The Marine and Tropical Sciences Research Facility (MTSRF) is
part of the Commonwealth Environmental Research Facilities Program
(CERF), an initiative of the Australian Government that will invest
$100 million (AUD) in world-class public good research over four
years from July 2006. Of this $100 million, $40 million will
be allocated under 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.
On 10 August 2006, the 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.
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 is located at the Cairns and
Townsville campuses of James Cook University and represents an exciting,
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 will be undertaken that is
targeted for public benefit and towards delivering useful products
that support the health of these environmental assets. The
research to be conducted through the Facility will support
responsible parties in their endeavours to protect, conserve,
sustainably use and manage North Queensland’s public
environmental assets.
To achieve this, the MTSRF will build upon the knowledge base
developed through the CRCs to ensure targeted, focused research is
delivered to appropriate end users and management agencies.
The MTSRF will also enable 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.
