About us
Based at Flinders University, with 15 partner universities,more than 20 government and industry partners, and formal linkages with some of the world's leading groundwater research organisations, the NCGRT brings together nearly 200 Australian and international researchers to pool their knowledge and expertise.
Although Australia is often thought of as the driest continent on Earth, we in fact live above vast quantities of groundwater.
Groundwater makes up 98% of the fresh water on the planet. In Australia, groundwater accounts for around one third of our total water consumption.
In the last few decades, Australia has more than doubled its groundwater use, and this will only increase in the future as we strive to meet the water needs of a rapidly growing population, our native landscape, expanding industries and agriculture, all of which must coexist under the increasing pressure of climate change.
We need to know more about this precious, hidden resource: it is for this reason that the National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training was established in 2009 by the Australian Government as a Centre of Excellence co-funded by the Australian Research Council and the National Water Commission.
The NCGRT's role is to advance our understanding of Australia's groundwater resources, and to train the next generation of groundwater researchers.
We have a strong industry training program which offers a broad range of general and specialist groundwater courses to increase Australia's capacity to wisely manage our groundwater.We have also supported vital research infrastructure across the country as part of the Australian Government's NCRIS Groundwater Infrastructure fund. The data available from this infrastructure underpins our research efforts and will be available to groundwater researchers for many years to come.