Experts & partners

For the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

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UNSW SDG Showcase 2024

UNSW demonstrates expertise through people, centres and institutes and partnership.

SDG 

  • Centre for Social Research in Health

    The Centre for Social Research in Health (CSRH) is a specialist research centre based in UNSW Arts, Design & Architecture. Established in 1990 as the National Centre in HIV Social Research, it has over 30 years of experience in social and behavioural health research.

    Social Policy Research Centre

    The Social Policy Research Centre (SPRC) is at the forefront of research generating real change for individuals and communities in Australia, and internationally. Founded in 1980 as Australia’s first national research centre dedicated to shaping awareness of social welfare issues, it has grown into a leading force behind social change in Australia.

    Partnership with ACOSS

    The Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) and UNSW Sydney have partnered to tackle poverty and inequality head on through a $2 million, 5 year partnership, backed by Australian Red Cross, Brotherhood of St Laurence, Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand, The Salvation Army, CoHealth, Mission Australia, St Vincent de Paul Society National Council, The Smith Family and Anglicare Australia and philanthropists BB & A Miller Foundation; David Morawetz’s Social Justice Fund and Australian Communities Foundation Impact Fund.

    Experts

    Associate Professor Bruce Bradbury

    Associate Professor at the Social Policy Research Centre (SPRC) he undertakes research on poverty and inequality, the measurement of living standards, income support and labour market policies, consumer equivalence scales, and the geographic dimensions of social policies.


    Emeritus Professor Peter Gordon Saunders

    Director of the Social Policy Research Centre (SPRC) from February 1987 until July 2007, and now holds a Research Chair in Social Policy within the Centre. His research interests include poverty and income distribution, household needs and living standards, social security reform, comparative social policy and ageing and social protection in China.


    Dr Trish Hill

    Senior Research Fellow at the Social Policy Research Centre who employs a feminist economic and social policy lens to examine issues in the fields of poverty and inequality, informal care across the lifecourse and ageing and aged care.


    Dr Jung-Sook Lee

    Senior lecturer at UNSW Sydney who's research focuses on breaking the cycle of intergenerational disadvantages.


    Dr Yuvisthi Sarashana Naidoo

    Research Fellow at the Social Policy Research Centre. She is a social policy researcher and quantitative research analyst whose focus is on social disadvantage and social indicators specialising in poverty and inequality; deprivation and social exclusion; well-being and ageing societies.

  • UNSW Institute for Global Development

    The UNSW Institute for Global Development and collaborators lead projects to improve food and income security, creating livelihood options and build technical and farming capacity for local farmers.

    Research partner with Future Food Systems 

    The Future Food Systems Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) was created to support innovation and growth across the value chain. It commenced operations in 2019 for an initial term of 10 years, with a budget from the Commonwealth of Australia and participants totalling $174 million.

    Agritech

    Agricultural innovation is key to improving practices, driving productivity and increasing profitability. UNSW's agritech experts explore sustainable solutions across production, processing, transportation and consumption of food and materials.

    Experts

    Associate Professor Jayashree Arcot

    Associate Professor in the Food and Health Cluster of the School of Chemical Engineering, she is also the Undergraduate Food Science Program Co-ordinator and Advisor.


    Professor Johannes le Coutre

    Johannes le Coutre joined UNSW in 2019 as Professor in Food & Health. With the goal to strengthen food security and to alleviate the agricultural burden on the environment he is developing a broad research agenda on cellular agriculture.


    Associate Professor Alice Lee

    Associate Professor & Postgraduate by Coursework Coordinator (Food Program) in the School of Chemical Engineering.


    Professor Cordelia Selomulya

    Professor (Food & Health) in the School of Chemical Engineering and as a Research & Commercialisation Director of the Future Food Systems CRC.


    Associate Professor Jes Sammut

    A/Prof Sammut has worked in the Asia-Pacific Region for over 25 years with a focus on improving aquaculture to increase fish, shrimp and lobster production. He leads the UNSW Aquaculture Research Group.

  • Centre for Social Research in Health

    The Centre for Social Research in Health (CSRH) is a specialist research centre based in UNSW Arts, Design & Architecture. Established in 1990 as the National Centre in HIV Social Research, it has over 30 years of experience in social and behavioural health research.

    Australian Centre for NanoMedicine

    The Australian Centre for NanoMedicine (ACN) is a translational research centre that combines Medicine, Science and Engineering to deliver therapeutic solutions to research problems in medicine. The ACN was established in 2011 and aims to become the hub of all nanomedicine research in Australia and a gateway for international collaboration.

    Centre for Big Data Research in Health

    The Centre for Big Data Research in Health (CBDRH), part of the Faculty of Medicine, conducts research using large-scale electronic data that spans the biomedical, clinical, health services and public health domains to improve outcomes in diverse areas such as cancer causes and care, maternal and child health, and health system performance. The CBDRH was established in 2014 and aims to enhance the health and wellbeing of Australians and members of the global community.

    International Centre for Future Health Systems

    The International Centre for Future Health Systems (ICFHS) has been established with support from The Ian Potter Foundation. The centre will lead research, policy and advocacy work on health systems reform at local, national and global levels.

    National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre

    The National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC), part of the Faculty of Medicine, is recognised internationally as a Research Centre of Excellence. Established in 1986, the NDARC works with universities, research centres, health services, criminal justice agencies, peak bodies and alcohol and other drug service providers to produce novel, high quality research on alcohol and other drug use.

    The Kirby Institute

    The Kirby Institute is a leading global research institute dedicated to the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases. Established in 1986 in response to the then emerging HIV epidemic, the Institute now contributes to knowledge on a broad range of diseases, including viral hepatitis and sexually transmissible infections.

