Our research

We support businesses and community organisations in the Indo-Pacific in capacity development, ensuring employee wellbeing, fostering intercultural relationships, and measuring sustainability impacts. One project in this area is an assessment of the Federal Government’s Australian Volunteers Program, and how it impacts both the volunteers and the partner organisations and communities.

Disadvantaged and marginalised people are affected first and worst by climate change due to pre-existing vulnerabilities. Our Network leads research, evaluations and capacity building, ensuring climate risks and resilience are integrated into current policy and practice in the Indo-Pacific and around the world. 

We address the complex interplay between advancing low-carbon energy solutions – including hydrogen technologies and electric vehicle infrastructures – and ensuring responsible and resilient mineral supply chains. We support national governments and development partners to advance sustainable energy initiatives and responsibly manage mineral resources. Our research evaluates governance frameworks, technological innovations, economic and geopolitical implications, and environmental sustainability of energy transitions. 

With research that helps enable transformative social change, we contribute to gender equality and the realisation of rights and inclusion in diverse areas, including human rights law, health and other basic services, environmental governance, business and financial investing. 

Engaged in both humanitarian response settings and long-term development interventions, our researchers tackle the governance, financing and human resource constraints that hinder progress. We work with UTS powerhouses such as the WHO Collaborating Centre for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Development, and the Institute for Sustainable Futures, which is recognised globally for leadership on water, sanitation and hygiene in Asia and the Pacific. 

Humanitarian engineering combines the fundamentals of engineering with an expanded perspective on ways to address global issues relevant to humanitarian responses post-disaster, as well as long-term development imperatives. We partner with organisations such as Engineers without Borders to deliver practical and relevant engineering solutions in low- and middle-income countries.  

Our researchers work on fisheries, aquaculture, and marine conservation and restoration, from local sustainable development initiatives through to maritime security and global governance themes such as the blue economy. We tackle the effects of rapid social change, overfishing, illegal and destructive harvesting methods, industrialisation of the sea including offshore mineral and hydrocarbon extraction, geopolitical tension over coastal/oceanic spaces, and the rising sea temperatures and ocean acidification driven by climate change. 

Research in this critical area is increasingly urgent in the Asia-Pacific region. Rapid urbanisation and industrial growth have intensified challenges related to solid waste, plastics and electronic waste, straining existing infrastructure and creating environmental and health risks. Our work includes assessment of innovative circular economy policies and technologies.