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

Pros
o    The longer-term engagement of research agencies increases the retention of the knowledge
     base relating to research undertaken within the Institute and the region.
o    Encourages groups such as research agencies to enter into longer term Collaborative Research
     Agreements to assist and simplify approval of multiple projects being run from the same research
     group.
o    Significantly increases the potential for the Noosa region to be positioned both nationally and
     internationally as place of innovation leveraging the Noosa Brand and Biosphere status.
o    Multiple projects with interlinked research objectives is possible.
o    Individual projects can learn and build upon outcomes from concurrent and previous research
     projects.
o    Enables large multi-disciplinary projects with multiple research aims.
o    Encourages citizen science and the engagement of industry, community and Council.
o    Can aid Council with operational and regulatory decisions.


Cons
o    High management requirements with a corresponding higher overhead cost than the other Model
     options.
o    The legal requirements are more complex than the other structure options and would require
     effort to set up ( requires more investigation in next stages).
o    May take longer to establish and become fully functional.
o    There would need to be considerable on-going activity by Institute staff to manage project data
     and to encourage and monitor uptake of the research outputs by external parties (e.g., industry,
     Council or community).
o    There is a need to develop a long-term funding base. If not developed carefully, there is a risk
     that Council could be left as the only major funding benefactor for the Institute.
o    A complex management structure can be vulnerable to external and internal interferences/
     criticism.
o    The structure will need to be carefully developed to ensure that it does not become too complex
     for the community.




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