    Microbiome Research Centre

    The Microbiome Research Centre (MRC) is Australia’s first research centre solely dedicated to studying the microbiota in health and disease. Founded in 2017, the MRC is committed to tackling diseases that affect the Australian population, performing core research in the areas of cancer, women and children's health, infection, immunity and inflamation, critical care, and mental health and neuroscience.

    Refugee Trauma and Recovery Program

    The UNSW Refugee Trauma and Recovery Program is a research program dedicated to understanding the psychological and neurobiological effects of refugee trauma and pathways to recovery, led by Angela Nickerson from the School of Psychology.

    Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research (CEPAR)

    The Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research (CEPAR) is a unique collaboration between academia, government and industry, committed to delivering solutions to one of the major economic and social challenges of the 21st century.

    Experts

    Professor John Piggott

    Professor John Piggott is the Director of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research (CEPAR) at UNSW.

    He has published widely on issues in retirement and pension economics and finance; and in public finance more generally; his research has appeared in the leading international economics and actuarial academic journals, and is an expert in research surrounding population ageing.

  • Gonski Institute for Education

    The Gonski Institute for Education (GIE), part of the Faculty of Arts, Design & Architecture, aims to address the growing inequality in Australian education through delivering practical, interdisciplinary research and focused professional development. The GIE strives to be the national centre for excellence in school leadership, system and political leadership, and a global hub for scholars, policy-makers and thought leaders interested in research and practice in educational excellence, access and equity.

  • Australian Human Rights Institute

    The Australian Human Rights Institute (AHRI) launched in 2018 upon the legacy of the Australian Human Rights Centre, founded in 1986. One of the AHRI's key pillars is Gender Justice, which it works towards through delivering interdisciplinary applied research.

    Institute for Global Development

    The Institute for Global Development (IGD), part of the Division of Equity Diversity & Inclusion, aims to tackle significant global development challenges. As part of the IGD's work on SDG #5, one of its initiatives under Equity & Social Justice is to work towards achieving gender equality in just transitions.

    Australian Centre for NanoMedicine

    The Australian Centre for NanoMedicine (ACN) is a translational research centre that combines Medicine, Science and Engineering to deliver therapeutic solutions to research problems in medicine. The ACN was established in 2011 and aims to become the hub of all nanomedicine research in Australia and a gateway for international collaboration.

    Experts

    Professor Mina Roces

    As a Professor of History in the School of Humanities & Languages in the Faculty of Arts, Design & Architecture, Professor Roces studies twentieth century Philippine history, particularly women’s history, as well as the history of dress. Her most recent monograph, Gender in Southeast Asia, is forthcoming from Cambridge University Press, and she has co-edited several anthologies on the topic of women in Asia.


    Associate Professor Sue Williamson

    Sue Williamson is an Associate Professor of Human Resource Management in the School of Business at UNSW Canberra. Her most recent research examines how various public sector agencies implement gender equality initiatives, including how middle managers can progress gender equality and how what the future of work will be in a post-pandemic world.


    Dr Zora Simic

    Dr Simic is the Convenor of History and Area Studies in the School of Humanities & Languages in the Faculty of Arts, Design & Architecture. Dr Simic's recent work includes a feminist history of domestic violence in Australia and a contribution to a volume on the history of consent laws.

  • Global Water Institute

    The UNSW Global Water Institute (GWI) is Australia's leading water knowledge hub, recognised worldwide for its multidisciplinary water research, innovation and problem solving. The GWI comprises over 400 researchers, staff and PhD students from across UNSW working on a variety of problems including adapting to the effects of climate change, water scarcity, and the rapid loss of aquatic biodiversity and ecosystem decline.

    Water Research Centre

    The Water Research Centre (WRC), part of the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering, has over 60 years of experience providing multidisciplinary research in water resources, engineering, management and the development of tools for environmental management and sustainability for improving aquatic and atmospheric environments.

    Climate Change Research Centre

    The Climate Change Research Centre (CCRC) is engaged in research in a variety of disciplines that will affect how we are able to combat climate change on both a local and a global level. These include: climate; oceanography; atmospheric science; ecosystems; the carbon cycle; terrestrial processes; climate impacts; energy policy; climate model evaluation; and palaeoclimatology.

    Experts

    Professor Lucy Marshall

    Professor Lucy Marshall is the Director of the Water Research Centre and Associate Dean (Equity & Diversity) of the Faculty of Engineering. She works towards new methods for quantifying available water resources through methods such as developing new types of hydrologic models, new analysis of field observations, and better ways of assessing and using existing models.


    Professor Greg Leslie

    Professor Greg Leslie is the Director of the UNSW Global Water Institute and the Director of the UNESCO Centre for Membrane Science and Technology. Prior to joining UNSW, he worked in the public and private sectors on water treatment, reuse and desalination projects in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong and the United States.


    Water Experts

    The UNSW Global Water Institute utilises the expertise and experience of over 40 water experts from diverse fields such as chemical engineering, biology, law, environmental humanities, biomolecuar science, earth & environmental science, biotechnology, and geography.

  • UNSW Energy Institute

    The UNSW Energy Institute has 30 years of experience in providing world-leading research in energy innovation and comprises the largest and most diverse grouping of energy experts in Australia. The Institute works to accelerate the uptake of new energy technologies, advocate for appropriate policies and regulations, and share evidence and know-how throughout Australia and internationally.

    Hydrogen Energy Research Centre

    The Hydrogen Energy Research Centre (HERC) is a world-first multidisciplinary research and development hub focused on developing hydrogen technologies for a cleaner energy future. HERC is creating both large- and small-scale technologies, collaborating with industry partners and training the future hydrogen workforce.

