The SQNNSW Innovation Hub
The SQNNSW Hub is a part of the national Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hubs program, which aims to help farmers and communities get ready for drought by connecting them with regional agricultural experts, innovation, and new practices. The Hub supports producers and their communities in growing resilience to manage climate variability through innovation, collaboration, and building capacity and capability. The Hub covers the region from Longreach in Queensland to Dubbo in New South Wales and from the coast to the Southern Australian & Northern Territory borders in the west. It has seven nodes and works with a range of industries, including livestock, broadacre cropping, cotton, horticulture, viticulture, tree crops, and sugarcane. The Hub has 37 Members and Network Partners and supports the co-design of drought preparedness activities for the region. The Australian government has invested $10 million in the Hub over four years, and Hub Members and Network Partners have contributed over $10 million.
The Lismore Node
The Lismore Node is one of the seven SQNNSW Innovation Hub nodes and is being led by a team at Southern Cross University with local shopfronts in Lismore, Coffs Harbor and Bingara. The region covers the NSW North Coast and part of the Northern Slopes and Table lands region around Bingara.
The Lismore Node is currently established and operated at with a full-time Node manager and knowledge broker and a part-time extension officer at the SCU campus in Lismore. At the SCU campus in Coffs Harbour the Lismore Node is represented by Lorraine Gordon, the director of strategic projects. And in Bingara at the Living Classroom, the Node is represented by a second full-time adoption and extension officer. The Lismore node provides a point of community engagement for the Node’s region and organizes and facilitates activities for farmers, agribusiness, and local communities to access innovative technologies and practices developed or facilitated by the Hub. The Node also facilitates innovative practices in drought preparedness and resilience identified by the local farming and regional communities.
