Elizabeth Anne Clarke

Research interests

Liz Clarke is a transdisciplinary researcher and practitioner with interests spanning complex integrated systems, sustainability science, research-policy engagement in development, and knowledge management, as well as a background in natural resource and rural systems research and development and a PhD is on transdisciplinary research methodology and knowledge coproduction. She is currently a postdoctoral associate at Leuphana University in the Leverage Points for Sustainability Transformation. She is also an Honorary Lecturer at the Australian National University and a Research Fellow at Western Sydney University.

Her skills include:

• research and research program management;
• co-production and knowledge exchange in transdisciplinary, complex systems research
• sustainable systems, human ecology, social anthropology, rural livelihoods (including social/institutional focus), and natural resource management;
• gender and equity analysis
• research facilitation and participatory process
• policy and research-policy engagement;
• international development assistance;
• evaluation and learning; research uptake; participatory and action research;
• stakeholder management and partnership brokering;
• strategic planning; policy development and government relations.

She has extensive experience in international research for development and a substantial international network. She has worked in senior roles with the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) including the Consortium of the International Agricultural Research Centers, the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) and WorldFish. Prior to that, she worked with the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) in knowledge management, communications, research management, government liaison and governance.

She is an Australian and British citizen, with a PhD from the Australian National University, holds a Bachelor of Agricultural Science (the University of Queensland), a Graduate Diploma in Communication (Queensland University of Technology), and an executive course in General Management (Macquarie Graduate School of Management).

She has more than 20 years experience in international development assistance and research for development (including senior management and leadership roles), in the public sector (internationally and nationally – including aid and donor organisations), industry organisations and business, and six years as the director of a research management support, communications and strategy consultancy.  

She has worked in a wide range of countries including in South East Asia, South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa). She is currently actively involved with a number of networks and committees internationally. She also has many years of experience in the Australian Public Service in a number of agencies and senior roles and has a broad experience in Parliamentary process and liaison including coordinating Senate Estimates briefing papers, and responses. Her publications include a range of books, monographs and other materials in natural resource management, rural development and industry (see publication list) as well as numerous internal presentations, strategies and reports in her various roles.

Curriculum

Convenor and lecturer in Society and Environmental Change, Sustainable Rural Systems, and Independent Research projects (research design, methods and practice).