Oral Presentation AMOS Annual Meeting and International Conference on Tropical Meteorology and Oceanography

The Role of CSIRO’s Marine National Facility in Training Australia’s Future Marine Experts  (#261)

Benjamin Arthur 1 , Ben Rae 1
  1. CSIRO, Hobart, TASMANIA, Australia

The Australian Government funds the CSIRO Marine National Facility to provide landmark scientific infrastructure for dedicated blue-water research to benefit the nation. The literal flagship of the Facility is the advanced multidisciplinary research vessel Investigator, which now has four years of demonstrated experience in delivering research across Australia’s marine jurisdiction and beyond. But is just delivering research enough? With Australia’s growing blue economy, what is the Marine National Facility doing to help deliver the marine and atmospheric scientists, policy makers and industry advisors who will ensure we successfully manage the future conservation and prosperity of our marine environment? The Facility has launched a suite of unique collaborative education and training opportunities where teachers and students from primary to tertiary education can get hands-on with the real world application of STEM related to Australia’s marine and coastal environments, both when the ship is in port and at sea. From floating classrooms around the nation, to teachers on board research voyages in Antarctica and Australia’s tropical north, to undergraduate students sampling the Bremer Canyon in the Great Australian Bight, here we provide an overview of these education and training activities and discuss the future of the Marine National Facility as a unique training platform.