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

4                Institute Structure Options
The information collated from the search of existing international and Australian institutes combined
with the information from the Community interviews and Council feedback were used to develop
three options for a potential Institute model. The models have been structured from a virtual model
through to a version that involves oversight by a formal Board with a strongly structured research
agenda.
The general characteristics of each of the three models are summarised in Table 2. The detailed
description for each option is detailed below including an assessment of the pros and cons of each
option.
All of the model options meet the non-negotiable factors listed in Table 1 and model options 2 & 3
cover all (or can cover all) of the listed important factors. Only Model option 3 covers all of the
desirable factors as well, although Model option 2 has the potential to also do so for several of the
desirable factors.


4.1              Institute Model 1.
Synopsis
This option is the simplest of the three provided. Information about, and promotion of the institute to
the community and to researchers would be predominantly through a web presence, potentially
hosted on the Council website. The Institute could be managed part time by a Council staff member.
This person would be responsible for maintaining the Institute web page(s), accepting project
submissions, communicating with successful projects and ensuring research outputs are released
on the Institute web pages.
The Institute would rely predominantly on researchers approaching Council with proposed projects
and any accepted projects would automatically be located under the Institute banner. The Institute
would not normally seek out specific projects directly, unless directed by Council. Acceptance of
projects would be done through an assessment by Council staff with appropriate understanding of
the proposed research topic.
Funding for projects could come from any source, however, it is anticipated that the Council would
be a significant funding source for many of the projects undertaken under the Institute banner.
Due to the minimal management structure and the fact that projects are predominantly accessed
through approaches from researchers, the Institute does not directly decide on the types of projects
undertaken as it would remain reliant on direct approaches from researchers with their projects or
calls by the council on internal issues (similar to what occurs with the council currently). As a result,
the institute also has less control on the research outputs, as well as on any on-going or follow-on
research.
By its virtual nature, the Institute could also maintain web pages on sustainability information that
would be useful for the Noosa community as well as promoting sustainability activities undertaken
or supported by Council. This structure, however, would only support limited engagement with the
community and community members would have limited direct input into the type or selection of
projects undertaken, or in participation in projects being undertaken (unless the project is deliberately
set up for this by the researchers).




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