2025 Social Impact Grant recipients

Thriving Communities research and practice grants

Bridging the AI divide: Empowering migrant and refugee communities in South West Sydney through AI Literacy

Project lead: Jianlong Zhou, Associate Professor, FEIT
Community partner/s: Michael Camit, Manager, Health Literacy, SWSLHD Multicultural Services

This project will empower migrants and refugees in South West Sydney to critically understand and use AI and Large Language Models (LLMs). By providing AI literacy workshops and access to AI tools, we aim to bridge the digital divide and promote community empowerment, including improving health literacy for migrants and refugees.

Consumer-led mental health care for endometriosis &/or persistent pelvic pain

Project lead: Shiraze Bulsara, Lecturer, UTS Health
Community partner/s: Jessica Taylor, CEO, QENDO

The purpose of this project is to engage people with lived experience of Endometriosis &/or Persistent Pelvic Pain (EPPP) to inform the development of protocols and services that address mental health. It foreshadows a broader program of research to co-design a multidisciplinary mental health treatment model that will augment existing medical treatment services for EPPP.

Refugee suicide prevention in Indonesia

Project lead: Lucy Fiske, Senior Lecturer, FASS
Community partner/s: Muzafar Ali, Co-CEO, Cisarua Learning, and Naweed Aieen, Chairperson, RICC

This project investigates refugee suicides in Indonesia in order to develop suicide prevention tools and policy recommendations, and empower the refugee community to implement effective suicide prevention and self-advocate for policy change.

Supporting reef protection for Anindilyakwa Rangers using a digital human rights-based tool

Project lead: Genevieve Wilkinson, Senior Lecturer, UTS Law
Community partner/s: Annabelle Doheny – Indigenous Protected Area Operations Coordinator, Anindilyakwa Land & Sea Rangers

This project aims to work with our community partner, Anindilyakwa Land & Sea Rangers, to understand their needs for reef restoration and support education about how their human rights to protection of their native environment can support these objectives. To facilitate partnership, the team will work with a legal technology platform provider to create a digital tool that will empower land and sea rangers to improve coral reef protection around Groote Island and participate to ensure government accountability to meet environmental obligations in a non-discriminatory way.

Breaking the chains: Detecting and preventing financial abuse for vulnerable women in NSW

Project lead: Amir Armanious, Lecturer, UTS Business
Community partner/s: Jo Parker, Executive Officer, Financial Counsellors’ Association of NSW (FCAN)

This project aims to develop and implement evidence-based tools for financial counsellors to better detect and prevent financial abuse among vulnerable women in NSW. Working in partnership with the Financial Counsellors’ Association of NSW (FCAN), we will create screening tools, intervention protocols, and training resources to strengthen the response to financial abuse.

Participative collaboration – learning from how the Justice and Equity Centre holds spaces and coordinate networks

Project lead: Mark Riboldi, Lecturer, UTS Business
Community partner/s: Rivkah Nissim, Impact Manager, Justice and Equity Centre

This project explores models for achieving social justice through advocacy partnerships, based on collaborative approach to systemic advocacy persued by the Justice and Equity Centre (JEC).

Establishing First Nations circular design principles for Australian fashion

Project lead: Timo Rissanen, Associate Professor, DAB
Community partner/s: Ainsley Simpson, CEO, Seamless

This project, a partnership between UTS and Seamless, aims to establish circular design principles for Australian fashion designers, grounded in First Nations knowledge and practices.

Safe and Inclusive UTS research and practice grants

Hidden curriculum navigator: Supporting HDR journeys for an inclusive UTS

Project lead: Ivan Smirnov, Coordinator, HDR Student Experience And Wellbeing, GRS

The project aims to create an AI-powered chatbot that assists HDR students in navigating the hidden curriculum of academia. By ensuring equitable access to this crucial knowledge, our project would give underprivileged students a fair chance at success in their HDR journey—an essential step towards an equitable and inclusive UTS.

Navigating clinical placements: Understanding experiences and supporting nursing and midwifery students with faith-based cultural obligations at UTS

Project lead: Muhammad Chutiyami, Lecturer, UTS Health

This project explores the lived experiences and support needs of nursing and midwifery students with faith-based cultural obligations during clinical placements. It aims to identify the challenges they face, coping strategies, and the institutional accommodations required to foster inclusivity. By developing a tailored toolkit for students and best-practice guidelines for placement coordinators and academic staff, this project seeks to enhance staff cultural sensitivity, and improve student wellbeing and retention.

Peer-led wellbeing support connecting UTS students

Project lead: Vishal Verma, postgraduate student, FEIT

The Peer Wellbeing Support Pilot Project aims to provide accessible, peer-led mental health support for UTS students, particularly those from international and multicultural backgrounds.

Support for UTS students with learning disabilities in higher education using Generative AI

Project lead: Patrick Djizmedjian, coursework student, FEIT

The project support UTS students with learning disabilities, such as neurodivergence, to explore the challenges they face in comprehending lengthy information in the UTS handbooks and to improve their access to information using generative AI.

Increasing productivity and the wellbeing of staff and HDR students with disability and neurodiversity at the Faculty of Science

Project lead: Lana McClements, Associate Professor, Science

This project aims to identify barriers and challenges experienced by staff and HDR students with disability and neurodiversity to effectiveness and wellbeing at workplace. This will enable us to implement strategies to improve productivity, wellbeing and belonging of UTS staff with disabilities and neurodiversity.