Public Seminar: Science to feed the world, sustainably – lessons from 7 years with ACIAR

ACIAR CEO and Fenner Honorary Professor Andrew Campbell will reflect on his seven years leading the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR)

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Date/time
6 Jul 2023 1:00pm
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Honorary Professor Andrew Campbell
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Description

Professor Andrew Campbell is currently Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), appointed by the Foreign Minister in 2016.  His term as CEO ends on 31 July, when he reaches the statutory 7-year limit of this appointment.

In this ANU Fenner School seminar, Andrew Campbell will discuss the challenge of transforming agrifood systems as fundamental to effective global climate change responses. 

He will reflect on lessons learned from 7 years leading ACIAR, working across 36 countries from eastern Africa to the Pacific.  ACIAR has been brokering, investing in, managing and evaluating research for development programs for 40 years.  This seminar will examine research for development as a strategic element of Australia’s soft power in the Indo-Pacific region, against a backdrop of the compelling need for better science to inform more effective response to the “converging insecurities” of food, water, energy, health and biosecurity, all of which are complicated and amplified by climate change, COVID and conflict.

Professor Campbell will explore what sort of science we need, success factors for partnerships in transdisciplinary research, and the types of professionals that are needed for transforming food, land and water systems in a climate crisis.

Among influential roles in sustainable agriculture and research management in Australia for almost 40 years, Andrew Campbell managed the Potter Farmland Plan from 1984-88, was Australia's first National Landcare Facilitator from 1989-92, and CEO of Land & Water Australia for seven years from 2000.  He was Chair of the TERN Advisory Board from 2010-17, a director of the Peter Cullen Trust from 2017-22, and he chaired the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA) in 2020-21.  He is Patron of Landcare in Victoria, succeeding the late Joan Kirner in 2015.

Professor Campbell is an elected Fellow of the Australian Academy for Technology and Engineering, a Professorial Fellow at the Fenner School, and a Fellow of the Australian Institute for Company Directors. He represents Australia on the System Council of the USD$0.9B CGIAR, with 9,000 scientists in international research centres across 45 mostly developing countries. 

Andrew Campbell has written widely on landcare, sustainability and the science-policy interface.  He is still involved in his family farm in western Victoria, where his family has been farming since the 1860s.

Location

Fenner Seminar Room
Building 141 Linnaeus Way
Canberra 2601

and

Online via Zoom