    Centre for Advanced Solid and Liquid based Electronics and Optics

    The Centre for Advanced Solid and Liquid based Electronics and Optics (CASLEO), part of the Faculty of Engineering, aims to create new technologies, systems and materials that can improve the efficiencies of the electronic and optical based systems of the future, positively impacting people’s health and wellbeing. CASLEO's main areas of research are liquid metals, functional materials, microfluids (including drug delivery), and medical devices and ingestible sensors.

    Experts

    Professor Martin Green

    Martin Green is a Scientia Professor and Director of the Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics, involving several other Australian Universities and research groups. His group's contributions to photovoltaics include holding the record for silicon solar cell efficiency for 30 of the last 39 years, described as one of the “Top Ten” Milestones in the history of solar photovoltaics. The PERC solar cell that he invented in 1983, and his team developed to its full potential, accounted for 91.2% of worldwide silicon solar module production in 2021 (CPIA).


    Professor Jeremy Moss

    Professor Moss is Director of the Practical Justice Initiative and leads the Climate Justice Research program at UNSW as part of the Practical Justice Initiative (PJI). Current research interests include projects on: climate justice, the ethics of renewable energy as well as the ethical issues associated with climate transitions.


    Associate Professor Kingsley Fong

    Associate Professor Kingsley Fong is the Program Director of the Master of Financial Planning. He publishes in and review articles for leading international finance journals.

    His course on ‘Sustainable and Responsible Investing’ was one of just eight business school courses from around the world recognised for an Aspen Institute Ideas Worth Teaching Award.


    Associate Professor Neeraj Sharma

    A/Prof Sharma is an ARC Future Fellow and has previously won the NSW Premiers Prize for Science and Engineering (Early Career Researcher in Physical Sciences, 2019), Australian Synchrotron Research Award (2018) and RACI Rennie Memorial Medal for Chemical Science (2018). His research interests are based on solid state chemistry, designing new materials and investigating their structure-property relationships.

  • Australian Human Rights Institute

    The Australian Human Rights Institute (AHRI) launched in 2018 upon the legacy of the Australian Human Rights Centre, founded in 1986. One of the AHRI's key pillars is equity in business, which it works towards through delivering interdisciplinary applied research.

    Centre for Applied Economic Research

    The Centre for Applied Economic Research (CAER), founded in 1976, aims to champion informed economic policy, engaging with government and industry to translate leading academic research into real-world impact. The CEAR's research focuses on four initiatives: competition, productivity & regulation; economic measurement; law & economics; and real estate.

  • AGORA Centre for Market Design

    The AGORA Centre for Market Design aims to solve major open design problems and to gain an improved understanding of new mechanisms for auctions, contracts, matching, voting, trading, social learning and networking. AGORA achieves this through utilising market design, an interdisciplinary field that combines insights from game theory, experimental economics, computer science, and operations research with domain-specific expertise from fields such as environmental sciences, the financial sector, and law.

    Centre for Applied Economic Research

    The Centre for Applied Economic Research (CAER), founded in 1976, aims to champion informed economic policy, engaging with government and industry to translate leading academic research into real-world impact. The CEAR's research focuses on four initiatives: competition, productivity & regulation; economic measurement; law & economics; and real estate.

    Centre for Infrastructure Engineering and Safety

    The Centre for Infrastructure Engineering and Safety (CIES), established in 2007, aims to to be the leading internationally recognised research centre in the region for investigating, understanding and predicting the safety and behaviour of engineering infrastructure. CIES facilitates advanced research in all aspects of civil engineering infrastructure, embodying building structures, bridges, tunnels, roads, railways, pavements, dams, construction management, advanced systems and low-carbon technologies.

    Research Centre for Integrated Transport Innovation

    The Research Centre for Integrated Transport Innovation (rCITI), part of the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering, facilitates and delivers interdisciplinary research throughout the Faculty of Engineering, as well as with industry partners. rCITI's research spans six pillars: intrgrated infrastructure strategic planning; bio-secure mobility; engineering smart cities & logistics; connected mobility services; deep data, digitalisation & decisions; and human-centred and automated systems design.

    Experts

    Professor Chongmin Song

    Professor Song is the Director of the Centre for Infrastructure Engineering and Safety. UNSW research led by Professor Song is helping structural engineers design buildings that will be more resilient against natural disasters. His research interests include computational mechanics, image-based analysis, dynamic soil-structure interaction, wave propogation, fracture mechanics and structural dynamics and earthquake engineering.


    Professor Vinayat Dixit

    Professor Dixit is the IAG Professor of Risk in Smart Cities and the Director of the Research Centre for Integrated Transport Innovation. His key research interest lies in studying risk in the transportation infrastructure system as it relates to highway safety, travel time uncertainty, and natural and human-caused disasters.


    Professor Mark Bradford

    Professor Bradford is the Research Director for the Centre for Infrastructure Engineering and Safety and is a world leader in structural engineering. His current research looks at achieving sustainability in construction: reducing the carbon footprint by using new materials; eliminating energy-intensive demolition; and encouraging recycling.


    Professor Stephen Foster

    Professor Foster, the Dean of Engineering and part of the Centre for Infrastructure Engineering and Safety, researches the behaviour of structural systems (buildings and bridges) constructed of reinforced and prestressed concrete, bringing new and advanced materials technologies to the engineering of structures.


    Professor Wei Gao

    Currently, Professor Gao of the Centre for Infrastructure Engineering and Safety is completing a substantial Australia Research Council Discovery Grant project entitled 'Unified non-deterministic dynamic safety assessment of softening structure' and an industry-based research project, 'Advanced analysis and safety assessment framework for structures under uncertainty'.


