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OBJECTIVES
WQRA focuses on collaborative research of national application with a focus on drinking water quality, recycled water and relevant areas of wastewater management. The primary aims of WQRA are to build on the achievements of the former CRC to:

• Conduct and advocate for high quality research on the priority issues for the Australian Water Industry, including urban, peri-urban and regional water supplies relating to public health and acceptability aspects of water supply, water recycling and relevant areas of wastewater management.

• To adopt a risk-based approach to research in order to underpin the implementation and further development of relevant Australian guidelines for drinking water and recycled water.
• Facilitate knowledge transfer and the uptake of the outcomes of the research in the industry.

The main focus of the research program will be on urban water issues related to public health and acceptability aspects of water supply, water recycling and aspects of wastewater management. WQRA will also continue to support research aimed at improving water quality and public health in regional and rural areas.

A detailed list of research priorities as determined by WQRA Members in 2008 is available as a pdf file.

First WQRA Research Project
The first research project to be formally commenced under the auspices of WQRA began in December 2007 with the signing of the project agreement for "A National Approach to Health Risk Assessment, Risk Communication and Management of Chemical Hazards from Recycled Water". With a budget of over $2 million, including $1,015,000 from the Australian Government Water Fund under the Raising National Water Standards programme, this project will develop a toolbox of biomonitoring techniques for recycled water. The project will establish linkages with two other Raising National Water Standards projects: "Development of an Ecotoxicity Toolbox to Evaluate Water Quality for Recycling" managed by the Western Australian Department of Water, and "Recycled Water Quality Standards", managed by the National Environment Protection Council.This new project will also establish linkages with those developing the National Guidelines for Water Recycling - Phase 2.


Development of the WQRA Research Portfolio
WQRA has developed a research portfolio which includes projects fully funded by WQRA as well as projects jointly supported by WQRA and a range of other funding bodies including the Australian Research Council, the National Health and Medical Research Council and the National Water Commission. Updates on project applications and approvals can be found in the WQRA newsletter and Annual Reports. Project proposals are reviewed by the Project Review Team (PRT) comprising the WQRA CEO and Program Managers, and selected Industry and Research Representatives. Their role is to review each project against the Project Selection Criteria and make a funding recommendation to the WQRA Board. Some projects are also subjected to external peer review.

Project Proposals are to be prepared using the Project Proposal Template (Word doc) and Project Proposal Financial Tables (Excel spreadsheet). Details of the Project Selection Criteria (PDF) are available.

Enquiries regarding the project development process should be directed to the relevant WQRA Program Manager (Michele.Akeroyd@wqra.com.au or David.Halliwell@wqra.com.au).

Information on research projects can be found in the WQRA Annual Reports and the WQRA Newsletter.

CRC Research Projects
WQRA is managing the completion of several research projects commenced under the CRC for Water Quality and Treatment, and has allso taken over responsibility for projects in the Wastewater Program of the CRC (which operated independently from the CRC Commonwealth Agreement). Project outcomes are availbale in the form of Research Reports which can be downloaded from this web site.