Deakin dinner focuses on researchers

In October, Deakin University held a dinner in Federation Square in Melbourne to showcase Deakin University’s research and its researchers to a wide range of key stakeholders.

DVC (Research) Professor Lee Astheimer was one of the speakers after arriving guests were treated to a DVD featuring some of the University's key research projects.

Professor Astheimer also had the job of introducing a number of other Deakin speakers on the night including Professors Peter Hodgson and Gael McDonald and Dr Kylie Ball – all representative of the growing depth of Deakin’s research activities.

This is an edited version of Professor Astheimer’s speech:

I am delighted to see so many of our current partners as well as new friends to Deakin attending tonight, interested in discovering where Deakin is taking our research.

You have already seen glimpses of some of our researchers in the photographic montages and video clips,

Reflecting on those now, you may be thinking, as I was when I started my position at Deakin six months ago, there is a lot more serious research going on at Deakin than you might have imagined. This is very true, and with the most recent and continuing recruitment of top-flight researchers into strategic areas, Deakin’s research presence is blossoming.

So I thought it appropriate to say a little about the challenging research landscape in which we are operating and how Deakin has been growing our research.

In the past 30 years, the world has shrunk dramatically in its human scale; the increased physical and virtual connectedness has focused our collective attention on issues of truly global proportion. Probably at no time in history have humans knowingly been confronted with problems, issues and challenges of this scale. Peak oil, energy alternatives, climate change, water shortages, disease control, agricultural depletion, landscape degradation, economic and cultural inequities all loom heavily. As a global population, there is an acute awareness that fate is in our hands, or, in Rumsfeldian terms, we know what we don’t know. But I don’t want to paint a bleak picture, here; and there are still plenty of unknown unknowns! But this global awareness has created a level of urgency, at social and political levels, to envision trajectories for solutions. And this, to my mind, is a cry for the highest calibre of focused research.

Not single, wonder drug panaceas, but the critical need for a culture of continual problem solving, lateral thinking, incremental discovery, invention and application. Universities not only have an essential role in the provision and transfer of knowledge, but also are critical in building a workforce with a research mindset, a population of solution seekers. And Deakin is very committed to these responsibilities.

It is fantastic to have the recognition and support for research shown by Senator Kim Carr, the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, and the Department of Industry, Innovation Science and Research, especially in attempting to rebuild Australian research in tough economic times. Senator Carr recognises the power of research collaboration and partnerships in Australia’s future. These are core ideas in Deakin’s research vision.

Deakin has a focus on research that makes a difference - at the community, national and international levels. In the late 1990s Deakin researchers were acknowledged as the most successful nationally in conducting research in collaboration with business and industry. This commitment has grown, particularly in technology-led areas, last year resulting in the establishment of ITRI, the Institute for Technology Research Innovation headed up by Professor Peter Hodgson.

For me, the most “future-thinking” concept embedded in ITRI is the recognition that truly innovative research is more likely to occur at the edges of disciplinary fields and that to kick start such interactions it is important to provide opportunities for cross-disciplinary fertilisation. Thus, ITRI houses in one large facility, researchers and research labs across materials sciences, manufacturing, biotechnology and intelligent systems; creating a rich mix of expertise and perspectives.

Recently, Deakin has made a concerted effort to develop research foci, building on our existing internal talent. Over the past two years, as a result of Deakin’s robust financial management, we have been able to invest substantially in research development, introducing a University Postdoctoral Fellowship program, attracting over 15 eminent international researchers in key areas and bolstering research infrastructure.

In the next month, Deakin will launch its Strategic Research Centres - effectively our research strengths. These include our two Institutes: ITRI and the Alfred Deakin Research Institute, our policy and governance think-tank. It also includes our research in a wide range of areas including mental health, medical bioscience, health policy and behaviour change, applied ecology, molecular biology and biotechnology, creative industries and education policy and practise.

I stress, these are not new research areas, but are being identified specifically to grow and develop our existing excellence.

Deakin is also fortunate in being home to the Commonwealth’s Enterprise Connect Innovation Regions Centre, an initiative that aligns perfectly with our new centre for regional entrepreneurial research. We have and will continue to invest heavily in research talent to underpin both our teaching and research programs, both at the professorial level, bringing in new teams, but also at the early career level, through the Alfred Deakin Postdoctoral Award Program and other initiatives.

Another huge step forward for our University came with the announcement of the Australian Laureate Fellowships or ALFs in June.

When the award was announced Lawrence Money noted in the Age that the intellectual capital of Victoria had shifted to the shores of Corio Bay.

I have got to know Peter a bit in recent trips to establish research with industries in India, and he is not just an exceptional boffin tucked up by himself with the latest gadgets in his laboratory. He is a generous team leader and an incredibly collegial scientist, while at the same time, a good part of his head is thinking about big picture futuristic solutions.

Peter’s ALF is just one of many major awards won by Deakin researchers recently.

Professor Clare Bradford won the inaugural Trudeau Fellowship from the University of Winnipeg.

Professor David Walker is going to the University of Copenhagen as a visiting fellow.

Dr Kylie Ball is a highly talented Early Career Researcher. Kylie was a recipient of the Young Tall Poppy Award in 2008. Deakin also had a Young Tall Poppy in 2009 in Daniel Ierodiaconou. These awards are a testimony of our commitment to supporting early career researchers, and bode well for Deakin’s future research excellence.

The Young Tall Poppy Award is presented by the Australian Institute of Policy and Science In recognition of outstanding achievements of young researchers in the sciences. These awards also provide the winners with an opportunity to demonstrate their value as role models by promoting and encouraging an interest in science.

Kylie’s Young Tall Poppy was awarded for her work on understanding the social and behavioural contributors to obesity. The Young Tall Poppy award is actually the earliest stage of a career trajectory leading to the Nobel Prize—at least it did for Barry Marshall and Robin Warren, the 2005 recipients of the Nobel Prize for medicine, who were 1998 Tall Poppies. So we wish the best for Kylie.

Another new research area we are developing is in the Faculty of Business and Law. Professor Gael McDonald came to us at the beginning of the year from UniTec New Zealand to become Deakin’s Dean of the Faculty Business and Law. Although the faculty is Deakin’s most active teaching faculty, it is not traditionally an area of intense research activity. Under Gael’s enthusiastic and focused leadership, this is changing rapidly.

Right across the University, there is a commitment to research that is getting stronger and stronger. There are many, many knowns to be confronted and unknowns to be discovered if the world is to continue as a viable and sustainable place for human beings.

Deakin is up for the challenge.

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