    Professor Nasser Khalili

    Professor Khalili is the head of geotechnical engineering at the Centre for Infrastructure Engineering and Safety and brings to this position an international reputation for innovation and setting industry standards. His research interests include geotechnical engineering, computational and constitutive modelling, continuum mechanics of multi-porous multiphase media, environmental engineering and non-isothermal mechanics and geothermal energy.


    Professor Adrian Russell

    Adrian Russell is a Professor in Geotechnical Engineering in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UNSW. He is also Deputy Director of the Centre for Infrastructure and Engineering Safety. As a geotechnical engineer, Russell looks to understand how infrastructure such as buildings, foundations, tailings storages, roads, tunnels, bridges, railways and ports interact with the ground. His research interests include soil mechanics, rock mechanics and the mechanics of fibre reinforced geomaterials and their use in infrastructure to increase strength and failure resistance.


    Professor S Travis Waller

    Professor Waller, of the Research Centre for Integrated Transport Innovation, studies mathematical representations of transport systems to support the planning and management of mobility and infrastructure. His key domain interests include new models for transport network performance that account for emerging applications spanning information, uncertainty and dynamics.


    Associate Professor Taha Hossein Rashidi

    A/Prof Rashidi is currently leading research into the interconnectivity between travel behaviour and time use and the potential of new mobility technologies to influence this paradigm as well as working on an industry partnership project with GoGet to undertake research on autonomous driving. He is also examining the capacity of social media data to complement existing data resources as part of the development of an integrated multi-level modelling framework to demonstrate the relationships between land use and transport systems and the consequences this has for city planning and travel behaviour more broadly.


    Professor Shan Pan

    Professor Shan Pan is the founding Director of the Digital Sustainability Hub (DS Hub), a knowledge hub that he recently created. DS hub specializes in the research and education of digital sustainability, with a specific aim to contribute to achieving the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).

  • Social Policy Research Centre

    The Social Policy Research Centre (SPRC) is at the forefront of research generating real change for individuals and communities in Australia, and internationally. Founded in 1980 as Australia’s first national research centre dedicated to shaping awareness of social welfare issues, it has grown into a leading force behind social change in Australia.

    Disability Innovation Institute

    The UNSW Disability Innovation Institute aims to produce sustainable change in the lives of people with disability creating and sharing knowledge that is interdisciplinary, innovative and inclusive through research and education. Established in 2017, the Institute is working to embed innovative, interdisciplinary and disability-inclusive ways of working into the heart of UNSW’s practices, connecting researchers and educators with lived experience of disability locally, nationally and globally.

    Institute for Global Development

    The Institute for Global Development (IGD) was established as part of UNSW's commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals. The IGD is committed to achieving change through harnessing academic excellence, fostering transformative partnerships and translating evidence into impact.

    Centre for Social Impact (CSI)

    CSI leads the way on social impact research that helps create conditions for a better world. CSI partners with organisations from across sectors to explore a range of social issue areas, with a particular focus on the levers and drivers of social disadvantage.

    Experts

    Professor Jackie Leach Scully

    Professor Scully is the Director of the UNSW Disability Innovation Institute and an internationally recognised bioethicist specialising in disability and feminist bioethics. With a background in molecular biology and further training in neurobiology, she held research fellowships at the Ecole polytechnique federale de Lausanne and the University of Basel, Switzerland, before helping to establish the first interdisciplinary unit for bioethics at Basel. She joined UNSW in 2019.


    Professor Karen Fisher

    Part of the Social Policy Research Centre, Professor Fisher's research interests are the organisation of social services in Australia and China, disability and mental health policy, inclusive research and evaluation, and social policy processes. She applied mixed methodology and adopts inclusive research methods with people with disability, families, policy officials and service providers.


    Professor Ilan Katz

    Part of the Social Policy Research Centre, Professor Katz's research interests include evaluation of complex interventions, parenting, child protection, youth justice, prevention and family support, children, families and communities, comparitive child welfare systems, migration, race and ethnicity.


    Professor Bingqin Li

    Part of the Social Policy Research Centre, Professor Li's research is on social policy and governance. Her current projects include governance of age-friendly communities, local government motivation in delivering complex social programs, social inclusion and integration, urban governance and social spending.


    Professor Iva Strnadová

    Professor Strnadová is the Academic Lead for Research at the UNSW Disability Innovation Institute and a Professor in Special Education and Disability Studies. Her research aims to contribute to better understanding and the improvement of the life experiences of people with disabilities, especially people with intellectual disabilities. Her research is grounded in an innovative inclusive research approach, in which people with intellectual disabilities are included in the role of researcher.


    Associate Professor Bruce Bradbury

    A/Prof. Bradbury of the Social Policy Research Centre undertakes research on poverty and inequality, the measurement of living standards, income support and labour market policies, consumer equivalence scales, and the geographic dimensions of social policies.


    Associate Professor Natasha Cortis

    A/Prof. Cortis of the Social Policy Research Centre explores the organisation, delivery and evaluation of human services, focusing on issues of financial sustainability in not-for-profit organisations, funding and workforce issues in community services, and women's employment and economic security.


    Professor Gemma Carey

    Professor Gemma Carey is the Director of the Centre for Social Impact UNSW, where she leads a multi-disciplinary team of researchers and educators committed to addressing inequality. She works with governments and non-government organisations to identify and change structures and processes that impact inequality. At the moment, her research is primarily focused on the implementation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

  • City Futures Research Centre

    The City Futures Research Centre is based in the Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture at UNSW, having developed into a national leader in scholarly applied public interest research on our cities since 2005. The Centre focuses on researching major urban challenges of the city, looking for ways to use the understandings of cities focusing on people, places, policies, and technologies to build more sustainable futures.

