Thirteen members of the Federal Government’s Agricultural Industry Advisory Council (AIAC) visited the Waite on Thursday last week, touring some of our facilities and learning about the world-class research of the Campus Partners. The peak industry body includes members from a wide cross section of agricultural industries including dairy, beef cattle, sheep, fisheries, forestry, horticulture, grains, wine and wine grape growing.
The visit to Waite was organised as part of the AIACs two-day meeting in Adelaide providing an opportunity for industry input into policies supporting the growth of Australian agriculture.
The group began with lunch at Urrbrae House with University of Adelaide Vice-Chancellor, Professor Warren Bebbington and Dean of the Waite, Professor Mike Keller. They then enjoyed a walking tour of the Campus visiting molecular biology labs and the Australian Genome Research Facility in the Plant Genomics Centre, the Wine Innovation Central building, the Roseworthy-Hickinbotham Wine Science Laboratory and the Plant Accelerator.
Senior research staff from the University of Adelaide, AGRF, CSIRO, the AWRI and the Australian Plant Phenomics Facility spoke to the group about current research projects during the tour.
The visit was arranged by the University of Adelaide’s External Relations Portfolio. Director Leah Grantham said “the members of the Council who attended the visit at Waite were incredibly complimentary about what they saw and learnt”.
Pictured: Dr Ian Dry, CSIRO Agriculture, discussing some of the Waite’s viticulture research with the visiting AIAC group.