Marshall the foremost thinking from relevant disciplines to help Australia adapt to a more challenging future and achieve a sustainable balance between water, environment and society.

1. Background

The critical water management challenges facing Australia have been brought into stark relief by the unbroken sequence of 10 dry years in southern and eastern Australia. All the major reservoirs are now at critically low levels after the severe drought of 2006/07. Deficiencies in institutions, policies and strategies for securing reliable water supplies are being exposed by the stresses of this unprecedented dry period. The spectre of climate change is creating further uncertainty. As Alfred Deakin remarked in an address to irrigators in the 1890's; 'It is not the quantity of water applied to a crop it is the quantity of intelligence applied which determines the result - there is more due to intelligence than water in every case.'

A well crafted research strategy nurtured by a knowledge exchange strategy focusing the diverse intellectual skills across Monash and Melbourne Universities will 'apply intelligence' to make a major contribution to overcoming the critical challenges.

The strategic objectives set out below are derived from a paper prepared for Australia's first Future Summit held in Sydney in 2004 . Climate change, social issues and the politics of managing water in a Federation are common themes for all of the strategic objectives. The research strategy for Uniwater is being developed to address these critical challenges allowing all stakeholders to see the value of engaging with Uniwater.

2. Strategic Objectives

Maximise the environmental return on investment in repair of rivers, groundwater and catchments.
Realise the potential of irrigated and dryland agriculture using less water, and having regard to effective economic performance, environmental impact, resource use efficiency and social support.
Provide a reliable and sustainable water supply to Australia's growing cities.
Develop water policies and institutions with due consideration for planning, governance, accounting, regulation, markets and services, in the context of a Federation.

3. Value Proposition

Pulling it together

Research can be viewed as providing detailed fragments of knowledge. While these may be argued to be useful to innovation, development and policy, the connections are often absent or poorly drawn. This trend is exacerbated when urgent solutions are sought from particularly complex and uncertain environments. The result is further fragmentation as implementation is shared across many institutions with no over-arching conceptual framework to guide it, and advancement of knowledge is spread thinly across vast and disparate areas of inquiry. Funds are expended on research, demonstration, consultancy, policy development and hard and soft infrastructure without enough attention to exactly how, or indeed whether they will break through and contribute to public benefit.

In designing a portfolio of research and knowledge exchange activities, Uniwater aims to re-assert and extend the influence of water-related research. Careful definitions and concepts, rigorous critique and evaluation, inter-disciplinary perspectives, and even methods for the sharing of knowledge and supporting adaptive change; these are examples of how research methods can help resolve the challenges of fragmentation.

Uniwater will provide critical bridging capabilities to make a significant difference on the strategic objectives we have identified. These capabilities are:

Research Incubation:

Identify research with the highest potential to make a difference
Design cutting edge inter-disciplinary research projects
Broker funding and manage complex projects
Synthesize and communicate high level findings
Develop state-of-the-art assessments of knowledge and critical gaps

Institutional Strengthening:

Provide support to research groups across the University to build capacity in water research, for example, through single discipline research contracts

Knowledge Exchange:

Build and maintain strategic connections within and external to the University
Provide an independent and trusted forum for critical review and informed debate
Stimulate new and creative approaches to water by preparing clear thought pieces on: the nature and scale of the challenges faced; new ideas about technology and social organisation to support beneficial change; the linkages between water and other resource/sustainability challenges and candidate solutions; high priority areas for fundamental research.

Current Strengths and Complementarities

The University of Melbourne and Monash University each has major research strength in water-related topics. The universities have collaborated in a range of other initiatives, such as the Victorian e-Research Initiative (Versi), which offer useful partnerships for Uniwater activities.

It is not surprising that Melbourne and Monash have tended to develop complementary research areas, and have a history of collaboration in many fields. For example, Melbourne researchers are particularly interested in physical processes of rivers and work routinely with Monash researchers who are interested in urban stormwater and river ecology.

Uniwater will benefit substantially from a 3 year heritage developed by the Melbourne Water Research Centre (MWRC) at The University of Melbourne. A portfolio of existing projects, initiatives and operating resources has been rolled into Uniwater, giving it a 'warm start'. The MWRC experience in provoking outcome-oriented, interdisciplinary research in water will broaden under the combined banner with Monash University. In the spirit of the new Uniwater arrangements, previous MWRC activities are referenced as Uniwater activities throughout this document.

The expertise across Melbourne and Monash in research disciplines relates to the four strategic objectives of Uniwater. Our aim will always be to assemble the best team to make a tangible contribution to a particular strategic objective. At times, this may mean including another institution or research project.

A further advantage of assembling our joint capabilities in this way is that we are able to identify critical gaps that can be filled to the advantage of both institutions and the community outcomes we seek. Two such gaps are currently being explored. First, the Australian Centre for Biodiversity: Analysis, Policy and Management (Monash Sustainability Institute and Biological Sciences) at Monash and Dookie Campus (Agriculture and Food Science) at Melbourne have started preliminary discussions about their respective programs and the Dookie Campus facilities. Second, we have identified hydrogeology (groundwater) as a critically under-resourced capability (with some hidden jewels) in both institutions. We intend to work through Uniwater to help strengthen the capability in hydrogeology across the two institutions. This will not only help build the Uniwater research portfolio, it will also fill a significant and badly needed role at state, national and regional level in education, research and research training.

In summary, Uniwater aims to expand the opportunities for both institutions by:

Providing more venues for past and new research findings to be drawn together and to have influence
Providing government with confidence that they are dealing with a well organized and progressive alliance of the highest calibre (including other institutions where expertise dictates)
Achieving and building critical mass in key disciplines
Forge stronger links between Melbourne and Monash for exploring complementary curriculum opportunities for students, co-supervision and new education and training programs to support change in the water industry.