Synthesis and Integration

Project Overview

The Synthesis & Integration project concluded in June 2017. It brought together the main experiences, ideas, observations, strategies, insights and findings from across the domains of the 11 research projects of the CRC-REP. It identified constructive tools, rationales, frameworks and opportunities needed to increase economic participation in remote Australia.

The project also identified gaps in the current body of knowledge in academic and policymaking frameworks when understanding the complexity of remote Australia. It used multivariate aggregation approaches to interpret local or regionally specific trends, which are useful to community planning, sustainability, economic decision-making and community strategic development. It examined the evidence base for and factors influencing economic participation in remote Australia, and described how a synthesis of these is useful to planning, policy, community development and economic management.

The impacts of this research are:

• Return on investment through access to high quality findings and research activity, opportunity to establish further commercial or partnership activity, and new collaborations 
• Access to local and regional as well as national data; opportunities for direct participation; employment outcomes; resources for planning and decision-making; larger social, professional and business networks, intercultural practices and priorities; royalty streams and pathways for enduring value 
• Access to local networks, links between local service economies and fly- or drive-in/out economies; research and evidence of local and regional business structures, demographics, and environmental/ecological priorities; governance
• Greater national social, knowledge and economic return on investment and participation; access to reliable and contextual evidence of remote Australia; information that address ‘wicked problems’. 

Outputs from this research included:

• A bringing together of the key findings from across all the CRC-REP project areas with the appropriate contextual information to further aid interpretation; description of trends, patterns and connections in the CRC project areas to assist stakeholder interpretation of the broader CRC approaches and findings.
• An international special journal publication: Learning Communities Journal, CRC-REP Synthesis and Integration Special Issue brought together peer reviewed articles reflecting active partnerships and themes central to remote economic participation
• A synthesis of understandings about what economic participation means to residents and stakeholders across the diverse environments, businesses and residents of remote Australia
• Expanded networks and stakeholder-driven engagement that increase the social and economic benefits from CRC-REP’s research
• Communication outputs generating new knowledge as part of the knowledge heritage of the project, namely policy briefings, conference presentations, and stakeholder engagement activities.
• Transferable CRC-REP cross project and cross program findings and resources. 

Research results from this project were disseminated widely, with the project publishing 15 journal papers, presenting at 3 conferences and creating 2 other end-user publications.

For more information about this research, please contact Judith Lovell: judith.lovell@cdu.edu.au