About
Our Organisation
The Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre is conducting research into the social, environmental and economic impacts of bushfires.
After an initial grant through the Australian Government’s CRC program in 2003 combined with substantial partner resources, the Bushfire CRC is now funded to 2013 to address key issues raised by recent major fires.
The Bushfire CRC is made up of all the fire and land management agencies in Australia and New Zealand, CSIRO, the Bureau of Meteorology, the Attorney General's Department and several other fire related organisations. A small executive office is in East Melbourne
The fire and land management and emergency services industries are currently building on the outcomes of the Bushfire CRC for the longer term with a broader new research program to include changes in climate, demographics, technology, policy and industry, as well as the lessons of the February 2009 bushfires in Victoria.
The research programs ofthe Bushfire CRC contain a wide range of projects. The programs involve members of fire and land management organisations, universities, Australian Federal Government agencies, and New Zealand forest research agencies.
The research outputs of the Bushfire CRC do not necessarily represent the views, policies, practices or positions of any of the individual agencies or organisations who are members of the Bushfire CRC.
Our Mission
The Bushfire CRC’s mission is to enhance the management of the bushfire risk to the community in an economically and ecologically sustainable manner.
It includes the following objectives:
- To develop an internationally renowned centre of excellence to lead bushfire research in Australia
- To provide a research framework that will improve the effectiveness of bushfire management agencies
- To increase the self-sufficiency of communities in managing the risks from bushfires.
What is a CRC?
Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) are funded through an Australian Government program to bring together researchers from universities, CSIRO and other government organisations, and private industry or public sector agencies in long-term collaborative arrangements that support research and development and education activities to achieve real outcomes of national economic and social significance.
The program emphasises the importance of developing collaborative arrangements between researchers and between researchers and research users in the private and public sector in order to maximise the capture of the benefits of publicly funded research through an enhanced process of commercialisation or utilisation by the users of that research.
These arrangements establish strong collaborative links between researchers and end users and others in order to create a multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional research environment focussed on addressing industry and user needs.
These collaborative links increase efficiency and cost effectiveness of research and research training and make better use of research resources through sharing of major facilities and equipment.
There are currently almost 50 CRCs in the program. More on the CRC Program at www.crc.gov.au
