Innovation Broker, Dr Daniel Forwood

With a background as an animal scientist, along with career experience in agricultural policy, advocacy, stakeholder engagement and government relations, Daniel’s experience to date has seen him become a keen advocate for agricultural innovation.

Daniel hails from the city, where he completed a Bachelor of Animal and Veterinary Bioscience (Hons I) majoring in Animal Production Systems at The University of Sydney. Subsequently, he moved to The University of Queensland to undertake a PhD in animal science based in regional south-east Queensland. His research focused on the utilisation of discarded vegetables as alternative ruminant feeds, improving feed quality while reducing food waste and resulted in several peer-reviewed publications.

While finishing his PhD, Daniel worked at the Victorian Farmers Federation as a Policy Advisor in Farming Systems, covering all aspects of policy, advocacy, and stakeholder engagement, with topics covering animal welfare, biosecurity, agricultural and veterinary chemicals as well as plastics and recycling. This saw him develop a strong understanding of the cross-sectoral issues in regional Victoria, as well as an extensive network of producers and stakeholders across agriculture.

As an Innovation Broker in the Victoria Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub, Daniel will combine his experience to champion agricultural innovation and bridge the gap between researchers, industry and government.

(The Innovation Broker role is funded through an agreement with AgriFutures Australia.)