The Centre of Excellence for Biosecurity Risk Analysis (CEBRA), formerly Australian Centre of Excellence for Risk Analysis (ACERA), is a research institute within the School of Biosciences at the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public university, public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state ...

in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It conducts research on a wide range of topics in risk, with an initial focus on

biosecurity Biosecurity refers to measures aimed at preventing the introduction or spread of harmful organisms (e.g. viruses, bacteria, plants, animals etc.) intentionally or unintentionally outside their native range or within new environments. In agricult ...

risks.

History

ACERA was founded in 2006 to honour a federal government election commitment on

risk, with a grant administered through the

Bureau of Rural Sciences The Bureau of Rural Sciences (BRS) is a scientific agency within the Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. The BRS was merged with the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE) in 2010, 24 years after ...

of the Federal Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and the University of Melbourne. The centre received a second phase of funding commencing in July 2009 and ending June 2013. The centre was established in the then School of Botany at the university in March 2006 until 30 June 2013. ACERA was funded by the now

Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment The Australian Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment (DAWE) was an Australian Government department which operated from 1 February 2020 until 30 June 2022. It represented Australia's national interests in agriculture, water and th ...

(DAWE) and the University of Melbourne. The first Director was

Mark Burgman Mark A. Burgman is an Australian ecologist, Professor at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa from 2024 and Emeritus Professor of Risk Analysis & Environmental Policy and former Director of the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College ...

. CEBRA was established in July 2013, in the 2013–2021 funding round.

Organisation and description

CEBRA is funded by the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, New Zealand's

Ministry for Primary Industries The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI; ) is the public service department of New Zealand charged with overseeing, managing and regulating the farming, fishing, food, animal welfare, biosecurity, and forestry sectors of New Zealand's primary ...

and the University of Melbourne. The centre is within the School of

Bioscience ''BioScience'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal that is published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Institute of Biological Sciences. It was established in 1964 and was preceded by the ''AIBS Bulletin'' (1951–1 ...

s at the university. , the CEO is Andrew Robinson, with Susie Hester, Tom Kompas, Richard Bradhurst, and James Camac as chief investigators. CEBRA "ensures that Australian biosecurity regulatory standards, procedures and tools are underpinned by world-class research and understanding of the issues, risks and response mechanisms". Its main objective is "to deliver practical solutions and advice for assessing and managing biosecurity risks that inform the risk management role of the department and ministry".

References

External links

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ACERA home page (archived)
{{authority control Research institutes in Australia Biological research institutes in Australia University of Melbourne Biosecurity 2006 establishments in Australia