As part of their outreach program, CASPR hosts undergraduate and Honours student interns every year. In winter 2021, Issy assisted with research that kicked off an up-coming collaborative project with the SA Department for Environment and Water.
Issy, photo by Catherine Leo.
“When I first heard about the Climate and Sustainability Policy Research Group internship, I knew I had to apply. I haven’t always wanted to research, but in the final three years of my degree it became very clear that this was in fact a huge passion of mine. Not only did the internship give me the opportunity to undertake research in the field of climate and environmental policy, my project gave me the unique ability to work with the Department for Environment and Water.
My project was a dream come true, a chance to work on establishing a register of all South Australian research related to the key focus areas of the SA Government Climate Change Action Plan. This meant, a lot of interesting reading and discovering highly innovative and important work being conducted right here in Adelaide. It also meant seeing the bigger picture in what climate change research specific to South Australia has been done or is underway, and what is yet to be addressed. It is my hope that once this research register is established, these gaps will be filled, and the research utilised to ensure South Australia meets its climate change and emissions targets.
Working part time at the Department meant incredible exposure to even more research and the people behind them. The conversations I had with the Science and Information Group at the Department, as well as the CASPR supervisors and fellow interns, were a big highlight of the internship.The collaborative nature of the CASPR group is certainly an attractive aspect of this internship as you can easily have a chat with any of the supervisors about their research and expert fields.
Splitting my time between Flinders University and the Department seemed a lot at first, however the amount of autonomy and freedom given to the interns made it a really enjoyable experience. The supervision provided by the excellent researchers in the CASPR group instilled confidence in our work and pushed us to produce quality research outputs in a very short time. They also inspired a passion for climate and sustainability research to the extent I can definitely see myself in this area of work somewhere in my future, and the opportunities provided through my supervisors and the internship program set me up well for seeing that future realised.”
Cassandra, Beverley and Peter have been impressed and well-aided in their respective research projects by the contributions made by Issy as well as Georgia, Bella, and Cecilia (read about their projects here). The CASPR group anticipates offering another round of funded internships in February 2022 – contact caspr@flinders.edu.au to be notified by email when applications open.
