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You don't need to re-invent the wheel - but if you must, don't try to do it alone.

With the support of the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN), researchers can tackle global problems with access to the experience, innovation and initiative of other researchers around the world.

Membership of WUN raises the international profile of UWA, but it also provides benefits ranging from co-authored publications and externally-funded grants to joint PhD supervision, postgraduate and early career researcher mentoring and access to specialist equipment and facilities.

Judy Berman, UWA's Principal Adviser on International Research Networks and WUN Co-ordinator, said researchers were generally keen to establish international research collaborations, but it was not the norm to make a ‘cold call' in seeking collaborators.

"A major benefit of UWA's membership of WUN is that it provides a ‘legitimate' mechanism through which researchers can initiate contact with potential international collaborators in a WUN partner university," Associate Professor Berman said.

"Applying to the WUN Research Development Fund (RDF) requires a minimum three WUN member universities from across at least two continents. The WUN Coordinators act as ‘matchmakers' - identifying researchers from their own institutions to participate in externally-initiated RDF applications, and facilitating a search for expertise from other members to join UWA-led RDF applications."

In 2012, UWA was leading three WUN projects (Winthrop Professor Susan Prescott I Paediatrics and Child Health, Professor Linda Slack-Smith in Dentistry and Professor Mark Rivers in Ecohydrology) and involved in nine others, more than any other WUN member. A/Professor Berman said it was unlikely that most of these research linkages would have occurred without the WUN framework.

Thomas Wernberg (Oceans Institute) credits his engagement with WUN on climate change adaptation in kelps as significantly contributing to the success of his Australian Research Council Future Fellowship application.

Professor David Pannell (Agriculture and Research Economics) provided the opportunity for Dr Morteza Chalak, an early career researcher, to participate in a WUN-funded meeting at the University of Alberta (UA) last year.  She met international researchers, established new research contacts and co-authored a paper on the economies of invasive species control which led to a successful application for a  UWA Research Collaboration Award to work with three senior UA researchers on a new project.

Professor Robyn Owens, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), said external grant income with WUN partners had grown dramatically since UWA joined WUN in 2008. "In 2007 our external grant income with WUN member universities was $1,541,577, 1.04 per cent of our total grant income; in 2011 it had jumped to $12,394,433 representing 6.28 per cent."

On top of increased funding and wider collaborations, WUN has been the catalyst for more publications.

"Since 2008, our items indexed in the Web of Science have risen by 31.6 per cent," Professor Owens said. "When we look at the rate of increase in terms of collaborations with WUN partners, our publications have grown by 67.6 per cent!"

For more information about WUN, contact A/Professor Berman on 6488 8033 or at [email protected]

Published in UWA News , April 2013