Media Release

Wednesday, 25 August 2004

The University of Adelaide today received $3 million over five years as part of $42 million committed by the Australian Government to fund cutting-edge research through a new plan to bring leading researchers together to share their knowledge.

Networks headed by Professor Bob Hill, Head of the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, and Associate Professor Rob Richards, School of Molecular and Biomedical Science, will each receive $1.5 million - $300,000 over the next five years.

The University's Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Neville Marsh says this is a wonderful result. "It testifies to the strength of research into the biological and environmental sciences at the University of Adelaide and our commitment to enhancing multi-disciplinary research collaboration to address complex problems," Professor Marsh says.

And Professor Peter Rathjen, Executive Dean, Faculty of Sciences, says the award of these grants is a major accomplishment. "It identifies the University of Adelaide as the key place in Australia for environmental and biomedical research, reflecting both our past achievements and our recent successes in recruiting outstanding new researchers to the state," Professor Rathjen says.

The Network headed by Professor Hill is "Discovering the past and present to shape the future: networking environmental sciences for understanding and managing Australian biodiversity."

"Biodiversity research is strong in Australia but is highly uncoordinated. Recent major breakthroughs in both theory and techniques have highlighted the need for a Network to properly integrate research and focus it on the most appropriate scale," Professor Hill says.

"This Network aims to bring together a diverse spectrum of highly experienced and early career researchers to pool their ideas and expertise. It will enable them to determine how best to describe Australia's current biodiversity and the biological and environmental history leading up to the present.

"A major outcome will be the ability to predict the impacts of environmental change on biodiversity, which will assist management decisions across Australia, and have global relevance."

The Network headed by Professor Richards is "ARC Research Network in Genes and Environment in Development (NGED)".

"Interactions between the early environment and the developing organism have major consequences for the lifetime health of individuals," Professor Richards says.

"The primary objective of the Network in Genes and Environment in Development is to harness the resources of leading developmental biologists and physiologists to define how events in early life determine the risk of adverse outcomes in perinatal and adult life."