    National Institute for Experimental Arts

    The National Institute for Experimental Arts (NIEA) is Australia's leading institute for experimental collaboration in art, science and emerging technologies. NIEA's focus is arts-led thinking to give new perspective on human interactions and experiences, and the way that interacts with technologies and environments.

    Curating Cities: A Database of Eco Public Art

    Curating Cities is a five-year research project that examines how the arts can generate environmentally beneficial behavioural change and influence the development of green infrastructure in urban environments. This looks at the positive impact of public art to eco-sustainable development to cities.

    Experts

    Professor Hal Pawson

    Hal Pawson is Professor Housing Research and Policy and Associate Director at the City Futures Research Centre, UNSW. In this role he has led several major research projects funded by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) and by the Australian Research Council (ARC). Hal's work focuses on advancing understandings of cities and peoples, and how we can use these understandings to build sustainable futures.


    Professor Susan Thompson

    Susan's Thompsons extensive resume gives her a strong background in urban planning for sustainable development. She is Head of the City Wellbeing Program in the City Futures Research Centre. City Wellbeing focuses on planning, designing and building environments that support people’s health and well-being as part of every day life.


    Professor Christoper Pettit

    Christopher Pettit is the Director of the City Futures Research Centre, inaugural professor of Urban Science, and Plus Alliance Fellow at UNSW Sydney. Prof Pettit’s expertise is in the convergence of the fields of city planning and digital technologies including Geographical Information Sciences (GIS). This research will help with future geo-designing of cities and the urban scape.


    Professor Jill Bennett

    Jill Bennett is Professor of Experimental Arts and founding Director of NIEA, and formerly Associate Dean Research, UNSW Art & Design, 2006–2016. Her research has focused on the aesthetic value of art and its practical deployment both in exhibitions/galleries, as well as beyond in science, looking at the ways this can shape sustainable development of cities.


    Dr Felicity Fenner

    Dr Felicity Fenner is the Director of UNSW Galleries. She is a renowned curator of contemporary art, having curated over 30 exhibitions of Australian and international art. Felicity’s research focuses on aspects of place and curatorial place-making, and how these can impact education and understandings of sustainability in urban spaces.


    Professor Richard Goodwin

    Goodwin established the Porosity Studio at the College of Fine Arts, UNSW, in 1996, which marries a practical, immersive teaching practice with themes and concerns related to Goodwin's research on the relationship between art, architecture and movement. Goodwin's work emphasises the connections between art, architecture and urbanism.

  • SMART Centre

    Founded in 2008, the Centre for Sustainable Materials Research and Technology (SMaRT) at UNSW aims to develop novel research for sustainable materials and manufacturing processes, build industry partnerships to activate research for real world impact, and to disseminate green materials and manufacturing technologies that benefit industries, local communities, and enhance sustainable economic growth internationally.

    Sustainable Manufacturing and Life Cycle Engineering Research Group

    The Sustainable Manufacturing and Life Cycle Engineering Research Group at UNSW was established in 1998 within the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering. The Group's research focus includes eco-design, low carbon manufacturing, and energy efficiency evaluation in manufacturing, among others to make multinational manufacturing processes and resource consumption more sustainable.

    Centre for Applied Economic Research

    Founded in 1976, the Centre for Applied Economic Research (CAER) aims to be a champion of informed policy, engaging with government and industry to translate applied economic research into real-world impact.

    Experts

    Scientia Professor Veena Sahajwalla

    Australian Research Council (ARC) Laureate Professor Veena Sahajwalla is an internationally recognised materials scientist, engineer and inventor revolutionising recycling science. She is renowned for her research into the transformation of waste into 'green materials' and commercialised 'green' steelmaking process that have revolutionised consumption practices.


    Professor Sami Kara

    Professor Sami Kara is a researcher and a lecturer in the School of Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering at UNSW. He is an engineer with a PHD in manufacturing, focusing on projects related to Reuse and Recycling of products, Energy and Eco-efficiency of products and process, as well as Life Cycle Assessment and Costing to create sustainable, environmental design for development and manufacturing.

  • Climate Change Research Centre

    UNSW's Climate Change Research Centre (CCRC) is a multi-disciplinary research centre, administered within the School of BEES in the Faculty of Science. CCRC's research focus is in the key areas of Earth's climate, applying basic scientific principles to pressing questions on climate dynamics, global climate change, and extremes of weather and climate with the aims of pressuring climate action.

    Earth and Sustainability Science Research Centre

    The Earth and Sustainability Science Research Centre (ESSRC), formerly known as PANGEA, is a multidisciplinary research group that investigates the drivers and impacts of a changing Earth, advising policy and decision makers about creating a more sustainable future. ESSRC research aims to understand the range of natural variability of complex earth and biological systems, enhancing our capacity to discriminate natural cycles from recent human perturbations.

    Defence Research Institute

    The UNSW Defence Research Institute (DRI) focuses on first-class research to enhance Australia's security. Recognising climate action as a primary focus for Australia's security, DRI has a research focus on the root causes of climate warming, principally eliminating emissions much faster than proposed, rather than just the responding to the symptoms.

    ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes (CLEx)

    UNSW is a founding member of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes (CLEx), located on our main campus and directed by UNSW Professor Andy Pitman. CLEx exists to transform our understanding of events such as heatwaves, droughts and storms. It provides data, tools, advisory services and education for local, national and international governments, helping them to plan for climate change.

