Original Story by Bianca Nogrady, ABC Environment
Young researchers have been left with an uncertain future as a federally-funded climate change organisation closes.
A 'VISIONARY' federally-funded climate change research initiative has come to an end, leaving its extensive network of researchers — many of them recent graduates — pondering an uncertain future.
The National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility (NCCARF) was established in 2008, with a five-year, $50 million mandate to address gaps in understanding and knowledge about the impacts of climate change and research what is needed to adapt to those effects.
However its term has ended, and no additional funding has flowed from government coffers, so the NCCARF network of researchers gathered this week for the final annual conference with mixed emotions.
"NCCARF has allowed us to be a world leader in adaptation," said Alianne Rance, a PhD scholar at the University of Melbourne and Climate Commission fellow.
"If you think back ten years, we didn't know what adaptation was; climate change was a hot topic but adaptation was unknown, we knew we were experiencing some impacts but we weren't quite sure how to deal with those impacts," said Rance, whose research on climate change adaptation in coastal property development was supported by NCCARF.
"Since NCCARF came along, we've had five years of preparation and leadership — we are leading the globe and that's a fantastic position for Australia to be in but we very quickly could lose that lead."
In its five years, NCCARF commissioned and managed more than 140 projects across a range of disciplines, amounting to a nearly $40 million research portfolio and employed the equivalent of around 300 full-time positions.
It was also unique in not only supporting research on climate change adaptation but communicating that information to, and engaging with, the end users, politicians, and policy makers.
NCCARF director Professor Jean Palutikof said while NCCARF will most likely be remembered for its research contributions, one of the things she is most proud of is its support and mentoring of early career researchers and the building of networks and capacity.
However she said she doesn't see these achievements surviving beyond the end of NCCARF.
"I don't think that these networks and the capacity that we've built, it doesn't yet have the maturity to continue without some organisation to mentor it like NCCARF," said Palutikof, from Griffith University.
That mentoring made a huge difference to young researchers like Daniela Guitart who, in addition to being research assistant to the NCCARF director, helped coordinate NCCARF's eight research networks and conduct her own research on urban agriculture and community food production.
"For early career researchers, the most important thing to get to your goal is to have a support system and good mentors who will help you out and listen to you and give you good advice," said Guitart.
NCCARF's support of early career researchers, particularly women, has been evident at conferences, she said.
"Probably 5 to 10 years ago you'd go to these conferences and it was full of grey haired people and now you've got a whole bunch of young women as well, and it has been great to be able to be part of that."
Whatever NCCARF's achievements, both on the national and international stage, Palutikof said it fell victim to shifting political circumstances.
"I think NCCARF was a phenomenal vision by the Australian government, and it was a very rare venture," she said.
"What we've been able to achieve has been quite exceptional but I can see that it was a step too far to think of supporting us a second time around."
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