Victoria Drought Resilience Adoption & Innovation Hub (Vic Hub)
The Hub has a focus on environmental protections, including a close focus on biodiversity protections, with a number of MBI researchers connected to the Hub.
Research Cluster
Funding
Australian Government's Future Drought Fund
Consortium Partners
Led by The University of Melbourne’s Dookie Campus, with industry and research partners comprising Birchip Cropping Group, Food & Fibre Gippsland, Southern Farming Systems, Riverine Plains, Mallee Regional Innovation Centre (a Melbourne Uni joint venture), Deakin University, Federation University, La Trobe University, and Agriculture Victoria (as the State Government representative).
Project Team
Led by Director, Dr Sara Hely. The Vic Hub was established by former co-directors Professor Tim Reeves, Professor Ruth Nettle. The Hub has a focus on environmental protections, including a close focus on biodiversity protections, with a number of MBI researchers connected to the Hub. MBI Deputy Director Dr Rachel Morgain, MBI researchers A/Professor Paul Cheng (School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences) and Vili Iese (the Hub’s Academic Lead) sit on the research advisory committee for The University of Melbourne.
Victoria Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub
The Victoria Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub (Vic Hub) is part of an $8 million program funded by the Future Drought Fund, through the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.
It is a partnership between five farming-systems groups, which function as the regional-node leads, four universities and the State Government (through Agriculture Victoria).
Node leads:
- North-West Node lead, Birchip Cropping Group
- Gippsland Node lead, Food & Fibre Gippsland
- North-West Irrigated Horticulture Node lead, Mallee Regional Innovation Centre
- North-East Node lead, Riverine Plains
- South-West Node lead, Southern Farming Systems
University partners:
- The University of Melbourne (lead)
- Deakin (knowledge broker function)
- Federation (digital-agriculture function)
- La Trobe (capacity-building function)
The Hub, headquartered at and led by The University of Melbourne’s Dookie Campus is one of eight national hubs established to enhance drought preparedness and resilience in Victorian farming communities, employing an interdisciplinary approach that connects research with industry to support take-up through testing, adoption, and scaling-up of new solutions and commercialisation.
The Hub has a focus on environmental protections, including a close focus on biodiversity protections, with a number of MBI researchers connected to the Hub. MBI Deputy Director Dr Rachel Morgain, MBI researchers A/Professor Paul Cheng and Vili Iese (the Hub’s Academic Lead) sit on the research advisory committee for The University of Melbourne.
Project Summary
What are we interested in?
The project connects farmers and communities to knowledge, research, technologies and practices that aim to make farming and farming communities both less economically vulnerable and more resilient to climate change. The work looks to drive tangible improvements in drought preparedness and drought resilience, making Australian agriculture more adaptable to climate challenges.
The goals of our project
The overarching goals of the Vic Hub are to enhance the drought preparedness of Victorian agricultural industries and regional communities: helping to prepare and recover from drought conditions by bridging the knowledge gap between research and practice, and to drive the adoption of innovative practices and technologies to facilitate transformation.
Outcomes / activities
The project is undergoing large scale trials to validate the effectiveness of farming adaptations such as soil management, crop rotations, grazing techniques, and infrastructure. With a significant focus on communicating knowledge and supporting the adoption of new practices and technologies.