Griffith University is comprehensive research-intensive institution, ranking in the top 3% of universities worldwide and in the top 50 under 50 years old. The University has a long-standing reputation in environmental science and especially so in the water sciences. The University was host to one of the original centres of excellence established in 1987 by the Australian Water Research Advisory Council and subsequently played a major role in three aquatic and catchment-based Cooperative Research Centres ? Freshwater Ecology; Catchment Hydrology; Coastal and Estuarine Waterways Management. Since 2006, the University has hosted the Australian Rivers Institute (www.rivers.edu.au), with over 150 staff and students engaged in river, catchment and coastal research and training. Griffith University is also a founding partner of the International Water Centre (www.watercentre.org), and is host to the Sustainable Water Future Programme (www.water-future.org), a new global science initiative established under Future Earth.