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2004-05 ANNUAL REPORT

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Section 10: Reporting on the Corporation

RIRDC employment

The staff

Organisational structure

Scholarships

Organisational structure at 30 june 2005

Reporting on the organisation
Corporate Publications
The Corporation continues to have a very active publications program. The Corporation now has more than 1500 publications in its series. Sales in 2004–05 amounted to $133,180. This compares with $128,798 in the previous year. Actual sales numbers in 2004–05 were 6,643 compared with 7,552 in 2003–04. There has been strong growth in traffic to the website with 1,074,917 hits recorded during June 2005, compared to 780,000 in June 2004. This has also resulted in a very significant increase in downloading of reports from our website. Details on new publications issued in 2004–05 for each subprogram are set out under each respective sub-program.
The Corporation’s pricing policy is based on recouping only the costs of printing and distribution for sub–program speci.c publications. Corporate publications are free and, for 2004–05, included:
Corporate documents

2003–04 Annual Report (Awarded the Corporate Governance award and a fifth gold medal at the Australasian Reporting Awards)

Annual Operational Plan

Research Priorities

RIRDC Research in Progress (issued as individual sub-program chapters)

Publications Catalogue

Corporate brochures projecting RIRDC’s value proposition

Short Reports and Newsletters

Corporate Newsletter

Sub-programs:

Essential Oils

Asian Foods

Honeybee – R&D Updates

Fodder Crops

Pasture Seeds

Rice R&D Update for Year of Rice

Farmed Rabbit Industry of Australia

Five-Year Plans

All industry sub-programs have plans that are available free to stakeholders. They can be obtained in hardcopy by phoning 02 6272 4819 or can be downloaded from our website as indicated in each Sub-program chapter of this report.

Public relations
The Corporation’s Public Relations program focuses on the promotion of research results to encourage the practical adoption of this knowledge.
During the past year, there have been ongoing campaigns to encourage adoption. This has involved media and advertising campaigns, and also the use of secondary networks such as direct mail and existing networks in the public and private sectors.
The successful use of two monthly email newsletters, which have more than 2700 subscribers, shows there are opportunities for low-cost communications through nontraditional channels.
Increasing utilisation of this information by journalists and others reveals the use of electronic distribution will become increasingly effective over time.
One email newsletter contains short articles on RIRDC reports and other news, while the second is a full list of all news reports posted the website each month.
The Corporation also continued to market its products both directly and indirectly through:

direct mail campaigns to libraries and known RIRDC publication clients

various Corporation newsletters

networks among other Australian and State Government agencies/departments

private sector information brokers

farm advisors/consultants

internal networks (advisory committees/panels).

Websites
www.rirdc.gov.au
The website continued to deliver a growing range of research reports and corporate information.
The Google search facility is incorporated into both of our websites. This greatly increases the accuracy of searches and also offers the ability to view PDF files online in HTML format, thereby overcoming the need for a full download of the report for review purposes. ‘Hits’ on the website average about 1 million per month.
Most visitors entered the site through the ‘home’ page. A majority found the site through major search engines such as Google, Yahoo and NineMSN (in that order).
The program pages in which each sub-program has a virtual ‘home page’ continue to be popular. The emailed newsletter and the list of new research reports continued to be well received by nearly 2800 recipients each month with much positive feedback.
Increased sales via the new eShop (created in January 2004) shows there is likely to be potential for further growth in online sales from promotion of the service. In 2004-05 there were 277 transactions through the eShop, an average of 23 per month. The “old” eShop averaged fewer than 10 sales per month. User appreciated the ability of the new site to host images and its “cleaner” interface. Development of the new site was performed in-house using commercial software.
RIRDC Rural Women’s Award 2004
www.ruralwomensaward.gov.au
This site was established in November 1999 when the Corporation first launched the RIRDC Rural Women’s Award and has been maintained in line with the running of the Award each year. Access to the site can also be gained through RIRDC’s home page. Traffic to site peaks during the nomination period for the awards in August–October each year, but there is considerable interest throughout the year.
The site contains all relevant application forms and extensive Award information.
Evaluation of the RIRDC Rural Women’s Award 2005
The annual survey on the award reported that the vast majority of respondents were comfortable with accessing the application form and information from the website.
Respondents commented that the website was a valuable additional resource. The stories of past winners and what they had achieved through the Award drew particular comment and affirmation.
RIRDC Extranet
The Corporation maintains an Extranet which enables its directors and external research managers access to corporate information. This site works both locally and online and is constantly updated and monitored. It is password protected so that only authorised users can gain access.
Two major additions to the extranet have been a news clipping service and the quality assurance pages and documents.
Project Listings
There were 554 at the end of June 2005. The comparable figure for last year was 628.
As an aid to getting the details on each of these individual projects, the Corporation has finalised its Research-in-Progress report, which shows ‘current status’ of projects at the end of May 2005. In addition, all projects completed in 2004–05 have summaries showing their key outcomes. As already noted, this report Research-in-Progress, June 2005 has been published on our website (www.rirdc.gov.au) under each respective program area.

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