Image: Professor Sharon Biermann (Director of PATREC) and Professor Pascal Perez (Director of AURIN)
We are excited to announce our first AURIN Node, in partnership with the Planning and Transport Research Centre (PATREC) and located at the University of Western Australia (UWA). The AURIN WA Node is the product of our long-standing relationship with PATREC and is supported by co-investment from the WA State Government, UWA and Curtin University.
AURIN Nodes aim to establish long-term and strategic engagement with key scientific and higher education institutions in order to support high impact research on cities, regional centres, infrastructure systems and local communities. AURIN Node agreements intend to alleviate uncertainties and delays associated with successive single project negotiations between AURIN and research providers. AURIN Nodes also benefit from priority access to our resources and capabilities.
As a National Research Infrastructure facility, funded by the Australian Government (NCRIS program), AURIN will support UWA and other members of PATREC in delivering market-ready and enterprise-grade scientific products that will address key challenges such as the impact of climate change, energy transition or demographic transformation on cities, regional centres, infrastructure systems and local communities.
Initially, the AURIN WA Node will primarily target WA researchers and government users currently involved in PATREC’s Climate Action in Transport and Land Use Planning program (CATLUP). CATLUP began in 2023 with three foundation projects, responding to WA government-identified needs:
- Feasibility of battery-electric buses for school bus services
- Mapping the circular economy of WA: Monitoring the contributions of circularity towards achieving Net Zero
- Accounting for carbon in the planning of new residential neighbourhoods
Over the initial 3-year agreed period, the AURIN WA Node will benefit from AURIN’s funding and resources to produce critical analytical tools, indicators and projections, in order to support integrated land use-transport planning, resilient infrastructure and sustainable communities
‘By connecting research infrastructure with practical policy needs the AURIN WA Node will ensure that WA remains at the cutting edge of climate resilience and sustainability efforts, while allowing for economic and social growth,’ says Prof Sharon Biermann, director of PATREC.
Some expected high impact research outputs will include:
- High resolution household power and water usage datasets, as well as construction materials energy footprints, necessary to establish a consistent carbon and energy accounting system for the built environment.
- Disaggregated input-output tables of economic and environmental flows across major activity centres in WA to better understand the role of supply chains in carbon and energy accounting.
- Nested origin-destination matrices, partly informed by near real time data feeds, for public, private and freight transport, converted into carbon emissions and associated with various urban forms and planning scenarios.
Prof Pascal Perez, director of AURIN says, ‘The AURIN WA Node promises to be a transformative resource, facilitating the development of critical tools and data that will directly inform decision-makers and benefit local communities. As our network of AURIN Nodes grows around the country, more researchers will benefit from research outputs delivered in WA and accelerate their diffusion Nation-wide.’