Vital biosecurity risk research program receives funding boost
The University of Melbourne’s Centre of Excellence for Biosecurity Risk Analysis (CEBRA), an initiative of the Australian government, has been awarded a $6.4 million grant over three years to continue collaborative biosecurity research to protect the nation’s agricultural, fisheries and forestry industries, environment, and way of life.
CEBRA will receive around $2 million annually to benefit trade, agriculture, the environment and community through the development of advanced monitoring or detection tools, predictive risk modelling and ensuring the latest scientific findings are integrated into policy and decision-making.
Established originally as the Australian Centre of Excellence for Risk Analysis in 2006, CEBRA conducts collaborative research to strengthen government biosecurity efforts, providing evidence-based insights that shape risk analysis, regulatory interventions, inspections and surveillance.
CEBRA CEO Professor Andrew Robinson from the School of BioSciences and the School of Mathematics and Statistics said he is very proud to be part of the CEBRA team.
“CEBRA has served the national (and international) biosecurity communities for 19 years now, and we are thrilled to have the opportunity to continue and build upon this wonderful legacy.
We greatly look forward to working with Australia's Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and New Zealand's Ministry for Primary Industries to improve biosecurity outcomes."
This funding will enable the centre to consolidate and advance its research themes, including evaluating biosecurity systems, modelling outcomes of policy during animal disease outbreaks, designing efficient and effective border intervention activities and getting research-grade tools into the hands of practitioners via the very successful Biosecurity Commons initiative.
“Biosecurity is an incredibly important undertaking that touches everyone. Biosecurity helps protect the things we value - our agriculture, our environment, our way of life, and our economy - from the potentially disastrous impacts of invasive species,” Professor Robinson said.
“The best part is that biosecurity is stronger when it's shared - that's why the Australian and New Zealand governments have teamed up to jointly support CEBRA for the last 12 years."