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UK/OZ/NZ Collaboration - History

The idea for the network arose from a visit made to Australia in 2007 by Dr Susan Jobling of Brunel University’s Institute for the Environment. Dr Jobling is a pioneer of research on endocrine disrupting contaminant research. She was struck by the widespread use of chemicals in Australia that had already been banned in Europe, either due to their toxicity or due to their endocrine disrupting properties. She was also interested in the differences in the climatic conditions and consequent water availability similarities and differences in UK and Australia and how the UK could possibly learn from Australia in terms of  the effects of future climate scenarios on water quantity and quality and the solutions to these problems.

The UK government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) was already running a mutually beneficial collaboration between the UK and Japan on endocrine disrupting contaminants .  It was decided to stimulate further awareness of the global endocrine disrupting contaminants issue and other emerging contaminants in Australia and New Zealand, and to try to establish a  firm collaboration between the countries in order to harmonise research and policies concerning  water and micro-pollutants.

Australia's interest in the collaboration was cemented at the initial What's in Our Water Symposium held in Canberra in November 2007 After that a workshop to establish the network was held in Sydney in August 2008 after the 2008 SETAC Conference. Since then a meeting has been held in September 2008 with representatives of the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (DEWHA) and members of the network.

The network will be seeking funding from both government and industry in both the UK and Australia.