    Experts

    Professor Katrin Meissner

    Professor Meissner is the Director of the Climate Change Research Centre. She is interested in abrupt climate change events, as well as thresholds and feedbacks in the climate system. She uses Earth System Climate Models in conjunction with paleoclimate records to improve our understanding of the basic mechanisms underlying climate variability and climate change, particularly in the context of terrestrial biogeochemical cycles and ocean circulation.


    Professor Chris Turney

    Professor Turney is the Director of the Earth and Sustainability Science Research Centre. He explores past climates and their relevance to future change. Working across the planet (from Antarctica to the tropics and up into the Arctic), he is developing new records of past climate that extend historical weather records over millennia.


    Professor Steven Sherwood

    Professor Sherwood is the Deputy Director of the Climate Change Research Centre. He studies how the various processes in the atmosphere conspire to establish climate, how these processes might be expected to control the way climate changes, and how the atmosphere will ultimately interact with the oceans and other components of Earth.


    Associate Professor Melissa Hart

    A/Prof. Hart is the Director of the Researcher Development Program at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes, and is also involved with the Climate Change Research Centre. Her research looks at the impact of cities on climate and climate on cities, and the meteorological controls on air pollution.


    Professor Rose Amal

    Professor Rose Amal is a UNSW Scientia Professor, a chemical engineer, leader of the Particles and Catalysis Research Group and was an ARC Laureate Fellow. Professor Amal is recognised as a pioneer and leading authority in the fields of fine particle technology, photocatalysis and functional nanomaterials having made significant contributions to these related areas of research over the past 15 years.


    Professor Andy Pitman

    Professor Pitman is the Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes (CLEx).


    Professor David Sanderson

    Professor Sanderson is the Inaugural Judith Neilson Chair in Architecture and has 30 years' experience working across the world in development and emergencies. In 2021 he led a project with Snowy Valley Councils and surrounding local communities affected by the extensive 2019/2020 bushfires, to help prepare for future fire and other climate change related disasters.


    Associate Professor Bryce Kelly

    Associate Professor Kelly has over 27 years of international lecturing, consulting and research experience in greenhouse gas measurements, hydrogeology, geology, and geostatistics. His current atmospheric research focuses on measuring methane emissions from coal seam gas, coal mining and agricultural sources. In 2021 he worked with the United Nations Environment Programme in a world-first aerial survey of coal seam gas emissions in Queensland.

  • Centre for Marine Science and Innovation

    The UNSW Centre for Marine Science and Innovation (CMSI) focuses on researching fundamental knowledge on the functions, processes, interactions and changes in the marine environment and use this to develop innovative solutions for management, conservation and economic developments. This research covers physical and biological oceanography, environmental impact assessment, and coastal geomorphology and engineering making it the leading teaching and research centre for solution-based, multidisciplinary science and innovation in coastal, temperate ecosystems.

    Evolution and Ecology Research Centre

    Founded in 2007, the UNSW Evolution and Ecology Research Centre (E&ERC) builds on a desire to provide a cohesive and cooperative environment for the University's effort in evolution and ecology research and research training. The E&ERC builds capacity for and quality of research into evolution and ecology, creating public outreach to benefit life below water.

    Experts

    Associate Professor Paul Gribben

    A/Prof. Gribben is the Director of the Centre for Marine Science and Innovation. He focuses on on the ecology of coastal marine ecosystems and is interested in using fundamental ecology to improve our understanding of the response of marine communities to global change and to develop more robust conservation and restoration efforts for critical marine foundation species such as oysters and seagrasses.


    Professor Robert Brander

    Professor Brander of the Centre for Marine Science and Innovation is a beach safety researcher who combines elements of coastal geomorphology and hazards with an understanding of social and demographic aspects of beachgoers. The overall goal of his research is to understand the physical-social interaction of beach hazards in order to reduce the incidence of drowning and injury on beaches and other coastal environments.


    Professor Moninya Roughan

    Professor Roughan's work focuses on improving dynamical understanding of the coastal ocean including physical forcings, nutrient enrichment processes and their biological impact. She uses a combination of observations and numerical models to study the oceanography of the East Coast Region and coordinates research in this field.


    Associate Professor Suhelen Egan

    A/Prof. Egan of the Centre for Marine Science and Innovation has a broad interest in the areas of environmental microbiology, marine ecology and biotechnology. Her recent work in these areas aims to gain a better understanding of the interactions between marine microorgansims and their eukaryotic hosts from both an ecological and cellular/mechanistic perspective.


    Dr Laura Parker

    Dr Parker is the Deputy Director (Indigenous Engagement) for the Centre for Marine Science and Innovation. She is interested in understanding and overcoming the impacts of climate change and environmental stress on marine organisms. Her research focuses specifically on building resilience in marine molluscs to current (e.g. salinity, food availability) and future (e.g. ocean warming and acidification) stressors and understanding the underlying physiological, molecular and epigenetic mechanisms involved.


    Dr Ben Milligan

    Dr Ben Milligan is a Scientia Fellow based at the Environmental Law Cluster, Centre for Applied Economic Research, and Centre for Ecosystem Science. His interdisciplinary research, teaching and advisory work predominantly focuses on the use of environmental information in policymaking, and the design or legal, institutional and policy frameworks for sustainable development.


    Associate Professor Will Glamore

    Dr William Glamore is an Associate Professor and Principal Research Fellow at the Water Research Laboratory in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. His primary fields of interest are related to estuarine hydrodynamics and water quality including restoration of estuarine environments, acid sulphate soils, coastal wetlands, boat wake waves, outfall hydraulics and field testing, and related physical and numerical models.


