Overview

Background and Long-Term Strategy

Dynamic Rural Communities is governed by a research and development plan for 2009-2014. The Program is consistent with RIRDC's over-riding aim of maximising the contribution its investments make to the profitability, sustainability and resilience of Australia's rural industries and communities.

The Program incorporates new initiatives, such as Investing in Youth Undergraduate Studentships, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Rural Development, and Trees for Climate Change, as well as post-graduate scholarships, the RIRDC Rural Women's Award, the ABC's rural youth initiative Heywire, the Australian Rural Leadership Program and Australian Agriculture and Natural Resources Online (AANRO).

Key long-term strategies

• Bolster agriculture and fishing research capacity - RIRDC will invest in, and coordinate collaboration between stakeholder agencies for, research into primary industry R&D capacity needs and initiatives that will best meet those needs. An expanded and coordinated program of primary industry undergraduate studentships and postgraduate scholarships will a key aspect of attracting outstanding students into career streams for primary industries research
• Address the skilled agriculture and fishing labour needs and shortages - RIRDC facilitate collaborative research investment to supports the transition of students from school and tertiary study into careers in primary industries. It will also address research that will inform the attraction of young people and skilled labour to rural communities
• Add value to information and communication infrastructure investments in rural Australia - RIRDC will complement the current national broadband rollout with research that addresses the adoption and use of broadband technology and media to improve the productivity and economic and social well-being of rural people, industries and communities. It will also address options for knowledge and information management to ensure research is effectively stored, and is accessible and communicated to stakeholders and users of research
• Enhance the capacity of rural communities to manage fundamental change - RIRDC will produce research outcomes that assist rural people and communities to adjust to the fundamental social, economic and environmental changes that are taking place in Australia. It will also provide knowledge for governments (federal, state and local) and other regional organisations in designing policies and programs
• Generate knowledge for the benefit of rural people, industries and communities in managing natural resources - RIRDC will address the challenges of managing natural resources in rural Australia through a program of research investments that seek integration of resource conservation and agricultural productivity growth for greater economic, environmental and social resilience. A Research and Development Plan has been prepared for the Trees for Climate Change program (2010-15). RIRDC will develop the business case, systems and technologies required for emerging timber, carbon and bioenergy markets; to better understand which trees will meet these emerging market needs; to investigate policy and institutional arrangements that will facilitate the integration of trees in sustainable farming systems
• Support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rural development - RIRDC will deliver a program of research from 2010 to 2015 that supports the Government's Closing the Gap policies and programs, particularly in relation to the participation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait peoples in Australia's rural economy (see the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Rural Development R&D Plan, 2010-15).