International collaboration can help combat climate change and WA and Chinese researchers are joining forces to improve climate adaptation strategies and pass on the subsequent benefits to growers.
 
As part of a A$1.9 million project, the University of Western Australia (UWA) Institute of Agriculture is collaborating with China’s Lanzhou University on a sustainability initiative for dry and cold ecosystems, using west China as a model.

Just under 150 Perth women have contributed to major international research at the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research that has proved that the new Cervarix vaccine provides broader protection against cervical cancer.

A fascinating line-up of speakers will converge on The University of Western Australia next week for a major symposium on emotions and what motivates people to act as they do.

The ‘Emotions, Moods and Motivations’ Symposium will tease out the relationship between emotion and motivation in a diverse range of issues, including migration, trans-nationalism, eating, teaching and even pop music.

The University of Western Australia’s Institute of Advanced Studies next month will host the inaugural conference of the Australian Research Council’s Network for Early European Research.

The conference, to be held at the University Club from Tuesday July 3 to Saturday July 7, 2007, aims to foster innovative research and new connections between researchers, as well as promote interdisciplinary and international contacts and collaborations.

When the current moratorium on genetically modified (GM) crops is lifted, The University of Western Australia (UWA) has GM lupin lines with superior seed quality and yield readily available for wider testing and evaluation in the WA grainbelt.

According to UWA Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis Director, Professor Craig Atkins, sustaining cereal production through rotating legumes drove the UWA GM lupin breeding program, which commenced in 1992.

Collaboration, innovation and legume performance remain the focus of Phase Three of the Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture (CLIMA) as it continues to provide WA graingrowers with sustainable and profitable outcomes.

Centred at UWA from July 1, CLIMA continues to collaborate with the Department of Agriculture and Food WA (DAFWA), CSIRO and Murdoch University, plus its international partners, to maintain the flow of new germplasm into WA farming systems.

Researchers from The University of Western Australia are surveying secondary school students to find out what factors put young people at risk of unintended pregnancy and young parenthood.

Dr Rachel Skinner, from UWA’s School of Paediatrics and Child Health and the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, said the Teen Relationships Study would involve high school students throughout the Perth metropolitan area.

Researchers from The University of Western Australia’s Biological Oceanography team and the University of Sheffield (UK) have spent the last six weeks at Ningaloo reef tracking the fate of the microscopic plants and animals (plankton) transported to the reef by the waters of the adjacent Indian Ocean. 

They have found that the reef production is fed by wave-power from the sea, which pumps plankton cross the reef. 

Traditionally many OECD countries have relied on a mix of either private, entrepreneurially-led R&D or publicly-funded and delivered technology development.

However, an alternative model sees public-private partnerships (PPPs) supporting the research, development and commercialization of new knowledge and technologies.