Communique #5
Dear CRCSI-2 participant and position holders
The November roadshow of 43pl-2 & CRCSI-2 briefing sessions explained the context of the various contracts; summarised progress to date and principles of CRCSI-2 operation; and discussed issues raised.
The 43pl-2 presentation can be viewed at http://crcsi2.com.au/43pl/43pl-2-roadshow-nov09/ and the CRCSI-2 presentation at http://crcsi2.com.au/
1] Contracts
2] Governance
3] Research Activities
1] CONTRACTS
As you know we will be the largest Cooperative Research Centre by partner numbers in the 20 year history of Australia’s CRC Program. The Australian Government has indicated that we must be ready to start operations on 1 January 2010. If we are not able to start then they reserve the right to begin to reduce the value of their grant. Accordingly we have moved as quickly as we can to prepare the agreements that will secure the involvement of our partners. 10 separate contracts are being developed to achieve the termination of CRCSI-1 and start up of CRCSI-2 (incl 43pl-2) Your various inputs to these are appreciated.
You will soon be receiving a specific update on the required tmeframes for the execution of each of these contracts.
2] GOVERNANCE
DIRECTORSHIPS
1. The CRCSI-2 Colleges are encouraged to nominate up to 8 candidates from each college for the Board of Directors of CRCSI-2. The Colleges will each determine how they will seek names of candidates from their constituents. A request for nominations will be soon issued.
There is no requirement to contact the person in advance of the nomination. The Steering Committee will shortlist suitable candidates and following endorsement by the Essential Participants will work back through the nominator to contact the candidates to determine their availability and confirm their suitability, noting more information may be sought at this stage.
The CRCSI-2 Board will be skills based . The following skills sets will be highly regarded:
1. Establishment
1.1 As at the Commencement Date, the Board will initially comprise no more than seven Directors, including an independent Chair and an Executive Director (CEO), and at least two of the Directors will be independent (in addition to the Chair and the Managing Director), as follows:
(a) An independent Chair with considerable experience in managing boards, with financial, governance and stakeholder management experience;
(b) 5 Directors covering the following selection of skill sets:
(i) strong experience in corporate governance, audit and risk management, and finance, and preferably with experience in one or more of the Centre’s application areas;
(ii) extensive federal or state government experience and knowledge
(iii) Intellectual Property management and capital raising experience and experience in one or more of the Centre’s application areas
(iv) current involvement and commercial experience in the spatial information industry, ideally with a current role in surveying, imagery-related activities, spatial infrastructure, software development and/or web services
(v) extensive experience in the academic sector and national and international research
(c) An Executive Director (CEO and Managing Director) covering an appropriate selection of the skill sets above.
By now you should be aware of the activities of the College in which you are in - Government; SME (43pl); or Government. Feel free to reply email any queries in this regard. If you are not aware we will put you in touch with relevant people in your College.
3] RESEARCH ACTIVITIES - more on these at the crcsi2.com.au website - remember the password for CRCSI-2 participants is “capfitz”
You are encouraged to contact relevant people to pursue engagement in CRCSI-2 activities.
Program 1 - Positioning
A one day workshop was held at the CRC offices in Melbourne involving key researchers in the Positioning Program. The objective of the workshop was to plan the process for developing and refining the research program over the next few months, with a view to implementation by mid 2010. Individuals attending the workshop were Peter Teunissen, Will Featherstone, Chris Rizos, Yanming Feng, Kefei Zhang and Phil Collier. Members of the CRC Executive team, including Peter Woodgate and Graeme Kernich also participated. The workshop developed an implementation plan that will include a series of workshops, scheduled for February 2010. These workshops will be run in Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and possibly Sydney/Canberra and Wellington. The objective of the workshops is to engage CRCSI partners and to use their input and feedback to ensure that the research directions and proposed outputs are genuinely “user-driven”. To facilitate this process, a briefing document is being prepared for circulation to partners prior to the workshops. This document will set out the basic principles for engagement and will outline the broad research agenda that is being pursued. It is hoped that the briefing document will allow participants to contribute constructively to the development of the research program, through the workshops. For more information contact Phil Collier (03 8344 125 or pcollier@crcsi.com.au).
Program 2 - Automated Spatial Information Generation
Workshops, supported by a discussion paper, have been held by Clive Fraser in Melbourne and Perth and the next one is in Brisbane on 15 December - details at http://crcsi2.com.au/research-programs/data-capture-processing/dafe-documents/ [enquiries to cfraser@crcsi.com.au]
Program 3 - Spatial Data Infrastructures
An open session was held at the WALIS International Forum in November. [enquiries to Dan Paull 02 6295 7033 dan.paull@psma.com.au ; Kylie Armstrong 08 9273 7518 kylie.armstrong@landgate.wa.gov.au; Bruce Thompson]
Program 4 - Applications - http://crcsi2.com.au/market-applications/
4.1 - a program meeting will be held early in the new year around the biomass business and other proposals in this program. Contact Kim Lowell & Dave Lamb and keep an eye on the website crcsi2.com.au
4.2 & 4.3 - considered within Program 2 above. Contact Clive Fraser and keep an eye on the website crcsi2.com.au
4.4 - a program meeting will be held early in the new year. Contact Narelle Mullan and keep an eye on the website crcsi2.com.au
4.5 - a program meeting will be held early in the new year. Contact Peter Newman and keep an eye on the website crcsi2.com.au