flooded with speaking engagement invitations and awards. Among those, Dr Briony Rogers, Monash University Research Fellow and CRCWSC project leader, was selected by the International Social Science Council to be one of 20 ‘World Social Science Fellows’ in the area of sustainable urbanisation. I had the honour of being named a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering and was amongst one of 50 global high profile thought leaders invited to speak at the two-day Brisbane Global Cafe preceding the G20 Leaders Summit in November. Dr David McCarthy from Monash University’s Department of Civil Engineering (and co-author of Biofilters and wetlands for stormwater treatment and harvesting) was awarded the Victorian Young Tall Poppy Science Award – an award that celebrates the best and brightest young achievers in science and supports them to study overseas.

Many would have been aware of the Australian Government’s announcement of the review of the CRC Programme by David Miles AM in September. The CRCWSC and many of our industry participants made submissions highlighting the strengths, achievements and future goals of our organisation and the relationship with share with others. In total, 27 organisations made submissions referencing the CRCWSC, reflecting different perspectives from six different sectors that are stakeholders of our CRC. We are remaining positive about the outcome of the review, which is expected in early 2015.

Next year we look forward to the enhancement of CRCWSC’s research activities, research synthesis with industry and government partners, and helping to positively influence their policies and practices.

We are hosting Researcher and Industry Partner Workshops in Perth in February and already planning for our second Water Sensitive Cities Conference in September. If you haven’t already registered for the workshops, please do so to avoid missing out.

We now boast a participant list of 86 organisations, along with a total of 190 researchers and 50 PhD candidates undertaking 36 research projects – all toward making water sensitive cities a reality.

On a final note, we have just received communication from the Commonwealth CRC program – after reviewing our annual report – congratulating us on a highly productive and engaging year.

On behalf of the Board and everyone involved with the CRCWSC, I hope you have a relaxing, safe and enjoyable Christmas and holiday break.

Tony Wong
CEO