industry & research
campusreview.com.au
Growing the field
W
The Australian
Academy of
Science has
released a 10‑year
strategic plan
for agricultural
sciences and
requested $100
million for research.
Jeremy Burdon
interviewed by
Loren Smith
14
hen an ex-Australian Coal Association
chairman is afraid of climate change, you
know you should be too. In Ian Dunlop’s
report, Disaster Alley: Climate Change, Conflict & Risk,
he argues our political and corporate leaders have
failed Australia and, as such, we are “ill-prepared for
the real risks of climate change”.
The Australian Academy of Science is all too
aware of this. On Tuesday 20 June 2017 it released
its 10‑year strategic plan for Australian agricultural
sciences. The first of the plan’s five recommendations
is a $100 million agricultural fund, specifically aimed
at backing research into mitigating “looming risks” like
climate change and disease outbreaks.
“We know for instance that it’s only a matter of time
until we see an outbreak of an aggressive invasive
species, such as the Varroa destructor mite, that would
devastate bee colonies and crop pollination,” said
Dr Jeremy Burdon, chair of the academy’s National
Committee for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.
Dr Burdon sat down with Campus Review
to discuss the academy’s new 10-year plan for
agriculture.
CR: What will the proposed $100 million agricultural
translation fund be put towards?
JB: The idea behind the translation fund is that there
is quite a lot of research that comes along through
time that gets to a certain point where the researcher
is operating at a certain level, and then potential
commercial interests might say, “Yes, you’ve produced
some interesting oils in that plant. Can you give me
50, or 100, or 1000 litres for me to do commercial
work on?” Whereas the researcher may be producing