About the Reef & Rainforest Research Centre

This Page:  The RRRC:  Delivering science solutions for the tropics | The Marine and Tropical Sciences Research Facility | Background to the RRRC and MTSRF

The RRRC:  Delivering science solutions for the tropics

The RRRC is a not-for-profit consortium of research providers, industry and community organisations that cooperate via a strong and effective engagement framework. 

The Centre has evolved an innovative approach to improving the sustainability of management and use of tropical environmental assets.

What sets the RRRC apart is a unique focus on engagement with key sectors to deliver solutions based on good science that address key tropical environmental management issues.

Another important feature is the RRRC's role as a knowledge broker, ensuring the effective delivery of research results and tools to end users. The aim is for end users to be aware of new research, to understand the implications, and then apply the new knowledge towards increasingly sustainable outcomes.  This results in the maximum possible return on investment in public-good research, and the best possible benefit for the North Queensland region.

The Marine and Tropical Sciences Research Facility

A component of the Commonwealth Environment Research Facilities Program (CERF), the Marine and Tropical Sciences Research Facility (or MTSRF) was an initiative of the Australian Government, which invested $100 million (AUD) in world-class public good research over four years from July 2006.  Of this $100 million, $40 million was allocated to the MTSRF to develop collaborative, public benefit research between Australia's best tropical environmental researchers to support the conservation and sustainable use of North Queensland's environmental assets - the Wet Tropics rainforests, the Great Barrier Reef and the connecting coastal regions.

The MTSRF consortium involved over 38 end user organisations working with some three hundred scientists from fifteen research providers.

On 10 August 2006, the then Commonwealth Department of the Environment and Heritage (DEH) approved a contract with the Reef and Rainforest Research Centre Limited (RRRC) to administer the MTSRF Research Programme in North Queensland.

For further information about the MTSRF, its history and research programme, or to download publications stemming from MTSRF funded research, visit the MTSRF Research and Publications sections of this website.

Background to the RRRC and MTSRF

Enhancing Research Capacity in North Queensland 

Throughout the lifespan of the CRC Reef Research Centre and the Rainforest CRC, the need to protect our public environmental assets has been well understood and research efforts have typically focused on providing appropriate information to facilitate conservation of the Great Barrier Reef and the Wet Tropics World Heritage Areas.

With the wind-up of the two CRCs in 2006, the Australian Government supported a new initiative, the MTSRF, which was established to build upon the work of the two CRCs during their fifteen year tenure.

The MTSRF represents a world-first opportunity to comprehensively address issues of concern for the sustainable use, management and protection of the Great Barrier Reef and its catchments, tropical rainforests including the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area, and the Torres Strait through the generation and transfer of world-class research and sharing knowledge.

Through the MTSRF a range of research has been undertaken that is targeted for public benefit and towards delivering useful products that support the health of these environmental assets.  The research being conducted through the Facility also supports responsible parties in their endeavours to protect, conserve, sustainably use and manage North Queensland’s public environmental assets.

To achieve this, the MTSRF has built on the knowledge base developed through the CRCs to ensure targeted, focused research is delivered to appropriate end users and management agencies.  The MTSRF has also enabled the continuation of research initiated by the CRCs to investigate and develop an understanding of the influences of impacts such as climate change on our delicate tropical ecosystems in an effort to improve our management of our impacts and mitigate any negative influences.

For further information about the MTSRF, its history and research programme, or to download publications stemming from MTSRF funded research, visit the MTSRF Research and Publications sections of this website.