Gone Growling - Before Participation Survey

Welcome!
And thank you for your contribution to protecting Victoria’s environment! 

You are invited to take part in this study. Please read this Explanatory Statement in full before deciding whether to participate in this research. If you would like further information regarding any aspect of this project, please contact the researchers via the phone numbers or email addresses listed below.

What does the research involve?
This research helps us to better understand how Victorians interact and connect with nature. You will be invited to answer some questions about how connected you feel to nature and about your volunteer experience. It is completely confidential and should only take a few minutes. There are no right or wrong answers.

Why were you chosen for this research?
The Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) and Melbourne Water are interested in protecting the health of Victoria's natural environment. Your answers to these questions will help them assess and design programs to do that. You will have received an invitation to complete this survey by DELWP, or Melbourne Water.

Who is conducting this research?
This survey is funded by DELWP and conducted in collaboration with Monash University.

Benefits to participants
The information you provide will help us (DELWP and Melbourne Water) to make better decisions around protecting Victoria's natural environment to benefit all Victorians.

Confidentiality
The survey is completely confidential. You will be asked about your participation in environmental programs/citizen science, for your email address or to create a unique identifier so that we are able to link your responses to any future responses you may provide (for example to link responses before and after participation in any program). We will keep this information confidential and will not share any information about your identity or link your identity to your responses. We will only contact you directly using this email address if you agree for us to do so and it will only be for the purpose of understanding more about the impacts of environmental programs. You will also be asked some basic demographic questions to help us better understand the different groups of Victorians who answer these questions.

Storage of data
All data collected will be de-identified, securely transferred to and stored on the DELWP network with restricted access. The data may be retained and used by the research team for comparative purposes in the future.

Results
Results will be made available on DELWP and Melbourne Water websites and in print form and may also be reported in academic journals.

Researcher Contact details:
Research Coordinator – Dr Zoe Squires
Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research. 
Phone: 0428 104 037
emails: zoe.squires@delwp.vic.gov.au 
Chief Investigator – Fern Hames             
BehaviourWorks Australia
Phone: 0428 106 143
email: Fern.Hames@monash.edu

Complaints
Should you have any concerns or complaints about the conduct of the project, you are welcome to contact the Executive Officer, Monash University Human Research Ethics Committee (MUHREC):
Executive Officer
Monash University Human Research Ethics Committee (MUHREC) 
Room 111, Chancellery Building D,
26 Sports Walk, Clayton Campus
Research Office
Monash University VIC 3800
Tel: +61 3 9905 2052   Email: muhrec@monash.edu   Fax: +61 3 9905 3831