Three organisations have partnered to offer the 2008 Desert Knowledge Symposium and Business Showcase. They believe that this biennial event offers an excellent opportunity to showcase Australian and international expertise in collaboration, research and problem solving. It also enables key players to discuss matters of importance to the desert and develop ideas for the future. The partner organisations are:

Desert Knowledge Australia

Desert Knowledge Australia (DKA) is a point of contact for Australia’s knowledge of successful desert living.

We are a community-driven organisation of partnerships and networks combining and harnessing the ancient and the innovative in both scientific knowledge and informal know-how of sustaining and thriving desert communities.

We apply the knowledge to create demand for Australian expertise and to promote best practice in economic, social and environmental development.

DKA also brings people and ideas together, networking across borders and making the connections to build business opportunities.

We facilitate targeted actions and projects to create opportunities and meet desert challenges, and provide support and infrastructure to foster desert knowledge.

The Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre

The Desert Knowledge CRC (DKCRC) is a research organisation established as part of the Australian Government CRC Programme.

DKCRC is made up of 28 partner organisations around Australia. Each participating organisation contributes resources to the centre to facilitate world class research in desert Australia.

We use traditional knowledge and western science to help people live well in the desert. Our research teams pursue this outcome with a focus on the following objectives for desert Australia:

• Sustainable livelihoods for desert people
• Sustainable remote desert settlements
• Thriving desert regional economies
• Increased human and social capital of desert people.

Our research looks at how we can do things differently to suit the arid and semi-arid environments to deliver real outcomes for an innovative and prosperous future for desert Australia.

Desert Peoples Centre

The Desert Peoples Centre (DPC) is a partnership between Batchelor Institute for Indigenous Tertiary Education and the Centre for Appropriate Technology.

We build on their long-term efforts to provide contemporary learning, skills and practical solutions for living in the remote desert.

We aim for partnerships that will lead to more choices for Aboriginal people – sustainable livelihoods, employment outcomes and enterprise opportunities – and that will help build a base for Aboriginal voices and ideas to take their place in both the regional and wider Australian community.

The Desert Knowledge Precinct

The Precinct is the home of Desert Knowledge Australia, the Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre and the Desert Peoples Centre.

It is a knowledge community of learning, in which the currency is ideas, cooperation and sharing.