Why La Trobe is one of the 15 ‘fast moving’ research universities

La Trobe University’s deputy vice-chancellor (research and industry engagement), Chris Pakes, explains why his institution is one of the 15 ‘fast moving’ research universities.

La Trobe University’s deputy vice-chancellor (research and industry engagement) Chris Pakes.

La Trobe University’s deputy vice-chancellor (research and industry engagement), Chris Pakes, says the institution is changing the way it does research. It’s half way through a 10-year strategic plan, Research 2030, which is all about saying: “OK, we’re a comprehensive research university but we need to curate areas of concentrated excellence.”

It aims to bring to maturity the many facets of the university’s long-standing and highly regarded research programs. La Trobe is focusing on key areas including health and wellbeing, food and nutrition, and sustainable agriculture. Investment in these areas attracts talent, says Pakes.

“We’ve had a strategic academic recruitment program running for the past three or four years that attracted some really strong people to La Trobe on the back of our areas of focus,” he says.

The university is also boosting its “industry-facing assets”. This year the university launched a Bio Innovation Hub to provide lab space to industry to develop new products. Another facility, the Digital Innovation Hub, allows businesses and students to connect with software engineers and developers to create new digital products. German company BioNTech will soon start building an mRNA manufacturing plant on the La Trobe campus. “That provides a strong anchor in the biomedical space,” says Pakes.

La Trobe has also become notably more global in its research, with more overseas partners and collaborators, which means its research papers have a wider audience, are better read and are more influential.