DR JOHN Keesing has been appointed Research Director for the newly established $20 million Strategic Research Fund for the Marine Environment, run jointly by the State Government and the CSIRO in Perth.

Dr Keesing, who left his position as the Director of Research and Development at Murdoch University to take up the role in May, said the research venture would develop better strategies to manage our complex and poorly understood marine ecosystem over the next five years.

“The current State agencies are very good at developing short term applied solutions, but do not have the resources to develop longer term strategies,” said Dr Keesing.

“We will be focusing our energies on this long term vision, developing a better understanding of the biological, physical and geochemical processes that drive Western Australian temperate marine ecosystems.”

Nearly $1 million will be used to leverage $2 million of investment from CSIRO, to build a research capability of approximately 30 people over the next five years.

Dr Keesing, who will be developing a research portfolio and managing projects for the fund, said a further $1 million each year would be allocated for encouraging participation from Western Australian state agencies and universities.

“There is a great opportunity for Murdoch and other WA universities to become involved through postgraduate training and collaborative research,” he said.
“I am very sad to be leaving Murdoch and hope to maintain connections with the marine researchers at the university through my new role.”

Murdoch marine research includes projects on fisheries, aquaculture, marine biotechnology and broadbased marine environmental management.