Announcing the 2025 Crawford-in-Queensland International Engagement Award Winners
June 26, 2025
The Crawford Fund QLD Committee supports targeted training and mentoring of overseas scientists and extension officers by experienced Queensland counterparts working on similar agricultural research challenges.
This year, they will be giving four International Engagement Awards to researchers at the University of Queensland, James Cook University, the Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Sugar Research Australia.
“The diverse activities undertaken through these four awards variously will see collaboration with scientists, technicians and students in the Timor Leste Ministry of Agriculture and the Timor Leste National University, the Service Territorial de l’Environnement in Wallis and Futuna, the Fiji National University in Fiji, and Ramu Sugar and the University of Technology (Unitech) in Papua New Guinea” said Professor Bob Lawn, honorary coordinator of the Crawford Fund Queensland Committee.
“Supporting Queensland scientists to work with scientists from our region not only promotes technology exchange and collaborative research, it is a win-win approach that also strengthens Queensland expertise,” said Professor Lawn.
“We are very pleased to have both experienced and early career researchers ready to share their expertise and broaden their networks by delivering training and mentoring opportunities in our near region.”
“Congratulations to the successful applicants receiving these highly competitive awards,” he said.
The four 2025 Crawford-in-QLD International Engagement Award Winners are:
Dr Lilia Carvalhais, Senior Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Centre for Horticultural Science, Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI) at the University of Queensland will deliver a training workshop titled Strengthening Disease Management of Banana in Timor Leste in Dili. The objective is to build capacity in disease identification, diagnostics and biosecurity, addressing critical gaps in research and extension knowledge. Participants in the workshop will include staff from Timor Leste National University as well as from four divisions of the Ministry of Agriculture: Plant Quarantine Biosecurity, Plant Protection, Horticulture and Crops.
Bananas are vital to food security, household income and trade in Timor Leste, and Queensland’s experience in managing major banana diseases will help equip stakeholders in Timor-Leste with the knowledge to identify, monitor and manage exotic and emerging banana diseases. The training also will foster ongoing collaboration between researchers in Queensland and Timor Leste, strengthening regional biosecurity efforts and reducing the risk of exotic banana disease incursions.
Ms Hillary Smith, Senior Research Officer, Marine Biology at James Cook University in Townsville will lead a mentoring project titled Reef recovery for food security: building Pacific capacity in critical fisheries habitat restoration in the Pacific Island nation of Wallis and Futuna. Coral reefs are essential to sustainable food security globally, but particularly in the Pacific, where fisheries provide the primary source of dietary protein for many coastal communities. The degradation of reef habitats directly undermines fish populations, threatening local livelihoods, nutrition and cultural practices.
This training initiative will engage with staff from the Wallis and Futuna Service Territorial de l’Environnement to strengthen the agency’s capacity to implement reef monitoring and restoration strategies that maintain and enhance habitat quality for reef-associated fisheries. A key output of the activity is the development of a prototype toolkit for reef restoration that will be applicable in other Pacific Island nations. The activity is being conducted in collaboration with the Reef Resilience Network — a key global stakeholder in coral reef management — as a workshop design and delivery partner.
Dr Carole Wright, Senior Biometrician with the Queensland Department of Primary Industries in Mareeba and colleagues will deliver Statistics training for ACIAR PASS-CR program and researchers at Fiji National University in Suva. Participants in the training course will include students from the University of the South Pacific and Fiji National University enrolled in the Pacific Agriculture Scholarships, Support and Climate Resilience (PASS-CR) program, which is funded by ACIAR, as well as research staff from Fiji, Samoa, The Solomons and Tonga associated with ACIAR Project 2018/195 Improving root crop resilience and biosecurity in Pacific Island Countries and Australia.
The participants in the training course are the region’s research and development staff of the future and the training aims to empower them with the statistical knowledge to produce high quality agricultural research by providing formal statistical training and one-on one consultations. There are also spin-off benefits for Queensland: improving the statistical rigour and quality of tropical agriculture research coming from the South Pacific region ensures that Queensland growers and industry are provided with scientifically valid information. This training will also develop and strengthen collaborative linkages between DPI, ACIAR, the University of the South Pacific and Fiji National University.
Dr Kevin Powell, Entomology Leader at Sugar Research Australia in Brisbane and colleagues will undertake mentoring of Papua New Guinea (PNG) colleagues from Ramu Sugar and the University of Technology (Unitech) in Lae aimed at Enhancing biosecurity preparedness, awareness and capability between PNG and Australia. While PNG sugar production is restricted to the Ramu Valley, sugarcane is indigenous to PNG with several related wild species found in the country. Consequently, there are also indigenous pests and diseases in PNG that are not found elsewhere.
The mentoring of young frontline PNG researchers in plant biosecurity and entomology will help develop enhanced capacity to respond rapidly and effectively to any biosecurity incursion into the PNG crop. The mentoring will also contribute to strong collaborative research networks between PNG and Australia to the benefit of the sugarcane industries of both countries.
