Coordination of program development and consultation workshop in New Delhi (October 2007)
This workshop was designed to bring together potential partners and stakeholders for a proposed India-Australia collaborative wheat breeding program using Marker Assisted Selection. The program covers a wide range of research areas and both Indian and Australian research institutions, covering quality improvement, productivity improvement, disease resistance and drought resistance in wheat.
The challenge of the workshop was to coordinate a relatively large number of scientists and managers with various interests and agendas and political imperatives. I worked collaboratively with two of ACIAR Research Program Managers and the India Country Manager to structure and manage the workshop and the negotiation and consultation both before and after. The program outline was agreed, and subsidiary projects are in progress or in development.
Employer: Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR)
project development process and governance improvement
Carried out a process improvement and information management strategy for research project and program management. This included documenting and improving the project management lifecycle and process, redeveloping reporting procedures and temp lates, and consultation and communication with staff and partners.
As a result, all final reports of ACIAR projects and annual project report summaries are now published on the external website as pdfs, thus increasing information availability and transparency for the organisation and its stakeholders.
A key focus of this process was to provide improved planning processes for including uptake strategies and impact pathways, including scientific, capacity and community (social, economic and environmental). It also addressed time to impact, ranging from less than five years, 5-15 years, and more than 15 years.
Another goal of this process was to separate the scientific and extension publishing process from the reporting process, and ensure greater openness, transparency and information accessibility and knowledge sharing.
This process required substantial consultation and communication both with research program management staff and project partners from Australian and partner country research organisations. Processes and temp lates will be regularly updated and reviewed based on user feedback to form a continuous improvement cycle.
Employer: Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research
Knowledge sharing and social media campaign for the BGRI and International Wheat Conference, St Petersburg, May 2010
Coordinated and participated in a KS and social media campaign to promote the work of the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative and its partners in conjunction with the International Wheat Conference held in St Petersburg in May 2010. Worked with scientists, knowledge sharing and communication specialists to promote and share the work and results of this program. Partners included Cornell University, CIMMYT, ICARDA, FAO and a range of others.
Knowledge sharing and communication strategies for research programs at ICARDA
Advised and provided assistance to scientists at ICARDA in development and incorporation of strategies into research planning.
Development and implementation of a comprehensive plan for the communications and secretariat unit
This communication and secretariat unit plan was developed in consultation with ACIAR staff and partners, and was developed collaboratively by the Unit’s staff. As a number of functional areas had fairly recently been brought together under my supervision, this also included clearly scoping out roles and responsibilities as well as identifying key strategic projects for the year. The plan was presented to staff at ACIAR and was signed off by the ACIAR Commission. Implementation is continuing.
Employer: Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR)
Implementation of collaborative websites for remote project teams
As ACIAR moves to fewer larger projects with a greater number of participants and partners, I have initiated the development of collaborative tools to deal with challenges of working in large, remote teams. The Unit has implemented web2.0 technology to develop these tools.
So far, two collaborative websites have been developed. These websites provide blogs, wikis (for multi-authoring of documents), shared calendars, and a document management repository. The websites are also linked to FlickR and U-tube for cheap and easy access to common resources such as video footage and photographs.
The two websites are for ACIAR’s Philippines
The sites are low bandwidth, which overcomes bandwidth constraints and intermittent service in many developing countries. The software is free public domain software which minimises costs and also means it can be adopted in developing countries more readily.
The Unit is also investigating using popular websites such as Facebook for networking, for example to enable the alumni of ACIAR’s extensive training programs to stay in touch.
Employer: Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR)
Continuous improvements to the ACIAR website
During the time I have been at ACIAR, I have worked on improving the currency and quality of the information on the ACIAR website, as well as its reliability and efficiency. A complete redesign of the home page and navigation has been completed and is awaiting sign off. The web team under my leadership has also implemented a new content management system using public domain software, conducted user research and redesigned the navigation, redeveloped a number of sections of the website and ensured a regular turnover of stories and highlights and current information. For example, in response to the food price crisis, we developed a series of pages with current information from our partners.
Employer: Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR)
Media campaigns and liaison in conjunction with the ATSE Crawford Fund
I worked closely with the ATSE Crawford Fund, in particular on media campaigns and issues management aimed at raising awareness of the importance of international agricultural research efforts and in particular the roles of ACIAR and the CGIAR centres.
This includes regularly sponsoring journalists to visit projects and programs in developing countries, event organisation and issues monitoring. For example, during 2007, an ABC Australia rural journalist was sponsored to visit northern Vietnam
Employer: Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR)
