Centre for Regional and Rural Futures (CeRRF)

Our vision

To be the leader in innovative research solutions for sustainable regional and rural development.

CERRF is unique in the Australian context as it has the capability and capacity to address regional and rural productivity problems with teams from engineering, science, business, economics and the humanities. The Centre will focus on bridging the gaps between regional enterprises, governments and academia. With significant investment in cutting edge facilities and fitted with state-of-the-art equipment, CeRRF will be positioned as the premier centre for regional research and produce the best innovations that will positively impact rural communities here and around the world.

Our research is based on best-practice frontier technologies for building and transforming regional and rural industries. Partnering with us is an opportunity to connect with staff and graduates at the forefront of their fields of expertise. Our researchers bring novel, creative solutions to wide-ranging agricultural productivity and trade-related ventures.

We focus on understanding our customer needs to ensure our research remains relevant and produces high-value outcomes. Our work ranges from designing smarter technologies for increased productivity and sustainability to developing regional competitiveness

Our focus areas are:

We develop tailored research for existing and emerging issues identified by our industry partners in rural and regional areas. Our expertise across disciplines and technologies create transformative solutions to address real-world problems. CeRRF makes a meaningful, measurable contribution in the regional and rural research space.

Dr Rebecca Lester

Director, Centre for Regional and Rural Futures

Our mission

To drive employment and wealth-generating economic activities in regional and rural communities. We’ll do this through cutting edge research and the facilitation and translation of knowledge and expertise.

Our impact

Productivity benefits

Rapid measurement devices to enable real-time decision making.

Efficiency benefits

Efficient agriculture delivery systems to reduce on-farm costs.

Knowledge that underpins decision making

State-of-the-art climate modelling to inform business risk across agricultural commodities.

Our research

Our research encompasses everything from designing smarter agricultural technologies to developing regional competitiveness. We focus on understanding customer's needs, in order to ensure our research remains relevant and produces high-value outcomes.

Our research programs are delivered across five themes.

Learn more about our research programs

Our team

Led by Dr Rebecca Lester, the CeRRF team works across agricultural systems, science, strategy and economics. Discover the breadth and depth of our expertise and their notable research achievements.

Meet the CeRRF team

Our partners

Partnering with CeRRF is an opportunity to connect with staff and graduates at the forefront of their fields of expertise. Learn about our diverse network of partners and stakeholders here in Australia and abroad.

Our students

Our PhD students are leaders in their fields of expertise. They help us deliver innovative, relevant and creative solutions to a wide-range of agricultural productivity and trade-related ventures. Meet our current students and learn about their research projects.

Join our research team

To become a CeRRF research student you need to have a clear vision of what you want to investigate. This could be irrigation, drought-resistant seeds or improving agricultural water use.

In just a few steps you could be finding new and better ways to adapt farming techniques to cope with climate change and increasing populations.

Find out how to become a research degree student