2019-05-07 P&E Agenda - Item 3 - Attachment 1 - Noosa Sustainability Institute - Concepts and Options Report

3.2              Feedback from Community Interviews and Council Staff
                 Meeting

3.2.1            Council Staff feedback
A group of Noosa Council staff who have responsibilities in areas that have current related research
or have had previous experience in research activities and other initiatives participated in two
workshops to garner their thoughts and opinions about the potential and opportunities that could be
provided by the establishment of a Noosa Institute.
A detailed summary of the feedback is provided in Appendix E. But a summary of the workshop
outputs in brief were:
    Have a clear purpose of what the Institute would be and what it shouldn’t be.
    Any institute should take into account what has been done before in the Noosa region (previous
     initiatives and projects) and build from or leverage this rather than repeat.
    Have an open structure that has broad accessibility and high return for the local community and
     builds on partnerships.
    Focus on applied research with impact for the local community.
    Need to avoid duplication with what has already been done.
    Sustainable funding is critical.
    Take a contemporary and future view of research opportunists and sustainability challenges.


3.2.2            Community Interviews
The Feedback from the interviews with the community members was varied with a variety of opinions
provided on the different preliminary Institute concepts. This difference in opinion was based
individual consideration on the ability of an institute to succeed outside of the direct control of the
Council. It was suggested that to succeed, the institute would need to have sufficient size to have a
critical mass to achieve in 3 or 4 critical specialist areas that benefit the region. Regardless of size,
the institute would also need to be agile and flexible to cope with any necessary changes to research
needs.
All three respondents noted that Noosa had an advantage of a highly talented, well connected
community that is already well engaged around Council and community, environment and
sustainability activities. It was noted by all three interviewees that it is important for any further stages
of this assessment and investigation to find out from the broader community what they want Noosa
to look like in the future and what challenges Noosa will face.
It was also agreed by all the community members interviewed that active partnering with other
research entities and activities could only be of value to all those involved and for the Noosa region
in general. It was also noted that it will be important to ensure that there are some boundaries set to
ensure that there is limited overlap between any Institute and other non-institute activities in the
Noosa region. The success of the Institute could be enhanced (regardless of the model selected) by
developing a communication strategy that provides real-time information and communication on
research activities.
Suggestions included, “Can the current Noosa Plan be the backbone of the Institute structure as this
is already setting the direction for development and progress for the next 10 years?”; and “Can the
Institute add value to the Noosa Plan by being a place to provide advice on activities that can add
value to the objectives of the Noosa Plan”.
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