Matthew Marshall and Grant Pink, ‘Building Organisational Capacity: The Role of Collaborative Research’, TEC Working Paper 2/2014, Canberra: Transnational Environmental Crime Project, Department of International Relations, Australian National University, July 2014.

The authors of this paper have been involved in the Transnational Environmental Crime (TEC) Project for the last three years, contributing to the establishment of the inter-organisational agreement from the governmental position, developing papers as Visiting Fellows, and providing presentations on the outcomes of the research. The TEC Project was an instance of a government agency and two universities coming together in a formal partnership to undertake a range of activities, including developing a series of working papers to collate data on responses to TEC at global, regional, and national levels, with the intention of advancing both governmental and academic interests.

The government agency’s involvement in the TEC Project led to a series of positive outcomes, notably in the areas of regulatory practice, cultural and organisational reform, as well as staff development, training, and skills management. These in combination act as strong indicators for the government agency to form future research partnerships with academic institutions.

An examination of the Visiting Fellows’ experience of writing the working papers as part of the TEC Project may provide lessons for improvements around future collaborations in the field of environmental regulatory research. There are recognised factors that influence the effectiveness of collaboration and these could be more consciously considered to develop more effective models for further interactions across the academic and environmental regulatory fields.

About the authors

Matthew Marshall is a Senior Regulatory Advisor, Regulatory Capability and Assurance Section, in the Project’s partner organisation, the Department of the Environment. Dr Marshall’s experience in this role has included policy development and capacity-building activities across operational, intelligence, policy, and liaison functions.

Grant Pink is Director, Regulatory Capability and Assurance Section in the Project’s partner organisation, the Department of the Environment. Mr Pink’s experience in this role has involved seven years of capacity-building activities across operational, intelligence, policy, and liaison functions at the national, regional, and international level.