1. Introduction Climate change has a global impact on the environment affecting all levels of society. Research organizations should aim for a cross-disciplinary approach to better understand the processes and deal with emerging problems. The Western Australian Centre of Excellence for Climate Change, Woodland and Forest Health (CoE) aims to provide sound science to underpin the protection, health and sustainable management of Western Australia’s unique woodland and forest systems. The CoE includes natural and social scientists working in four distinct research programs, and is dedicated to develop a robust cross-disciplinary research framework. Differences in research tradition between the social and natural sciences, and different ‘languages’ used between the sub- disciplines can make this a challenging task. This paper aims: (1)To identify areas where differences in perceptions need to be addressed by defining common terms related to climate change, woodland and forest health. (2)To identify the level of collaboration and participation by mapping the current and developing research projects undertaken within the CoE. Forest Health in a Changing Climate Striving for Cross-Disciplinary Research N.C. Brouwers, S. Moore, T. Lyons, G. Hardy School of Environmental Science, Murdoch University, 90 South Street, Murdoch, Western Australia, 6150, AU Email: n.brouwers@murdoch.edu.au, Web: www.foresthealth.com.aun.brouwers@murdoch.edu.au Methods (Aim 1) An email survey was send out to 27 scientists working within the four programs of the CoE. Respondents were asked for their definition of: Scale; Scale of investigation; Climate; Climate change; Woodland; Forest; Healthy; Declining; Stress; Stressed tree; Declining woodland/forest; Woodland/forest decline; Healthy woodland/forest; and Woodland/forest health. Analysis included extracting commonly used words or their synonyms from the responses, and summarising these data in individual count tables. Differences and similarities between the respondents were compared between the four programs. Results Aim 1: For only three out of the fourteen cases, respondents provided similar definitions. ‘Woodland’ and ‘Forest’ were defined similarly, whereas a range of definitions were given for ‘Climate change’ and ‘Health’ (Table 1). Acknowledging and being explicit about these differences will help scientists from different disciplines to work together. Aim 2: Eighteen collaborative projects were identified with two projects involving all-round participation from each program (Fig 1). The majority of projects was multidisciplinary (13) (Fig 1). Only one transdisciplinary project was identified including representation of all programs and non-academics (Fig 1). The project mapping exercise shows the extent and increasing effort that is being directed towards collaboration within the CoE. Implications To establish successful cross-disciplinary research projects addressing (global) climate change issues: Frequent and clear communication between academic and non- academics is important to establish the foundations for success. Developing a shared understanding of frequently used key terms is of great practical importance to progress collaborations. The Centre of Excellence is increasingly achieving this goal, providing a useful template for successful project development. Acknowledgements Special thanks goes out to our colleagues in the CoE for their valuable input with a special thanks to Marleen Buizer for useful and inspiring discussions on this project. Breaking the Scientific Language Barrier: Communicate, Communicate, Communicate! Methods (Aim 2) An email survey was send out to 11 Postdoc and PhD scientists working within the different programs. Respondents were asked to list their research projects and people they were collaborating with within and outside the CoE. Resultant information was used to map current and developing collaborations based on extent and type of integration (Tress et al 2004). References Tress, G., Tress, B., Fry, G. 2004. Clarifying integrative research concepts in landscape ecology. Landscape Ecology 20 (4), 479-493. Table 1: Examples of the responses for ‘Forest’ and ‘Climate change’ collected in survey 1. P1-4 indicate the different research programs within the CoE. Figure 1: Collaborative projects developed within the CoE across the four research programs. Multidisciplinary: multiple goals under one theme, academic only; Interdisciplinary: common goal, academic only; Transdisciplinary: common goal, academic and non-academic participation (see Tress et al 2004)