OPTIMA Seminar Series 18 May 2022
Speaker: Aaron Dodd – Centre of Excellence for Biosecurity Risk Analysis
Title: Value and value added – modelling and maximising the impact of Australia’s border biosecurity system.
Synopsis: It is well understood that Australia operates one of the most comprehensive biosecurity systems in the world, but for what benefit? Without a clear understanding of the specific monetary benefits obtained from the existing investment in biosecurity activities it is impossible to determine the extent to which the system is achieving its desired objectives (i.e., its ‘health’) and also whether there is scope to increase either the value or health of the system by altering the allocation of resources.
In response, Dr Aaron Dodd (Chief Investigator with CEBRA) and the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment are undertaking a project titled: Value Added – modelling the marginal return on investment within and across pathways.
This project seeks to build on the earlier CEBRA Value project to develop a transparent and repeatable approach for comparing the relative costs and benefits of different levels of intervention within and across two import pathways as a proof of concept. Fully implemented, this project and its outputs have the potential to transform the department’s approach to allocating resources to different risk controls significantly improving both its efficiency and its effectiveness.
Join us to hear Aaron talk about both the Value and Value Added projects and the approaches that the CEBRA team have developed to help the department tackle this fundamental question.
Bio: Aaron is a leading risk and emergency management specialist currently working on methods for determining the optimal combination (type and level) of risk controls at the system-scale. A field ecologist by training – but with a diverse career across the biosecurity and EM sectors spanning operations, policy and research – Aaron brings interdisciplinary knowledge and experience to biosecurity practice. Aaron is a Chief Investigator and Deputy Director of the Centre of Excellence for Biosecurity Risk Analysis (CEBRA), based at the University of Melbourne.
WED 18 MAY 4PM – 5PM AEST
ZOOM MEETING ID: 873 1557 5255; PASSWORD: 778635