Collaborative research hub to focus on water engineering and management

Researchers from the Gulbali Institute for Agriculture, Water and Environment, including staff from Charles Sturt University’s School of Indigenous Australian Studies and water engineers from the School of Computing, Mathematics and Engineering will lead a new research hub to ensure the successful management of regional Australia’s waterways. This project will be funded by the Australian Government’s Regional Research Collaboration program and will support eight new, regionally based positions within our University.

Professor Lee Baumgartner will lead the Next Generation Water Engineering and River Management Hub (NGWERMH), which will facilitate “out-of-the-box ideas” for water management in regional Australia, and collaborate with Australian and international industry partners, universities, researchers and businesses, as well as First Nations Elders, to develop solutions to the current and future problems threatening inland Australia’s waterways, including poor water quality and diminishing fish stocks.

Minister for Education and Youth, the Hon. Alan Tudge, said the project would be a collaboration with universities and local industry partners. “By linking universities with local businesses, we increase the opportunity for findings to be translated into practical solutions that could then be commercialised, with benefits for the university, businesses and local jobs,” he said.