[ASA] Science and Technology Australia Board update and #SolveitwithScience

[Cathryn Trott]

Dear ASA members,


As you are hopefully aware, ASA is a member of Science and Technology Australia (STA), the peak body representing 70,000 scientists and technologists across Australia. ASA sits within the Physical Sciences Cluster, of which I am the current Board representative. Other members of the cluster include a number of CoEs and other discipline societies across quantum computing, crystallography, emerging fuel technology, meteorological and oceanographic sciences, biophotonics, nuclear science, and others.


I attended the Science & Technology Australia Strategy Planning meeting and Board meeting yesterday as our Cluster Representative.


Today I attended the STA President's and CEO's Forum in Sydney, where 80 society presidents and CEOs developed election and ongoing strategy, and we had science policy presentations from the three major parties (Hon Karen Andrews MP, Senator the Hon Kim Carr, Hon Adam Bandt MP). The input from this planning day will be valuable for our cluster and the ASA, as well as the broader STA Election strategy and future policy development.

At the meetings yesterday and today there were a few key points of relevance for the ASA as part of STA:

  *   There was a discussion about how to get the most information from members to be able to serve the members better. As part of this, future requests from me for input will be more targeted and aligned with the strategic priorities of STA
  *   The Superstars of STEM program has been hugely successful. The Executive discussed expanding this type of diversity initiative to new sectors: indigenous, LBGQTIA, ethnic minorities.
  *   11 new member organisations have joined in the past year, bringing the total to 79. STA now provides a voice to a large number of organisations
  *   STA is investing a lot of energy developing an Election Strategy based on #SolveitwithScience, with four key priorities, as outlined in the Communique that featured a large array of member logos
  *   Science Meets Parliament 2019 registrations are going strong. Please have your members sign-up as soon as possible (August 13-14).

 STA's election communique is available at:


https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/GGJPCyoNVrcqmPn2UZEqA6?domain=scienceandtechnologyaustralia.org.au


Best wishes,

Cathryn




_______________________________________________________
Cathryn Trott

Associate Professor
ARC Future Fellow

ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3D (ASTRO 3D)

International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research
Curtin University
Bentley WA, Australia

cathryn.trott at curtin.edu.au
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