Collaboration is vital for natural resource management (NRM), as no one person or organisation can successfully address all complex facing NRM in Australia.
Research institutes and NRM practitioner agencies bring complementary expertise, experience and resources to complex social, institutional and external contexts, often during conflict between different parties.
Few instances of long-term collaboration between researchers and NRM agencies have been studies in Australia, particularly regarding the possible barriers to the relationships and communication on which these collaborations are based.
My latest study, co-authored with Mr Mike Vanderzee from Charles Sturt University’s Institute for Land, Water and Society, investigated the perceived barriers for establishing and maintaining agency-research collaborations.
We did this by analysing 23 interviews I conducted with researchers from CSU in Albury, NSW, and project managers from North East Catchment Management Authority, based over the border in Wodonga, Victoria.
Read about the results of this work and some recommendations for improving collaborations in Can agencies of different feathers click together?, ILWS Report no. 125.