Animal Health Australia along with Plant Health Australia through the Farm Biosecurity program are supporting Dr Regan Lynch to achieve her research aspirations through the Nuffield scholarship.

Nuffield offers the opportunity for those involved within the agricultural sector in Australia to experience farming across the world to further develop in their chosen field.

Regan is a senior veterinarian and provides mixed animal veterinary services to northwest Queensland., and is also part of the Northern Australian Biosecurity Surveillance Network (NABSnet) which focuses on disease surveillance and fostering communication among producers and other veterinarians.

Disease investigation being a large part of Regan’s job led to increased interest in understanding Cultural and Social attitudes towards biosecurity in the Northern Australian Beef industry. Through her research she aims to address critical questions such as How can we make sure the “red button” gets pushed? What does “shared responsibility” look like to those on the ground? What practically impacts reporting on the ground level? Are we actually good at biosecurity on a ground level?

Her Nuffield experience so far:

• As part of the program, Regan attended the Contemporary Scholars Conference (CSC) in Vancouver, Canada. Over the course of eight days, the group reflected on and discussed key agriculture topics including the Future of Agriculture, Emergency preparedness, Sustainable livestock, and attended workshops on presentation, storytelling, and media.
• Regan also had the opportunity to participate in the Global Focus Program (GFP). She was part of a group of 10 Scholars from Australia, Zimbabwe, USA, Chile, and Brazil that visited more than 80 farm and agricultural sites visits in Singapore, Australia, the US, the Netherlands, and Norway.
• Additionally, Regan attended multiple key events in the agriculture sector including the Nuffield triennial conference in New Zealand, spending 7 days touring agriculture operations on both the North and South Islands, the Australian Veterinary Association (AVA) – Emergency Animal Disease Conference 2022, Minitube Cattle Tech Days 2023, Allitech-Linart Beef Tour including BeefCon 2024 in Florida, and was a podcast guest on A Place to Call Home with host Sam Fryer.
  
  “Scale matters – systems that equal success in small operations do not necessarily equal success for large operations.”
  
  “Agriculture is an ever-evolving landscape, yet its fundamental principles endure, and agricultural issues are global with local traits. The beef sector faces the same issues as other sectors of agriculture – just different flavours.” Regan shared.
  

What next?

Collaboration with other scholars at various conferences and opportunities to experience farm activities firsthand in different countries has resulted in a shift in her research topic; now it is more about how attitudes are created in workplaces and how leadership plays a role in this.

Individual Research Travels and Report: this year Regan will spend time traveling across Brazil, Indonesia, UK, Germany to investigate her research topic and looks forward to attending the Beef Week and the 3^rd Australian Biosecurity Symposium in 2024 May and August respectively.

Regan will be publishing a 10,000-word report to conclude her Nuffield scholarship, which is made publicly available and adds to the knowledge base available and those looking to learn about agriculture.