RESEARCH & ENGAGEMENT Research on the Road Professor Derek Baker, in collaboration with Dr David Hadley and consultant David Anderson published the findings of a case study on assessment of rural road use and subsequent upgrades in January this year. The report, Research activities on rural roads, was funded by the AgriFuture National Rural Issues program and shows that a new approach to assess rural road use is needed to effectively evaluate small and large-scale road infrastructure projects. The team explain that road use prioritisation tends to be based on population alone, rather than also considering factors such as market access for valueadding. “We hope this study will contribute to discussions when making investment decisions about road upgrades in rural and regional Australia,” said AgriFutures Australia Research & Innovation Program Manager, Jennifer Medway. Research in the Media UNE Business School PhD student, Nikki Zhang, was featured in the Stock Journal in early August to promote her research on the value of information expressed at different levels in the meat supply chain. Nikki’s research is adding to the supply chain performance work being conducted through the UNE Centre for Agribusiness as she investigates how meat product information is generated, valued and passed on along supply chains through to consumers. After a preliminary survey, Nikki is now collecting data through a second survey targeting breeders, producers and processors to determine their perception of the value of product certification. PhD Conference UNE Business School PhD student Subashini Perera recently had the opportunity to present one of her papers at the 31st PhD Conference in Economics and Business at UNSW Sydney, held from 31st October – 2nd November. The paper, titled ‘Trade delays constitute a conclusive barrier to economic development: Should South Asia be motivated accordingly?’ was co-authored by Professor Mahinda Siriwardana and Dr Stuart Mounter of the UNE Business School, and is currently under review by A-ranked journal World Economy. This is the third conference that Subashini has attended during her studies at UNE and she has enjoyed the chance to network and collaborate with fellow researchers. At the recent conference in Sydney, Subashini met a fellow researcher from UNSW who was following a similar line of research but with different models. They have discussed combining their research and look to produce a paper together in the future. 2018 Retrospective / 9
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