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As we all prepare to head off for the Christmas break after a busy and exhausting year, I just wanted to say thank you for your hard work to support the Environment Institute this year. With so many dedicated researchers and initiatives developing, it has been an honour and a privilege to be interim Director of the Environment Institute during 2022.

It's hard to do justice to all our activities - but I'll give it a go - outlined through our pillars of: culture and people; research excellence; and communication, engagement and partnerships.

Culture & PeopleÌý

[caption id="attachment_17033" align="alignright" width="522"] Top L: A/Prof Charles Caraguel, Douglas Radford, Elaine Bensted and Dr Nina Wooton. Top R: Prof Sarah Wheeler and Prof Andy Lowe. Bottom L: Dr Adriana Milanzzo and Clare Peddie Bottom R: Dr Anna-lise Chaber, Prof Andy Lowe and Hannah Thwaites[/caption]

I believe we have built an open and inclusive community and a sense of belonging for researchersÌýsupported by the Environment Institute, including through our early, mid and senior-career researcher training, mentoring and strategy sessions.ÌýCelebrating success is a key element of culture, and we have seen some outstanding recognition of members this year, at global, national and local scales, including pleasingly many early career researchers.ÌýFrom newly minted HiCites (Professor Seth Westra) and Fellows of the Academy of Social Sciences (Professor Peng Bi), to prize winners, honours and finalists at Global (One of 60 finalists selected to progress to the next stage of the XPrize Carbon Removal Award 2025, Professor Andrew Lowe), National (Australian Navy Commendation - Professor Jeremy Austin; Eureka Prize finalists - Fungimap, Extreme Heat Team) and State levels (SA Tall Poppy - Dr Erin Fagan Jefferies; 7 News Young Achiever, Dr Nicole Foster; 3MT Peoples choice winner, Isobel Hume; Circular Economy Student Award, Liancheng Li;). We also saw A/Professor Phill Cassey and Professor Patrick O’Connor elected as councillors in the newly established Biodiversity Council (with EI Board Chair ProfessorÌýHugh Possingham on the board) and fellowship awards from ABRS to Dr Perry Beasley-Hall and from Subak Australia to Dr Dominic McAfee, Dr Andrew Thornhill, Dr Stuart Brown, Darren Ray.

Research Excellence

Research excellence is a key pillar of our university, and our members achieved some outstanding results this year. Our ARC success was exceptional and included the only Future Fellowship awarded to the University in 2022 for Associate Professor Alec Zuo. We saw members provide leadership in several large grant awards, including Professor Seth Westra in the One Basin CRC, Associate Professor Phill Cassey in the ARC Special Research Initiative in Excellence in Antarctic Science Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future, Dr Alice Jones in an Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment’s Blue Carbon Ecosystem Restoration Grant, and Professor Timothy Cavagnaro with partners SARDI, Birchip Cropping Group, Kalyx Australia and the Thomas Elder Institute in the Federal Government’s Soil Science Challenge program.

In 2022 we focussed support around six research initiatives focussing on halting unsustainable species loss and exploitation and developing the research to underpin ecosystem management and restoration programs.

1. Environment