Our core research question: 

“How best can innovation, integration, collaboration and a strategic multidisciplinary approach to industry, community and regional development deliver a thriving and internationally competitive rural economy?”

RECoE is a first-of-its-kind rural economic research collaboration comprised of four Queensland Universities: The University of Queensland, James Cook University, Central Queensland University & the University of Southern Queensland.

Established with the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries in 2018 for an initial 3 year period with combined funding of $3.6m, the centre divides its research portfolio into five themes: economic tools and analysis, regional innovation, value chain analysis, policy development; and translation & engagement.

Each of these themes have research projects based on topics and locations relevant to regional Queensland and have been designed to have impact beyond their case studies and regional locations.  

Our latest research papers:

Akbar, D., Rolfe, J., Rahman, A., and Rajapaksa, D., 2020. Can cooperative business models coordinate horizontal and vertical supply chains? A case study in the Australian pineapple industry. School of Business and Law, CQUniversity Australia, Rockhampton (pp. 38).

Peggy Schrobback*, Steven Rust^, Sarah Ugalde^, and John Rolfe*, 2020.  Describing and analysing the
Pacific oyster supply chain in Australia. *School of Business and Law, CQUniversity Australia, Rockhampton & University of Tasmania, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (pp.22).

Star, M., Rolfe, J., De Valck, J. and Rajapaksa, D., 2020. Consumer demands – seizing the opportunities in the beef industry. Report provided to the Rural Economies Centre of Excellence, School of Business and Law, CQUniversity Australia, Rockhampton (pp. 37).

Click on the map icons below to see our research publications and projects: