The ANU research team visited the offices of the Department for Infrastructure and Transport (DIT) in South Australia between the 22nd and 26th of May.
This trip provided a critical opportunity to test our new tools, including our contract management scorecard, post-project self-assessment and monitoring toolkit for community engagement standards throughout the lifecycle of infrastructure projects.
Being able to test these tools gave us new data to build our evidence base and new insights about how to refine the tools for greater impact in practice.
We were also able to meet with project teams to better understand risk management processes and how social risks are identified and evaluated.
Getting a close-up view of how this works in practice is vital for the Australian Research Council-funded project on Managing Social Risks on Major Projects, including to finalise the beta-version of the Social Risk Checklist as a practicable tool for industry.
Amanda Collins, our partner representative from DIT, reported that the experience was fruitful and “a success” from her perspective, “not just because we contributed to the research, but also because there was mutual learning and our staff gained new insights that will support their work going forward.” Overall, our immersive fieldwork in Adelaide was productive for sharing our research findings and tools to date, consolidating relationships across diverse teams, and learning from real-time experiences on infrastructure projects to hone research directions going forward at I2S.
Industry partners keen to replicate the SA experience should contact Industry Director, Kirsty O’Connell on 0411 100 734.