New agricultural and environmental sciences precinct

A new National Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Precinct (NAESP) has been formed between ANU and CSIRO.

The precinct was launched by Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane at CSIRO’s redeveloped $200 million Black Mountain site in Canberra. Macfarlane said the Science and Industry Endowment Fund (SIEF) will provide $18 million for the precinct from the SIEF Research Infrastructure Program.

The NAESP will bring researchers from CSIRO and ANU together and foster research into food security and managing issues such as sustainable land management and climate change.

“The new precinct brings together the world-class, blue-sky research at ANU with the research, practical skills and industrial know-how of CSIRO to transform agriculture,” said CSIRO Board Chair Simon McKeon in a statement.

As part of the NAESP, ANU and CSIRO will set up a new Centre for Genomics, Metabolomics and Bioinformatics, to underpin research projects in transformational agriculture.

“The collaboration will transform the way agricultural and environmental research and innovation is conducted in Australia,” said ANU Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Young.

“NAESP will become a one-stop shop for integrated plant breeding and natural resource management, which will also create opportunities for new biologically based industries.”

The NAESP will also include a new automated greenhouse system and state-of-the-art crop analysis equipment.