CEBRA research: harnessing past and new work to improve uptake and impact of best practise risk analysis approaches in MPI
Project ID: 180702
Project Name: CEBRA research: harnessing past and new work to improve uptake and impact of best practise risk analysis approaches in MPI
CEBRA Project Leader: Susie Hester
Project Sponsor: Steve Hathaway, Director, Science and Risk Assessment, Ministry for Primary Industries, New Zealand
Project Leader: Christine Reed, Manager Biosecurity Science and Risk Assessment, Biosecurity Science and Risk Assessment Directorate, Regulation and Assurance Branch
MPI has not yet fully capitalised on existing research outputs from ACERA and then CEBRA’s work with DAWR completed over the past 8 years. There is scope to use methodologies developed in the research and outputs from earlier projects to solve additional biosecurity problems. Currently, however, access to methodologies used in projects, adoption of research findings, and the use of these findings in new projects is ad hoc, and depends on the corporate knowledge of the project team. Such an approach may result in missed opportunities and duplication of research finding.
Access for MPI staff to research projects, their outcomes and impacts, would:
- assist ‘knowledge management’ overtime regardless of staff changes;
- provide a system to record adoption of impacts; thus allowing an understanding of ‘return on investment’ to CEBRA projects; and
- provide a knowledge base from which new projects could be developed, This project will assemble the approaches, methodologies, subject areas, and best‐practice conclusions developed in CEBRA research projects over many years and highlight/facilitate their application to current problems faced by MPI.
Phase 1 of this project (2018‐2019) is around knowledge management, and will involve:
- interviews with a range of MPI staff in order to assess their potential use of the database, past use and knowledge of CEBRA research, and appropriate methods to encourage future use of the database;
- assembling the CEBRA knowledge resource, including an assessment of the different types of information that should be captured and stored, and how this storage process can become business as usual. This may include suggestions for how automated reminders could be managed for CEBRA and MPI researchers to upload new outputs and new adoption activities.
- activities to make staff aware of the research outputs and to encourage the distribution and use of this knowledge;
- capturing information about attempts to access CEBRA research outputs.
Phase 2 of the project (2019-2020) is concerned with the culture of knowledge application. It would involve assessing use of the system developed in Phase 1 of the project, and whether knowledge is being, stored, shared and applied as originally intended. Depending on the outcome of the evaluation there may be a need to modify the system, and/or implement some cultural change surrounding knowledge management in MPI.