White Papers

Below are a series of White Papers, which cover a variety of issues which are impacting on today’s planet:

Activity Centres White Paper
To overcome Perth’s employment, housing affordability and urban sustainability crises, there needs to be a shift away from a policy that regards shopping centres as activity centres and to develop a comprehensive policy that considers activity centres based on their unique function, generation of employment, geographic scale, intensity and diversity of activity and accessibility.

Agriculture Food Bowl
Food security is a growing concern for developing economies as the proprtion of the world’s population living in urban environments increases. In order to ensure long term urban food security in WA, sites need to be identified that would be suitable for urban and peri-urban agriculture.

Desalination
Current desalination practices have large capital and environmental costs, which need to be addressed if desalination is to become and economically viable and environmentally sustainable alternative for water supply. Investment, research and development of desalination technologies will reduce the cost and limit the environmental impact of the desalination process.

Research and Innovation in Universities
Australia needs to move away from the view that the role of universities is predominantly to provide a population-driven education function, to focus on establishing world class research universities that fit within regional and national innovation systems.

Square Kilometre Array
An international project to build the world’s largest telescope; over 50 times as sensitive and 10,000 times faster than the current model. An international consortium of researchers and organisations representing 17 countries undertook this $2.45 billion project.

Sustainable Aquaculture
Although the aquaculture industry continues to grow rapidly, the development of sustainable practices in aquaculture will be essential to ensuring long term security in the area. Significant research must be done to create a sustainable aquaculture industry and bridge the growing gap between supply and demand for seafood in Australia and the world.

The Impact of Universities on Regional Communities
This paper examines the potential economic and social impacts a university can have on a regional community. In a knowledge economy, innovation and human capital are essential to economic growth and it is the research and innovation orientated universities that will yield a greater impact on Australia’s regional and national economy.