UK-based pioneers in online consultation, Delib, will join the University of Melbourne in investigating the challenges of modern community consultation through the Next Generation Engagement Project.
Australian Director, James Aiken, said Delib’s clients deal with the challenge of delivering transparent, effective online consultation on a daily basis.
“Our clients include some of the world’s largest infrastructure proponents. They are among the early adopters in including online engagement tools as part of their array of communication channels with communities,” Mr Aiken said.
“We look forward to involving some of our key clients in this exciting consultation and in sharing our own experiences in this rapidly evolving space.”
Social license expert, Dr Sara Bice, is leading the project on behalf of the Melbourne School of Government.
“Almost $20 billion in largely taxpayer-funded projects have been delayed, cancelled or completed and then mothballed over the past decade in Australia. This research aims to identify the key engagement challenges gaps in delivering new infrastructure and to then address them through applied research with industry.”
“Partners such as Delib will play a vital role in helping us to understand this issue. The experiences of Delib at the coal face of major projects will allow us to create a clear picture of the core social challenges and opportunities facing Australia’s infrastructure delivery,” Dr Bice said.
Project Director, Kirsty O’Connell joins Dr Bice in delivering the project.
“A solid evidence base will underpin the business case for better practices and ultimately deliver better outcomes for communities and proponents”, Ms O’Connell said.
“The Next Generation Engagement Project is an important step in developing that sound evidence base.”
Over the coming six months the University of Melbourne and its partners will conduct the largest national consultation on engagement to date. This will include:
- a national survey on engagement and social license challenges for Australia’s infrastructure sector
- workshops in each capital city with leading Australian practitioners and international infrastructure experts
- a gap analysis that details the most critical knowledge gaps for the community engagement profession
- testing the gap analysis with infrastructure professionals across Australia.
Dr Bice said, “Through this work we aim to identify the biggest roadblocks around engagement, social risk management and social license for infrastructure delivery together with an analysis of emerging trends and challenges.”
“Our aim is to get this information onto the desk of key decision makers in Australia’s infrastructure sector to really inform the discussion. Our intention is that this work will seed longer-term research partnerships that will help industry to make meaningful progress on these issues.”