    Dr Valentin Heimhuber

    Dr Valentin (Tino) Heimhuber is a postdoctoral researcher within the EcoEng group at the UNSW Water Research Laboratory. Tino is also an expert on satellite and drone remote sensing climate change, global sustainability and carbon markets.

  • Centre for Ecosystem Science

    UNSW's Centre for Ecosystem Science (CES) focuses on promoting the viability of ecosystems through understanding ecosystem function, trajectories of change across landscapes, and solutions for conservation. This research has a strong focus on conservation practices for atmospheric, wetland, terrestrial, desert, and marine ecosystems, using this focus to make public best practices for conservation of each of the Earth's unique ecosystems.

    Australian Centre for Astrobiology

    The Australian Centre for Astrobiology (ACA) was founded by Prof. Malcolm Walter in July 2001 at Macquarie University, and then moved to the University of New South Wales in 2008. Being the only centre for astrobiological research in Australia, the ACA focuses on world-leading interdisciplinary research into the origin and evolution of life on Earth, across the Solar System and throughout the Universe, looking for connections and links to evolutions, as well as the habitability of other planets.

    Evolution and Ecology Research Centre

    Founded in 2007, the UNSW Evolution and Ecology Research Centre (E&ERC) builds on a desire to provide a cohesive and cooperative environment for the University's efforts in evolution and ecology research and research training. The E&ERC builds capacity for and quality of research into evolution and ecology, creating public outreach to benefit life on land.

    Fowlers Gap Research Station

    The Station is an active participant in the research and development of ecotourism in Outback NSW and wildlife tourism with kangaroos Australia-wide. The unique character of the Station is its long history of research, teaching and environmental monitoring, and its commitment to public education through publication and support of documentary film-makers.

    Experts

    Professor Richard Kingsford

    Professor Kingsford is the Director of the Centre for Ecosystem Science. He is a river ecologist and conservation biologist who has worked extensively across the wetlands and rivers of the Murray-Darling Basin and Lake Eyre Basin. He is also researches effective ways of implementing effective conservation actions through developing adaptive management approaches and engagement with communities.


    Professor Angela Moles

    Professor Moles is the Director of the Evolution & Ecology Research Centre. Her primary research goal is to quantify the ecological strategies employed by plant species in different environments, and to better understand the selective processes underlying global patterns in ecological strategy.


    Professor Martin Van Kranendonk

    Professor Van Kranendonk is the Director of the Australian Centre for Astrobiology. His research interest is the early Earth, how it formed, how crust developed on the surface and changed over time, and how life gained a foothold on our developing planet.


    Associate Professor Will Cornwell

    Part of the Centre for Ecosystem Science, A/Prof. Cornwell's research interests lie at the intersection of plant eco-physiology, community ecology and ecosystem ecology. He is especially interested in using basic ecological tools, especially functional traits, to understand the effects of climate change on terrestrial biodiversity.

  • Centre for Crime, Law and Justice

    Established in 2018, UNSW's Centre for Crime, Law and Justice's primary focus is on providing support to multi-disciplinary research on the relationship between criminal justice administration and social justice and human rights; and the relevance of race, Aboriginality, gender, disability and socio-economic disadvantage to victimisation, criminalisation, the criminal process and punishment. Central to this is strong engagement and partnerships with NGO and government organisations for knowledge transfer and advocacy for policy and law reform that enhance social justice.

    Andrew & Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law

    Founded in 2013, the Andrew & Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law at UNSW Sydney is the world's leading research centre dedicated to the study of international refugee law. The Kaldor Centre looks at pressing displacement issues in Australia, the Asia-Pacific region, and globally, and contributes to public policy by promoting legal, sustainable and human solutions to forced migration.

    Herbert Smith Freehills CIBEL Centre

    Established in 2015, UNSW Law & Justice’s Herbert Smith Freehills China International Business and Economic Law (CIBEL) Centre is the world’s leading centre outside of China for the study and teaching of CIBEL matters, particularly to the Australia-China trading corridor.  CIBEL acts as a long-term strategic initiative to investigate business and economic law issues involving China and Australia, and researches and teaches about CIBEL matters directly relevant to the Australia-China international economic law relationship.

    Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law

    The Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law in the Faculty of Law & Justice is a focal point for research and discussion of these and other questions of public law for the academic, professional and wider community. The Centre plays a prominent, independent role in public debate on issues vital to Australia's future, particularly concerning rights and interests of the public, refugees, migration law, as well as terrorism.

    Institute of Global Finance

    Housed at the UNSW Business School, the Institute of Global Finance (IGF) brings together the brightest minds in banking and finance from across the world. Members of the IGF come from leading universities, corporations and research institutes.  The IGF’s overall objectives are to conduct high quality policy research, events and engagement on the following four major themes: Interconnectedness, Global Financial Stability, Global Governance and Global Prosperity.

    Capability Systems Centre

    UNSW's Capability Systems Centre provides cutting edge  research and assurance support for  Defence, government and industry. The Centre focuses on addressing shortfalls in crucial areas of organisational capability, particularly systems science, systems thinking, and research around requirements engineering and project management.

    UNSW Institute for Cyber Security

    The UNSW Institute for Cyber Security provides a multi-disciplinary approach to research and education around Cyber Security for students and staff. The Institute seeks to empower individuals to make more informed choices when using technology, allowing for progress in education, innovation, and commercialisation.

    Centre for Law, Markets and Regulation

    UNSW's Centre for Law, Markets and Regulation (CLMR)is the premier research centre for the study of the dynamics of market regulation. Centre members produce high quality research on the legal, regulatory and contextual aspects of markets, corporations, finance and business transactions.

