Dr Paul Barnes Has over 25 years of experience as an applied academic and public sector manager covering emergency and risk management, and policy development on disaster risk reduction at both State and Federal levels. He holds an undergraduate degree in Environmental Health Sciences and a Doctorate examining risk and occupational health & safety management within the emergency response industry.
Prior to this role he established and led the Risk and Resilience Program at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Canberra where he developed contestable policy advice and published widely on options for enhancing national capabilities and capacities for disaster risk reduction and institutional resilience.
He served for 11 years as a continuing research-active academic in applied risk and crisis management at the Queensland University of Technology and assisted in establishing the Centre for Emergency & Disaster Management. During this tenure he completed projects for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economies, acted as an expert reviewer for the European Commission (European Research Agency) and the Australian Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet on national risk assessment frameworks.
As a Co-chief Investigator and research partner, he has attracted more than $10M in grant funding from sources such as the Australian Research Council, and the Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre (BNHCRC), the National Recovery & Resilience Agency and the NSW Gov Bushfire Local Economic Recovery Program.
Earlier government experience includes working as the inaugural Manager of the State Community Safety Unit in the Queensland Fire & Rescue Authority, the Corporate Risk Manager of the Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Director of Security Policy Development within the Australian Department of Defence.