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Recycled Organics Research & Development

Research and development activities relating to recycled organics require national coordination in order to reduce duplication and address identified gaps in knowledge. Commercial compost manufacturers (Processors) have also identified the need to bridge the gap between research outcomes and the development of commercially available compost products. While research often identifies new and exciting beneficial uses for compost there is no standard mechanism for research outcomes to be converted into compost technologies, application guidelines and sales.

A key Compost strategy for disseminating R&D outcomes and coordinating R&D activities has been to run an annual R&D Forum, produce a summary report for distribution, and post presentations of the website. At the forum researchers from around the country present on R&D activities in their state both to inform each other and to provide the latest R&D information to the industry. This in turn informs future R&D priorities, future applications for funding and provides an opportunity for researchers to talk to industry representatives that may want to commercialise their research.

Compost will prepare a formal National R&D Plan to provide a higher level of coordination and link closely with the Brand Marketing Plan (industry joint market education activities). It is intended that the National R&D Plan be developed as part of (and subsequent to) the R&D Forum that will be held at Murdoch University, Perth, Western Australia on the 6-7 September 2007. The R&D Plan will build upon the resources already developed, such as the RO Library managed by the Recycled Organics Unit.

Presentations from the R&D Forums are available in the members only section. Please login to your member profile on the WMAA members page to access all R&D Forum documents:

• 2005 R&D Forum (University of New South Wales, Sydney NSW);
• 2006 R&D Forum (Flinders University, Adelaide SA);
• 2007 R&D Forum (Murdoch University, Perth WA).

Related Documents:

R&D Forum Outcomes 2006  (237 KB)

R&D Forum Final Report 2006  (202 KB)

Australasian R&D Forum Final Report 2007  (397 KB)