Prime Minister Julia Gillard has launched the country’s first multi-disciplinary research centre dedicated to addressing key issues of food security and environmental challenges.

The $20 million Centre for Carbon, Water and Food has been jointly funded by the Federal Government and the University, and will be tasked with helping to ensure Australia’s future sustainability, as well as its potential to act as a regional leader in food production and land management.

"The work we do now in research and innovation to seize the opportunities our clean energy future will create for our food and fibre industries will be a key in coming decades – and the shifting centre of economic gravity, from west to east, creates vast new opportunities for us in our region," Prime Minister Gillard said.

The new centre is located at the University of Sydney’s Camden campus, and will be delivering research, education and training that will underpin international best practices and policies in the area. It will help answer how to produce more higher-quality food, with less carbon emissions and more efficient water use. 

The Centre has already attracted international interest with two agreements signed with leading Chinese institutions today. This collaboration between Australia and China follows a December 2012 Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade report "Feeding the Future", which identified China and Australia as potential productive partners to ease growing pressure on food supplies. It also follows several decades of collaboration already undertaken between University of Sydney researchers and Chinese colleagues from a multitude of institutions.

"The Centre will house some of the best people in the world working on questions around water use efficiency, nutrient use efficiency, nitrogen fixation and soil structure, and as we have seen today other institutions and experts will be attracted to the Centre to be part of this effort,” University of Sydney’s Professor Mark Adams said.

"The world is facing a huge challenge: we've got to produce more food, of better quality, and we've got to do it while putting less carbon into the atmosphere and using less water. The Centre for Carbon, Water and Food at the University of Sydney will play a leading role in helping tackle this global challenge."