RESEARCHER 'USERS' DISCUSS COMMUNICATION ROLES
CRC 'user contact' representatives met recently at GBRMPA to discuss
better ways to collaborate with scientists and communicate
aspects of the CRC Reef research program more widely to stakeholders.
The role of each user contact representative, mainly staff from GBRMPA,
QDPI and QDE, is to liaise with each research task chief investigator
to assist keeping the project meaningful to reef industry groups and policy-makers.
Helping communicate the research results - disseminating information and
facilitating meetings with stakeholders - is a vital part of this process.
The group discussed a range of new ways user contact representatives,
who are nominated for every individual CRC research task, can improve
their role "as an interface between knowledge providers and knowledge
users." Individuals agreed to contact chief investigators more regularly
on an informal basis to keep aware of progress. A list of CRC research
tasks would be placed into GBRMPA's INFO STORE for greater staff access
(a disk with task lists would be sent to each QDE region for this purpose).
New CRC researchers would be invited to present their planned project
to management agency staff as part of the joint seminar series now being
held regularly at AIMS, GBRMPA and QDE. Distribution of relevant CRC Board
meeting information would be made available to interested staff, and Board
members will be asked to formally report back to their executive staff
meetings. A CRC Reef Research Centre Ltd Home Page will be developed and
linked into GBRMPA, AIMS, JCU and other CRC's Home Pages for greater access
of research information. Finally, the user contact representative group
agreed to meet informally each six months to continue discussing these
issues and to forge stronger links.
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