768 Third party roles of brokers in temporary knowledge networks Barbara King and Ruth Nettle Rural Innovation Group, Melbourne School of Land & Environment, the University of Mel- bourne, Australia Abstract: Agriculture extension advisors play key roles as intermediaries, or brokers, within temporary knowledge networks including within Australia’s agriculture innovation system which is generally referred to as research, development and extension (RD&E). The purpose of this pa- per is to provide differing insights into the intermediation roles of public and private agriculture advisers in RD&E projects. This paper draws on empirical research based on a mixed methods case study that included social network analysis, participant observation and semi-structured in- terviews. The findings suggest that the roles of private advisers cannot be substituted with those of public advisers for a range of reasons that include firstly, how institutional rules are prioritised and secondly how social capital resources are invested. Findings also show that when called on to act as intermediaries within transdisciplinary (RD&E) initiatives, different roles and functions of public and private advisers need to be clearly understood and identified to ensure alignment with project objectives and processes. Keywords: temporary RD&E networks, innovation systems, public and private extension advis- ers, intermediation, social network analysis Introduction Historically within the agriculture sector public extension agents have made significant contribu- tion to the transfer of agriculture research to farmers. However with the international ascendency of neo-liberalism policy changes have resulted in a major decline in public support for extension services over the last three decades (Klerkx, et al., 2006). Public extension services in Victoria, Australia are among the latest to be privatized based on expectations that more efficient private advisory services will emerge to fill the gap. In Australia research, development and extension (RD&E) initiatives are often complex, tempo- rary knowledge networks created to deliberately stimulate innovation opportunities for agricul- tural stakeholders (Nettle, et al., 2010). These networks require investment in human capability to cultivate knowledge sharing processes. Extension advisers who participate as intermediates in such networks require technical and relationship building competencies as well as a clear under- standing of how institutional context enables or constrains change. Project 3030 was a major Australian dairy industry RD&E project funded by government and farmers to increase home grown forage on dairy farms by 30% and increase RoA (Return on As- sets) by 30% (Chapman, et al., 2009). It was a knowledge network comprised of a transdisciplinary mix of agriculture researchers, extension advisers, farmers and service providers working together to trial new forage practices to improve the profitability and productivity of dairy farms. This paper focuses on the public and private extension advisers who acted as innova- tion intermediaries within the RD&E network and on their role as facilitators of knowledge shar- ing across all project participants. Therefore in this paper intermediation is discussed at the scale of individuals rather than organisations. The capacity of public and private extension advisers to