PM launches $20 million University of Sydney Centre for Carbon, Water and Food

Australia’s first multidisciplinary research centre dedicated to tackling the nation’s and region’s biggest food security and environmental challenges, through the integrated study of carbon, food and water, was launched yesterday by Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

The Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council recommended in 2010 that national priority be given to understanding and mapping connections between energy, water, carbon, climate, agriculture, ecosystems, the economy and society, to ensure Australia’s future food security and ability to remain resilient in the face of future climate volatility.

The University of Sydney’s Centre for Carbon, Water and Food will answer this call, helping to ensure Australia’s future sustainability and potentially acting as a regional leader in food production and land management. The University of Sydney and the federal government have invested more than $20 million in the purpose-built facility, which draws on the university’s world-class expertise in areas such as soil science, ecology and ecophysiology and plant breeding.

Situated in the Faculty of Agriculture and Environment at the University of Sydney’s Camden campus, the Centre for Carbon, Water and Food will deliver research, education and training that will underpin best practices and policies for sustainable management of public and private rural land in Australia and in our major trading partners in the Asia-Pacific region. It will help answer how to produce more higher-quality food, with less carbon emissions and more efficient water use, and tackle some of Australia’s biggest environmental challenges.

The centre has already attracted international interest, with two agreements signed with leading Chinese institutions yesterday. This collaboration between Australia and China follows a December 2012 Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade report ‘Feeding the Future’, which identified China and Australia as potential productive partners to ease growing pressure on food supplies. It also follows several decades of collaboration already undertaken between University of Sydney researchers and Chinese colleagues from a multitude of institutions.

The first MoU, between the University of Sydney and the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, will see a Sino-Australia Joint Laboratory for Sustainable Agro-Ecosystems established and housed at the centre with a mirror facility in Beijing. The second MoU, between the University of Sydney and Nanjing Agricultural University, will see a Sino-Australian Laboratory for Food Security established and housed at the centre with a mirror facility in Nanjing.

These arrangements will enable joint research in areas such as crop protection, soil quality, food security and the mitigation of climate change effects on agricultural ecosystems, including the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The bilateral effort will include research projects for external agencies such as the World Bank and Gates Foundation, creating further international benefit from the collaboration.

The head of the centre, Professor Mark Adams, said it was a natural fit for the University of Sydney, whose teaching and research programs address areas of national and global importance, adopting a multidisciplinary approach to find solutions to real-world problems.

He said the centre hopes to correct the major knowledge gap in cross-disciplinary cross-sectoral understanding that is needed to enable innovation across energy, water and carbon domains, and to become an international leader in this research.

“At the beginning of the Asian Century, it is globally recognised that food security can only be delivered by a concerted, international effort,” Professor Adams said.

“The centre will house some of the best people in the world working on questions around water use efficiency, nutrient use efficiency, nitrogen fixation and soil structure and, as we have seen today, other institutions and experts will be attracted to the centre to be part of this effort.

“The world is facing a huge challenge: we’ve got to produce more food, of better quality, and we’ve got to do it while putting less carbon into the atmosphere and using less water. The Centre for Carbon, Water and Food at the University of Sydney will play a leading role in helping tackle this global challenge.”

A video about the launch of the centre can be viewed below.