Impact: What lies beneath? Australian University Science highlights the interplay between university research and industry.

Cradles of innovation, Australian universities nurture the soul of science, driving tomorrow’s breakthroughs.

It takes the whole faculty to foster exceptional science. Here are four ways Australian University Science is paving the way to exceptional innovation.

Australia’s universities have built the nation’s quantum expertise and abilities for decades, making a multibillion-dollar industry possible.

University science is underpinned by hundreds of years of discovery, shared knowledge, and an atmosphere of learning.

Professor Brian Schmidt explores how science changes the world through the efforts of the exceptional people behind it.

The latest issue of Australian University Science asserts that the university-science research value chain is complex, iterative, and has value at all stages.

Universities are the hubs of transformative innovation, where every year, countless new ideas take flight.

Dr Katherine Woodthorpe asserts that university research is never just basic, or just commercialisable: it’s a complex value chain that drives innovation.

For innovation, overnight success is often decades in the making: a keystone of which almost always comes from basic science at universities.

Researchers work across every part of the spectrum, from seeking fundamental knowledge to developing participatory outcomes that include benefits to end users, influence on policy, commercial partnerships and outcomes.

Fundamental university science research has drawn inspiration from the Great Barrier Reef’s carbon storage capacity, the plant world’s ultra-efficient storage and transport structure, the reinvention solid state physics to develop new materials for electronic efficiency and advanced agricultural to nourish future outposts in space.

This forum, hosted by the Australian Council of Deans of Science, will explore collaborative organisational initiatives occurring at a different scale from institutions

Australian university science is partnering with industry to produce high-performance, alloys, batteries and circuits.

In the latest issue we explore how uncovering, processing and extracting critical minerals relies on continuous and evolving research and people trained in science.

“Research we are doing today could impact the discovery of critical mineral deposits within the next five to 10 years.”

“My most satisfying job is helping to ensure that Australia understands its own national minerals inventory.”

Supplying the world with critical minerals is going to require innovation in re-mining old deposits.

Critical minerals are essential for tech we use today and for the green economy. Accessing these elements is thanks to innovation in Earth science research.

Decarbonisation relies on the deep science capability present across our universities and the ability to train the next generation, writes Professor Caroline McMillen AO, Chief Scientist for South Australia.

In this issue, we explore how Australian University Science in the last two decades has built the scaffolding upon which our technology, health and engineering and applied sciences operate.

From devices that allow patients to operate computers with their thoughts to revolutionising solar technology, here are fundamental science’s success stories.

Basic science is far more than the translatable research outcomes it might enable. It is also the catalyst for significant advances in our social and economic wellbeing. 

Building on fundamental gene technologies, Australian scientists have adapted a treatment for children’s cancer into a tool to target and suppress the virus that causes COVID-19.