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Overview of the GRDC
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The Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) was founded in 1990 under the Primary Industries and Energy Research and Development Act 1989 (PIERD Act).
The corporation has two key customer groups: the Australian Government and Australian graingrowers. Its role is to invest in R&D and related activities to benefit graingrowers, other grains industry participants and the wider community. In doing so, the GRDC invests in research where obstacles to the industry's progress exist and where R&D may be effective in overcoming such obstacles.
This includes:
- investigating and evaluating the requirements for R&D in the grains industry
- coordinating or funding R&D activities
- facilitating the dissemination, adoption and commercialisation of the results of R&D.
The GRDC determines its priorities together with industry, government and research providers, and acts in partnership with public and private researchers, other R&D funding organisations, agribusiness and grower groups.
The GRDC is funded jointly by a levy collected from graingrowers based on the value of grain they produce, and contributions from the Australian Government. The industry levy is collected on 25 crops, spanning temperate and tropical cereals, oilseeds and pulses.1 The Australian Government matches the levy income up to a maximum of 0.5 percent of the average gross value of grains production, provided the government's contribution does not exceed grower levies.
The GRDC's organisational structure and objectives recognise the complexities of the grains industry and its investment needs. Planning, delivering and communicating R&D outputs occurs in an environment that embraces governments, industry groups, research partners, other R&D investors and those operating in the industry itself-particularly Australian graingrowers.
1. Crops with levies are: wheat; coarse grains-barley, oats, sorghum, maize, triticale, millets/panicums, cereal rye and canary seed; pulses-lupins, field peas, chickpeas, faba beans, vetch, peanuts, mung beans, navy beans, pigeon peas, cowpeas and lentils; and oilseeds-canola, sunflower, soybean, safflower and linseed. The levy for all crops is 0.99 percent of the net farm gate value of grain produced, except for maize which is levied at 0.693 percent of net farm gate value.
Organisational outcome
In a dynamic environment, the GRDC addresses R&D priorities to meet national, regional, commodity and multicommodity challenges, in order to achieve the following overall outcome:
Through its commitment to innovation, an Australian grains industry that is profitable and environmentally sustainable for the benefit of the industry and wider community.
The outcome reflects the corporate vision in Driving Innovation, and is consistent with the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry's portfolio goal of achieving more sustainable, competitive and profitable Australian agricultural, fisheries, food and forestry industries.
Structure
The organisational structure of the GRDC is shown in Figure 7.
Board and Executive Management Team
As described in more detail in Part 3, a board of nine directors governs the GRDC, while a team of executive managers based in Canberra leads the corporation's business activities. As well as advising the GRDC Board, the management team is responsible for realising the Board's priorities and managing and evaluating R&D investments in the Australian grains industry.
The GRDC Executive Management Team. L-R: Back-Vic Dobos (Communication and Customer Services), Vince Logan (New Products), Peter Reading (Managing Director), Greg Fraser (Practices). Front-Gavin Whiteley (Corporate Services), John Harvey (Varieties), Iftikhar Mostafa (Corporate Strategy and Program Support).
National Panel
The National Panel includes the chairs of the GRDC's three regional panels, the GRDC's Managing Director and the GRDC's executive managers. It is the key body for developing and recommending to the Board the GRDC's overall corporate strategies and direction, and assists the Board in maintaining linkages with its two key customer groups, the Australian Government and Australian graingrowers, as well as research partners.
The National Panel also develops and recommends investment proposals for the national elements of the GRDC's research programs. In doing so, the National Panel considers advice from the four program teams that manage the GRDC's R&D investment portfolio. The program teams are discussed in more detail in Part 3.
Regional panels
The GRDC recognises variations in local conditions, and provides for separate advisory panels to cover the northern, southern and western grain-growing regions of Australia. Figure 8 illustrates the geographical spread and characteristics of each region. Part 3 provides details of the membership of the regional panels.
The three regional panels develop regional investment priorities and make recommendations on the allocation of investment budgets to meet regional needs. This is also achieved through their membership on program teams that advance recommendations on investments to the GRDC Board via the National Panel. Regional panels also identify investments that may respond to national priorities.
An additional core function of the regional panels is to provide an interface with graingrowers and researchers, to promote awareness of the GRDC's investments and research outcomes and the corporation's strategic direction. The Board views the work of these panels, and the expertise of their members, as crucial to the corporation's success.
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Northern Region characteristics include:
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Southern Region characteristics include:
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Western Region characteristics include:
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