Message from outgoing Chair

Nikola Bowden
Chair, EMCR Forum Executive
Australian Academy of Science
@EMCRForum

Welcome to 2017; we hope that this year will be as big and bold as last year for the EMCR Forum. We had a very successful year in 2016, achieving everything we set out to and more. The 2016 Executive delivered a five-year strategic plan in February detailing our goals for advocacy and engagement within the whole scientific sector. So far, we are on track and have achieved the goals of the first 12 months. In addition, we actively engaged in the NHMRC Structural Review and prepared submissions for the Medical Research Future Fund and the Department of Education and Training review of research infrastructure block grant funding. 

We launched a new-look website in 2016 and have improved our membership form so that we can collect more information about who we are representing and to make it easier for us to stay in contact with you. In September we hosted the successful ‘Science Pathways 2016: Future Leaders’ meeting at UNSW Australia. Over 200 EMCRs attended and heard from some of Australia’s scientific leaders from academia, industry and government. Attendees also engaged in break-out discussion sessions and a networking event that light-heartedly showcased “Bad Leaders”.   

The end of the year saw the delivery of the EMCR Forum’s ‘Starting the Conversation between Industry and Academia’ discussion paper. The feedback on the discussion paper has been overwhelmingly positive and we are aiming to finalise the paper in early 2017. Four of our Executive members were invited to attend the Australia–Indonesia Science Symposium in December and continued our collaborative discussions with the Indonesian Academy of Science Young Academy (ALMI). It was a very busy and rewarding year for the Forum.

I want to take the opportunity to welcome Carly Rosewarne as the incoming Chair of the EMCR Forum Executive. I am certain that Carly will lead us through another fantastic year—she has been a driving force in the 2016 Executive. Welcome also to our new members Rosin McMahon, Amber Beavis and Jackson Thomas. We look forward to working with you in 2017. Finally, sincere thanks to the EMCR Forum Executive members who are stepping down in 2017:  previous Chair Sharath Sriram, Deputy Chair Michael Crichton and our first industry member Roslyn Hickson. We appreciate all of your time, passion, commitment and enthusiasm for being the voice of Australia’s EMCRs.