Reforming Quality Assurance in Environmental Science

The AEF will host a free webinar on the reforms that are urgently needed to quality assurance (QA) systems and practices in environmental science. It will take place on 24 November 2020, from 7:30 to 8:30 pm Australian Eastern Daylight Time (AEDT) and will be conducted on Zoom so as to allow participation from all over Australia, as well as abroad.

This webinar is the latest in a continuing series of events held by AEF to commemorate the life and work of Prof. Bob Carter, a former Director and Scientific Adviser, who died in 2016.

Our speakers are all well-known in their respective fields and knowledgeable about these issues. They are: geophysicist, Dr Peter Ridd; science blogger, Jo Nova; and economist, Alan Moran. All three are currently AEF Directors and Dr Ridd is its Scientific Adviser.

They will briefly survey the recent QA failures in the science than underpins three key environmental policy areas — the Great Barrier Reef, bushfire prevention and managment, and the Murray-Darling Basin — before engaging in a panel discussion of how to reform of QA systems and practices in environmental science.

The discussion will be open-ended but will focus on answers to the following questions:

• Do we need independent audits of individual research projects?

• Which elements of a research project should be audited and by whom?

• How should we manage and fund studies to test the replicability of policy-critical research?

• Should the conduct of publicly-funded research projects be fully transparent to the public?

• Should governments set up independent bodies to regulate QA practices in such research?

• How should we protect such regulators from capture by those who are meant to be regulated?

Other webinar participants will be able to use Zoom’s Q&A feature to submit questions to the panel.

Those who wish to participate must register in advance at the webpage created for this event at the Zoom website. Zoom will email each registrant the full details of how they can join the virtual ‘webinar room’ at the appropriate time.

At the end of this week, AEF will announce the URL for webinar registration on its website and email the details to those on its mailing lists. Anyone who is interested in receiving this email can do so by signing up for AEF News and Commentary. The Subscription form  is located on the right hand side of very page of this website.