Dr Paul Smith. Image courtesy Wine Australia

Wine Australia has announced the promotion of Dr Paul Smith to the position of general manager of research and innovation.

Dr Smith was previously Wine Australia’s senior research and innovation program manager and replaces Dr Liz Waters who was recently promoted to chief operating officer.

In his new role, Dr Smith will have oversight of co-investment of industry and Commonwealth funding into research, development and adoption activities to benefit Australia’s grapegrowers and winemakers.

“I am excited to bring my experience in leading research projects, teams and managing a portfolio of complementary projects to this role,” said Dr Smith. “I’m particularly passionate about maximising the innovation aspects of the investments we make by realising value from the research that forms a foundation for practical, profitable outcomes for the Australian grape and wine community.”

Dr Smith joined the Wine Australia team in 2017, taking a critical role in the research and innovation portfolio after a 14-year tenure with the Australian Wine Research Institute where he managed teams of grape and wine researchers.

Prior to this he completed post-doctoral research at CSIRO Molecular Science and the Department of Clinical Pharmacology at Flinders University. Dr Smith has a PhD in Organic Chemistry from Flinders University.

Wine Australia CEO Dr Martin Cole said he was “delighted” to announce Dr Smith’s new role.

“Over the past few years, Paul has been instrumental in guiding continued advancement of the research and innovation responses to the critical issues identified by the sector,” said Dr Cole.

“His leadership within Wine Australia’s team will be important to delivering valuable outcomes to levy payers across the breadth of R&I priorities and ensuring that these outcomes are adopted in the practices along the sector’s value chain.”

Wine Australia is currently recruiting to backfill Dr Smith’s role which has been re-titled ‘research impact manager’ and will focus on developing and executing business investment plans to drive innovation in the grape and wine sector.

Both appointments are among several that have taken place at Wine Australia in recent months to replace staff who have moved on, taken parental leave or been internally promoted.

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