In mid-2017, in response to unprecedented back-to-back coral bleaching events on the GBR, a series of end-user meetings and workshops identified an obvious and urgent need for targeted applied research into both bleaching recovery and potential opportunities for intervention.

Because the NESP TWQ Hub had been deliberately structured to be flexible and responsive to changes in end-user needs during the Hub’s lifetime, we were able to rapidly pivot, brokering and funding ~$2.7 million of new projects to meet these newly-identified needs during 2017-18, involving collaborations between lead researchers from a number of research institutions. In terms of application of significant resources to this emergent stakeholder issue, the NESP TWQ Hub was able to respond more rapidly than any other research institution.

The Hub also planned and hosted the world’s first GBR Restoration Symposium in Cairns in 2018. This symposium brought together 300 leading scientists, engineers, experienced practitioners, environmental managers, industry professionals, NGOs, community members and youth representatives from 14 countries for the first international conference on coral reef restoration.

“The collaborative and coordinated approach that has been galvanised through the Great Barrier Reef Restoration Symposium… will energise a new era of collaboration between scientists, engineers, private enterprise and citizens to develop, test, demonstrate and scale-up restoration that will help build ecological and social resilience in the Great Barrier Reef.”

Symposium Outcomes Statement