Professor Matthew Nicholson, Vice President (Research and Development), Monash University Malaysia, has announced that a node of the Monash Climate Change Communication Research Hub (MCCCRH), is to be established at Monash’s Malaysia campus, in partnership with the School of Arts and Social Sciences (SASS).
The purpose of the node is to conduct evidence-based research across communications, social science and biophysical science that is able to inform climate communication programs in south-east Asia. In particular, the climate literacy, concern and behavioural response of diverse social groups in Malaysia to climate change needs to be comprehensively understood prior to any recommendations for communications strategies and policy responses.
The project will bring together expertise in SASS, with collaborators in the School of Science in Malaysia, and the existing team in MCCCRH. Funding will allow for a post-doctoral research fellow, two doctoral researchers and survey costs in the first instance. Professor Stephanie Hemelryk Donald, Head of School (SASS) said that she was delighted to be part of a project that would bring humanities, social sciences and the sciences together to deliver impact in Malaysia and to further strengthen Monash Malaysia’s commitment to making a difference to real lives in Southeast Asia. Associate Professor Emily Goh, Head of the School of Science at MUM, is pleased to hear of this new development, and the opportunity to build on the Faculty of Science’s strong links with the Malaysian Global Environment Centre (GEC) and local industry.
The node will be an important first step in the global rollout of a Flagship Communications program of the International Universities Climate Alliance,(IUCA) which was awarded to the MCCCRH. The Flagship Communications program is planned to operate in six regions across Asia, Europe, UK, the Americas, Africa and Oceania and will train Universities in how to deliver high impact, non-partisan communications on climate to public audiences.
Professor Nicholson sees the establishment of a node of the MCCCRH as an exciting opportunity for Monash’s Malaysia campus to play a significant role in helping to solve one of the biggest global challenges of our age, and said that ‘Monash University Malaysia, located at the heart of 650 million people in the ASEAN region, looks forward to the unique contribution our staff and students can make as part of an international network’.
Associate Professor David Holmes, Director of the Monash Climate Change Communication Research Hub welcomed this development and said ‘leveraging Monash’s international footprint of campuses and networks for our partnership with the IUCA will be an important strategy in tackling this global issue’.
