A webinar run by Campus+ to highlight and discuss commercialisation opportunities in Water Management has led to a flood of interest in an urban water hub. The initial webinar connected University of Canberra Researchers with representatives from the Water Services Association of Australia. This was a great opportunity for researchers to
understand the priorities of the WSAA, the peak body that represents the urban water industry.
“This is what UC wanted us to do”, said Nick McNaughton, CEO of Campus+, “we can get really interesting, engaging industry experts to share their experiences and ideas with researchers and get a conversation started. We were thrilled with the response on the day, and we have helped UC to keep the momentum going. Once you’ve got ideas and an opening you need to be responsive and proactive. That can be tricky for professional staff and academics with existing workloads, research and teaching commitments. That’s another way we add value, helping to keep a great idea on track and identifying and bringing together the stakeholders a potential project needs to be successful. We’re really excited to see where this project might lead”.
So far interests are aligning in Canberra with water utilities, regional councils, developers, the ACT Government, universities and the WSAA coming together under the guidance of Prof. Ross Thompson, Director of the Centre for Applied Water Science in the Institute of Applied Ecology, University of Canberra, to map out the environmental water challenges and research expertise in the city and wider region.
First published 17 Aug 2020