    Indigenous Law Centre

    Established in 1981, UNSW's Indigenous Law Centre (ILC) is an integral part of the Faculty of Law & Justice at UNSW, contributing to the recognition, protection and development of the legal rights and freedoms of Indigenous peoples both in Australia and internationally. As the only Indigenous law research centre in Australia, the ILC achieves its goals by conducting and disseminating innovative and high quality research on Indigenous legal issues and providing community legal education on issues of particular significance.

    Experts

    Scientia Professor Jane McAdam AO

    Jane McAdam AO is Scientia Professor of Law and Director of the Andrew & Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law at UNSW. In 2021, Professor McAdam was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) 'for distinguished service to international refugee law, particularly to climate change and the displacement of people'.


    Professor Eileen Baldry

    As Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Equity and Diversity, and a professor of criminology at UNSW, Eileen Baldry has a strong focus on academic and institutional research into criminal and social justice reform and looking at all forms of disadvantage during the political and criminal justice systems.


    Professor David Dixon

    A professor, and former Dean, in the UNSW School of Law, Society, and Criminology, David Dixon has a strong focus on how regulation affects policing practice. David Dixon's research emphasises the impacts of policing in Australia, England, and the US, and looks at how policy reform and regulation can better improve policing in each justice system.


    Professor Gary Edmond

    Gary Edmond is a law professor in the School of Law at the University of New South Wales, where he directs the Program in Expertise, Evidence and Law. His research focuses on evidence-based forensics and its impact on institutional and societal justice measures.


    Professor Jill Hunter

    Jill Hunter is a Professor at UNSW's Faculty of Law and Justice. Jill Hunter's areas of teaching and research centre on the law, policies and practices relating to criminal trials. Her research has a strong focus on law reform in areas of laws and procedures in practice, particularly inequities and disadvantage in sentencing and criminal procedures.


    Professor Luke McNamara

    Luke McNamara is Professor and Co-Director of the Centre for Crime, Law and Justice in UNSW's Faculty of Law and Justice.  His research focuses on the deployment of criminalisation as a public policy tool, with a focus on public order and anti-social behaviour, and safety from violence. In particular, Luke McNamara's recent research has had a focus on how racism influenced particular Australian laws and legal practice, as well as their implications for human rights.


    Professor Sarah Williams

    Dr Sarah Williams is a Professor in UNSW's Faculty of Law and Justice. Her teaching and research is focused around global law, with a strong focus on alternative methods for reparative justice and the impact of fitness and capacity on criminal justice proceedings.


    Professor Pamela Hanrahan

    Dr Pamela Hanrahan is a lawyer, legal academic and author who specialises in corporate law, corporate governance, financial services regulation, data governance and business ethics. Her research has a strong focus on corporate and financial law, as well as the regulation of financial markets.


    Professor Melissa Crouch

    Professor Melissa Crouch is an author and academic in the Faculty of Law and Justice with interests including Constitutionalism in the Global South, Constitution-making, Law and Society, Asian Legal Systems, and Law and Religion in Asia. At UNSW, she runs the Asia Law & Policy Forum and is the co-director with Theunis Roux of the project on Constitutionalism in the Global South.


    Dr Michael Salter

    Dr Michael Salter is the Scientia Associate Professor of Criminology at the School of Social Sciences at UNSW. Dr Salter helped persuade 73 UN member states to sign onto a call to action on the removal of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) from the internet. Dr Salter worked with international peak bodies in Canada, Austria and the UN to achieve this, as well as partnerships with UNSW colleagues Professor Jan Breckenridge, Dr Tim Wong, Dr Noam Peleg, and frontline police and medical experts.

    He also chaired the national Working Group on CSAM Survivors in Australia which helped develop Item 10 of the Commonwealth Action Plan about compensation options for victims of sexual offences.

  • Future Food Systems

    The Future Food Systems Cooperative Research Centre was created to support innovation and growth across the value chain. It commenced operations in 2019 for an initial term of 10 years, with a budget from the Commonwealth of Australia and participants totalling $174 million. Future Food Systems aims to achieve its goals through its strong industry, government and research partnerships with collaborators such as Sanitarium Health Food, state and Commonwealth governments, and UNSW Sydney.

    Institute for Global Development

    The Institute for Global Development (IGD) is part of a regional and global development community that seeks to advance knowledge on sustainable development and social justice. The IGD researches and promotes new approaches to policy and practice in order to tackle today’s most complex and disruptive global challenges. The IGD works with all faculties across UNSW and with local and international partners to co-create knowledge and translate its research findings into changes that matter: generating sustainable and equitable futures for people around the world, and together working towards achieving the SDGs.

    Sydney Institute for Marine Science

    The Sydney Institute for Marine Science (SIMS) is a collaborative venture between four Sydney Universities, including UNSW, and numerous state and federal government departments. SIMS provides a wealth of infrastructure for the Centre for Marine Bio-Innovation’s marine activities, enabling researchers to use molecular tools in more realistic contexts in the marine environment.

    Diplomacy Training Program

    The Diplomacy Training Program (DTP) is an independent, Australian NGO affiliated with UNSW committed to advancing human rights and empowering civil society in the Asia-Pacific region through quality education and training, and the building of skills and capacity in non-governmental organisations and for individual human rights defenders and community advocates.

More information

Sustainability matters

Explore UNSW's contributions to the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, designed to tackle the world’s most pressing challenges, such as ending poverty and hunger, climate change, the reduction of inequalities and more.

Rankings

Find out more about the initiatives and reports UNSW use to assess progress and show performance.

Publications & reports

Access reports and publications associated with UNSW's commitments and contributions to each of the 17 SDGs.