Bulletin

Issue: May/June 2007

News

Plans for new Biosciences Research Centre

The Victorian Government plans to build a new state-of-the-art Biosciences Research Centre at La Trobe University.

The new Biosciences Research Centre (BRC) will advance genomic plant and animal science and will focus new generation biosciences on threats such as climate change to Victoria’s agricultural exports.

La Trobe University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Paul Johnson, has welcomed the announcement by the Victorian Government in its recent budget.

‘We are delighted that the Victorian Government has chosen La Trobe as the site to build this important facility,’ he said.

‘Researchers from La Trobe working in plant and animal sciences already collaborate most productively with their colleagues in the Victorian Department of Primary Industries (DPI), and co-location will further enhance science outcomes.

‘The choice of La Trobe as a partner in the project is a clear indication of the capacity of the University to contribute to critical research and development directed at enhancing and protecting the plant and animal industries so vital to Australia.’ The Victorian Government and La Trobe University are working closely to finalise the proposed partnership arrangements.

The government has allocated $180 million to the project. Subject to finalisation of the business case, La Trobe University is looking to commit up to $50m to the partnership.

The planned initiative will assist in positioning La Trobe within the top tier of Australian universities, and will boost the University’s and DPI’s international profile. With the involvement of other research organisations such as CSIRO, the centre will quickly establish itself as one of Australia’s premier science facilities.

Head of the School of Life Sciences, Professor Roger Parish, said the BRC – planned to become one of the largest centres of its type in the world – aims to co-locate some 450 scientists at La Trobe University’s main Melbourne campus at Bundoora.

He said the University has a major capability in biosciences and many collaborative arrangements with government, academic and industry research and development groups. The new BRC – the largest of these ventures so far – will:

• build strategic alliances with DPI, CSIRO and other public and private research agencies, including those located in the regions
• prepare future generations of scientific leaders in agriculture and related areas via postgraduate training programs
• create synergies with related research areas including ecology, environmental protection, chemistry, physics, mathematics and statistics
• develop strategic projects addressing climate change and its effects on agricultural sustainability
• integrate with La Trobe’s socioeconomic research on the development of sustainable rural and regional communities
• further strengthen the reputation of Victorian science, boosting employment opportunities in the State and in the La Trobe University bioscience precinct to Melbourne’s north.

Professor Parish said the University, with the largest number of regional campuses of any university in the State, recognises agriculture is of critical importance to the nation’s economy. With 30 per cent of Australia’s food production based in Victoria, the State’s farm dependent economy is estimated to be worth more than $20 billion, employing 131,000 people in direct and related industries.

The people

La Trobe University currently has more than 100 scientists and postgraduate students working on a wide range of research projects relevant to the new centre.

They are located across many disciplines in the Faculty of Science Technology and Engineering. They include biochemists, geneticists, botanists, and medical scientists as well as experts in fresh and waste-water science, surface and material sciences, nano-technology, mathematical modelling and statistics.

The research

The new Biosciences Centre will facilitate:

• the establishment of a major centre in animal health and production
• research into plant health and production, including joint projects with the new CRC for National Plant Biosecurity
• expansion of the existing plant biotechnology research being carried out in partnership with DPI’s Plant Genetics and Genomics Platform at the Victorian AgriBiosciences Centre on the University’s Research and Development Park
• collaboration between scientists in La Trobe’s new CRC for Biomarker Translation and DPI animal genetics and genomics researchers
• the expansion of bioinformatics and biometric research using the latest in computer technology to study and manipulate molecules
• opportunities for expanding teaching programs and expertise at undergraduate level.