The impact of research a talking point at Drought Resilience conference

25 July 2025

Knowledge Brokers from all the Australian Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hubs took centre stage at the inaugural Drought Resilience 2025 Conference held in Geelong this month.

Our Chief Knowledge Broker Dale Stringer, alongside his interstate counterparts, held a panel session at the three-day event called ‘From Research to Impact’.

Dale said the hot topic of discussion was better ways to connect research with on ground activity to generate even more impact. This could be the result of new ways to work with communities, co-design opportunities, and participatory research.

He said there is increasing recognition that research is not just done in laboratories but is often a very social and collaborative process which achieves the right outputs and impact.

“The biggest take away for me from this fantastic event, was the acknowledgement from the research end and from the community end of the value of collaboration and engagement with partners,” he said.

“It was a great opportunity to showcase of a lot of work that has been done by a range of research agencies, government and non-government. There were some specific findings around soil resilience, for example, that we will definitely follow up on.”

As well as Knowledge Brokers, experts from across the sciences, health, law, business, technology, humanities, the arts disciplines as well as First Nation knowledge, took part in the Drought Resilience 2025 Conference.

Hosted by the Victorian Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub, the event explored key broad interdisciplinary themes around drought resilience to encourage collaboration among research disciplines.

Hub Knowledge Brokers together in Geelong for the Drought Resilience 2025 Conference, including (L to R) Tony Randall (SA), Tanya Kilminster (Southern WA), George Cunningham (Vic), Liana Williams (Tas), Dr Debra Turner (DAFF), Amanda Scott (SQNNSW), David Gallacher (Northern), Karen George (TNQ) and our very own Dale Stringer (Southern NSW).