Championing co-investment and co-design, the Australian Cotton Disease Collaboration (ACDC) heralds a new collaborative approach to cotton disease research aimed at mitigating the economic impact on growers.

The new approach is seeking input from various sectors of the industry. Interested partners with the resources, skills, and capacity to help are asked to submit an expression of interest (EOI) to CRDC by 21 August.

"The cotton industry has invested in disease research for several decades," said CRDC innovation broker, Elsie Hudson.

"And while we've built a huge knowledge bank and made some real gains, the breakthroughs are getting harder to find. We have a limited toolkit for managing disease, and with impacts rising, it's time to shake up the way we do research and development. ACDC offers that.

"ACDC will bring together researchers, commercial partners, innovators and government agencies willing to help CRDC define the challenge, co-design projects, and co-invest in solutions."

Moree, New South Wales-based cotton grower, Mick Humphries, has been involved in the CRDC's disease research for the last five years, and he's hopeful the change in approach can unlock new solutions.

"Disease is such a hard area to get meaningful R&D breakthroughs. We'll get a head of steam on a promising solution and then, almost out of the blue, it's back to the drawing board," he said.

Interested parties can find more information here: https://www.crdc.com.au/researchers/expressions-interest

Responses to the EOI are due to CRDC via [email protected] by 5pm, Monday 21 August. Successful partners will be notified in September, with the co-design process set to commence in October.