How universities strive to build sustainability through their research
Australian university leaders explain the research their institutions are doing to support sustainability and what makes these research programs successful.
You won’t find an Australian university which is not putting its research resources behind the quest for greater sustainability. But how are universities doing this and with what results?
Sustainability is a broad and amorphous field but a United Nations initiative – the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) announced in 2015 – do give it a structure. Sustainability is defined as far more than just the environment and clean energy. It covers a range of things including health, education, economic wellbeing, gender equality and good governance, as well as the partnerships needed to make the goals achievable.
In the 2026 Research magazine we have used the UN SDGs as a yardstick to measure the alignment of Australian university research to sustainability. We list, for nearly every goal, the five universities whose research is most aligned.
We also give university leaders the opportunity to describe what their institutions are doing regarding sustainability research, and why.
It takes a very high degree of commitment. “Research-intensive, comprehensive universities like Sydney have a really strong ethical obligation to ensure that Australia is making a decent and equitable contribution to the sustainable development goals,” says University of Sydney provost Annamarie Jagose.
The single idea which university leaders express most is the need to gather researchers from many disciplines to tackle sustainability’s toughest problems.
“No one single area is going to be able to genuinely shift the dial in relation to these big goals,” says University of Queensland vice-chancellor Deborah Terry.
RMIT University deputy vice-chancellor (research and innovation) Calum Drummond agrees. “About 10 years ago we saw a lot of the wicked problems weren’t going to be solved by single disciplines,” he says.
Deakin University deputy vice-chancellor (research and innovation) Matthew Clarke says that, at his university, the necessary teamwork generates itself.
“We don’t force the work to happen across disciplines, but it naturally happens. They come together and form teams and research groups to actually be able to achieve the outcomes that they want,” he says.
Other universities purposefully create cross-disciplinary expertise. UNSW Sydney deputy vice-chancellor (research and enterprise) Bronwyn Fox said her university’s Institute for Climate Risk and Response is headed by Ben Newell, a behavioural psychologist. “Ben’s brought together scientists, business experts and law experts who are focused on a risk-based approach to climate response to support businesses to make those shifts,” she says.
Griffith University vice-chancellor Carolyn Evans says her university has three “beacons” – interdisciplinary research teams – climate action, disrupting violence and inclusive futures, all of which relate to UN SDGs.
University of Adelaide deputy vice-chancellor (research) Anton Middelberg says that both his university, and the University of South Australia (which will come together in January 2026 to form Adelaide University) have, in the last five or so years, “really started to take a more multidisciplinary approach to their research, become less siloed, and put that focus on things relevant to South Australia”.
It’s one thing to find a research solution to problem but then it must be implemented. Curtin University deputy vice-chancellor (research) Melinda Fitzgerald is proud that her university’s alternative to using hazardous cyanide to extract minerals from ore is currently being commercialised in partnership with chemical company Draslovka.
UTS vice-chancellor Andrew Parfitt says that it’s important that his institution moves beyond just creating the enabling technologies, and builds networks with the technology users to find solutions.
It’s important to knock on industry’s doors, taking sustainability solutions to them, says Queensland University of Technology vice-chancellor Margaret Sheil, voicing a similar view.
Monash University deputy vice-chancellor (research and enterprise) Robyn Ward agrees. “We’re looking at how we can scale up a lot of these (sustainability) solutions into commercial solutions,” she said.
She points to the example of Monash spin-out company ElectraLith, which produces battery grade lithium hydroxide using no water or chemicals and minimal energy.
Swinburne University of Technology chief scientist Virginia Kilborn says it‘s important not only to produce sustainable solutions, but also economically viable ones. She points to Swinburne’s energy research programs which, she says, are aimed at producing cheaper energy through energy efficiency as well as cleaner energy.
University of Melbourne vice-chancellor Emma Johnston, while not at all decrying the push for sustainability research that can be quickly implemented, offers a reminder not to neglect the importance of fundamental inquiry with no apparent applications. Scientist Richard Robson, from her university, just won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering a new type of material 40 years ago which then had no use. Today these metal-organic frameworks are leading candidates to capture carbon and store clean hydrogen fuel.
Finally a word from Kate Dundas, executive director of the UN Global Compact Network Australia, which works with business and the Australian community to advance the UN SDGs. Universities must not only do sustainability research, they must teach sustainability to students, she says.”We need these institutions to show leadership and embed the SDGs, or at least that kind of holistic thinking, into the heart of tertiary education.”
Scientific contributions to sustainability are being recognised at high level.
Queensland University of Technology environmental scientist,Lidia Morawska, one of Australia’s leading sustainability experts, was recently named the winner of the 2025 Prime Minister’s Prize for Science.
Professor Morawska has also been recognised by The Australian’s Research magazine for her work. In 2020 and 2021 she was named a Lifetime Achiever in the environmental sciences and in 2023 she was named the field leader, for that year, in environmental sciences.
Professor Morawska has been highly praised for her early recognition that the Covid-19 virus was airborne, leading to major efforts to stop airborne spread.
Another of the 2025 PM’s Prizes for Science was won by Adelaide University physicist Yao Zheng, who is noted for his work to produce clean hydrogen directly from sea water, a major step forward in the effort to reach net zero carbon emissions.
Professor Zheng won the 2025 Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year.
Tim Dodd is the editor of The Australian’s 2026 Research magazine.
