Our integrated R&D Program aims to provide a level of health insurance for the Reef by developing safe and effective solutions before they become critically needed.
We’re focused on reducing critical uncertainty and providing advice to reef managers as to the most beneficial solutions.
The R&D Program is designed to be applied at unprecedented scales, across thousands of square kilometres. Thus, our research is focused on breaking through the scientific and engineering bottlenecks and knowledge gaps that currently limit the size and scale of meaningful reef restoration efforts.
Our recent advances give us renewed hope that we will achieve our mission.
The Program’s R&D is designed to be deployed at unprecendented scales and be responsive to a range of possible climate outcomes.
We aim to reduce critical uncertainty and quickly narrow a set of optimal interventions that support natural restoration and adaptation of damaged and degraded reefs.
Research is integrated, with a three-point approach:
A series of complementary subprograms deliver the R&D program outcomes: cross-cutting and engineering subprograms support a suite of intervention-focused R&D teams.
RRAP R&D Program structure. The intervention-focused subprograms will be supported by cross-cutting science and engineering subprograms.
The first back-to-back bleaching events of 2016 and 2017 on the Great Barrier Reef and other reefs around the world signalled that a step change was needed in coral reef restoration and adaptation science.
In 2018, the Australian Government provided funding for the founding RRAP consortium to determine the feasibility of intervening at scale on the Great Barrier Reef to help it adapt to, and recover from, the effects of climate change.
Over 18 months, RRAP conducted the world’s most rigorous and comprehensive investigation into small-, medium- and large-scale reef intervention, drawing on more than 150 experts from more than 20 organisations across the globe.
The RRAP Concept Feasibility Study investigated 160 potential interventions and long-listed 43. Interventions with the highest likelihood of success and aimed at prevention were prioritised over those aimed at repair, as it was determined to be faster and ultimately more effective to protect the reef and help it adapt to climate change than to try to help it recover after damage or destruction.
Potential interventions chosen would be rigorously tested and risk-assessed. They would be implemented at an effective scale if, when and where it was decided action was needed.
The first stage of the RRAP R&D Program then launched in late 2020, funded through the allocation for Reef Restoration and Adaptation Science under the partnership between the Australian Government’s Reef Trust and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation. This is supplemented with contributions from philanthropy and research providers.
