Research Director: Professor Sara Bice
Leading social license expert, Dr Sara Bice, heads the project team.
She is Professor and Vice-Chancellor’s Futures Scheme Senior Fellow at the Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University, Australia’s leading public policy school. Sara is Foundation Director, Institute for Infrastructure in Society, where she leads the Next Generation Engagement program, Australia’s largest study into community engagement in infrastructure, to date. She is a past President of the International Association for Impact Assessment (2018-2019), the world’s leading organisation for impact assessment practitioners, researchers and clients, representing almost 7,000 members in 120 different countries. Sara is Professor (Special International Guest) at the School of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University, Beijing. She is an award-winning author and her latest co-edited book, Public Policy in the Asian Century is available from Palgrave Macmillan. She loves to surf, has been known to swim with sharks and never met a gelato she didn’t like.
Industry Director: Kirsty O’Connell
Kirsty O’Connell leads industry engagement for the Next Generation Engagement program and through her company, The Engagement People, was a founding partner in this exciting work. Kirsty has successfully led communication and engagement for more than $17 billion in transformational multi-billion dollar infrastructure projects during her 20 year career, holds an MBA with majors in finance, sustainability and innovation gained in Australia, the UK and France and is a member of the Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia’s Stakeholder Advisory Committee (ISCA). She lends her considerable industry experience to ensure industry concerns and aspirations stay at the heart of the Next Generation Engagement Program.
Senior Researcher: Dr Kirsty Jones
Dr Kirsty Jones is the senior researcher charged with leading Phase 1 of our Flagship Research Project – the development of the case study template. She brings more than a decade of experience coordinating industry and government engagement with research institutions. Most recently, her work as the Senior Engagement Fellow for the University of Melbourne’s Public Health Insights Initiative saw her develop, coordinate, deliver and evaluate programs to share knowledge between university researchers, government and health professionals to achieve better public health outcomes.
Proudly Hosted by:
Australian National University is proud to host the Next Generation Engagement Program.
With support from:
