Professor Alistar Robertson, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research) UWA, sets the direction

Indian Ocean Marine Research Centre – a collaborative opportunity

Our three collaborating organisations, The University of Western Australia (UWA), the CSIRO and the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), are developing new multidisciplinary research teams and creating a graduate training environment that will significantly advance Australia’s marine science capacity, capability and profile.

The partners are also developing the Indian Ocean Marine Research Centre (IOMRC), a new facility on the main campus of UWA, and refurbishing the Waterman’s marine research aquarium facility made available by the WA Government. Two hundred and forty marine researchers will be co-located in the facilities. Support for development of the new facilities comes from the Commonwealth Education Investment Fund, the partners and the WA State Government.

Integrated research between the joint partners

Research integration across partners is being stimulated by joint research investments in research fellows and PhD students, and the shared use of research facilities. These include UWA’s world-class microscopy and characterisation facilities, the AIMS vessel RV Solander and the oceanographic facilities provided by the Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS). IOMRC will have significant international research collaborations with a range of other universities.

Visionary research themes

The IOMRC partnership will facilitate research on the most important drivers of innovation in the marine sector – climate change, the sustainable use of marine resources, conserving marine biodiversity, coastal zone management, and security and safety – as identified in the Marine Nation policy launched by Senator the Hon Kim Carr in early 2009. The partners are developing integrated and multi-pronged research programs to address these drivers.

Research outcomes such as:

• multiscale biodiversity maps for the NW region,
• linked atmosphere-ocean models to better predict climate change,
• linked ocean-coast current and wave and biogeochemical models predicting responses of ecosystems to climate change and resource use,
• and new policy options will be available to Government and industry for sustainable management of ecosystems in the Indian Ocean and the Timor Sea.

New marine science facilities - for tomorrow’s research

Work has been done in preparation for the design and construct phase of the new IOMRC facilities on the UWA campus and the re-furbishment of the Waterman’s building on the coast. Formal agreements and funding arrangements have now been put in place. The Project Architect will lead the drafting of the Functional Requirements Brief, the document that sets down what will be delivered when the facilities are complete.

Input to the planning process

From February 2011 (when the project architect will be appointed) researchers in the three IOMRC partner organisations will be consulted in the planning for the new building and refurbishment of the Waterman’s facility. I would like each organisation to do some preliminary work to get ready for this consultation by developing ideas for requirements within the facility. Some boundary conditions to your discussions should be that:

• laboratory space should be designed to be as flexible in its use as possible to allow changes in use over time
• while Commonwealth agencies and UWA will have separate main offices within the building, the partners have agreed that as far as possible staff will be grouped by appropriate disciplines rather than by organisation
• the partners have agreed to as much shared space as possible for meeting and seminar rooms, tea rooms and space for postgraduate students
• most postdoctoral staff and postgraduate students will be accommodated in open-plan settings.

Contact

Alistar Robertson

Chair, IOMRC Steering Committee