The Australian Research Council has announced major new funding for coral reef science, establishing a prestigious national Centre of Excellence headquartered at James Cook University, in Townsville. The new Centre, to be known as the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies will be a partnership of James Cook University (JCU), the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), The Australian National University (ANU), the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) and The University of Queensland (UQ). The budget for the Centre of Excellence will be approximately A$40 million over the next 5 years.

The Centre of Excellence will cement Australia's leading contribution to coral reef sciences, and foster stronger collaborative links between the major partners and 24 other leading institutions in nine countries. According to ISI Essential Science Indicators, the Centre's four major research partners all rank in the top 20 institutions world-wide for citations for coral reef science with JCU ranking 1st (among 1644 institutions in 103 countries) (http://www.esi-topics.com/coralreef/inst/cla.html). Collectively, the Centre will create the world's largest concentration of coral reef scientists.

The bid for the Centre was led by Professor Terry Hughes (JCU), who is the Centre Director.  Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg (UQ) and Professor Malcolm McCulloch (ANU) are the Associate Directors.

The Centre of Excellence will focus initially on 5 research programs, each one under the stewardship of Program Leaders from James Cook University, the Australian National University and the University of Queensland:

Program 1: Evolutionary and environmental change (Malcolm McCulloch, ANU)
Program 2: Understanding and managing coral reef biodiversity (David Bellwood, JCU)
Program 3: Marine reserves and reef connectivity (Garry Russ, JCU)
Program 4: Genetic, molecular and physiological processes (Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, UQ)
Program 5: Resilience of linked social-ecological systems (Terry Hughes, JCU)

The Centre of Excellence will take a leading role in multi-national research programs. It will be by far the largest single institutional contributor to the Global Coral Reef Targeted Research Program, funded by the World Bank, and will replace the current JCU Centre for Coral Reef Biodiversity as an Institutional Member of the Resilience Alliance. The Centre of Excellence will have strong links to the Census of Marine Life project, and to coral reef management agencies worldwide, particularly the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority in Townsville.

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