Global Challenges Our Global Impact
OUR GLOBAL IMPACT The University of Wollongong’s Global Challenges Program is a strategic research initiative harnessing the diverse expertise of researchers to address real-world problems. Our purpose is to see the big picture. We span disciplinary boundaries, work together and exchange ideas. This type of research can help tackle the world’s challenges and has the potential to transform lives and regions. ADVENTUROUS, COLLEGIAL, INCLUSIVE, SUPPORTIVE
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OUR GLOBAL COMMITMENT
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OUR PEOPLE
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OUR PARTNERSHIPS
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OUR OUTREACH
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OUR MILESTONES
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OUR GLOBAL IMPACT NAME SE NIO R PRO FE SSO R C HRIS GIB SO N
ROLE EXECUTIVE DIRECTO R AND B UIL DING RE SIL IE NT CO MMUNITIE S C HAL L E NGE L E ADE R
PROGRAM GLO B AL C HAL L E NGE S PRO GRAM
L O C AT I O N UNIVE RSITY O F WO L LO NGO NG
D AT E O F I S S U E AB OUT
DEC E MB E R 201 9
The Building Resilient Communities (BRC) challenge supports research projects enhancing community resilience in an era of growing uncertainty. Problems of social-injustice, economic disruption, geopolitical instability and environmental extremity amplify existing inequalities, and create additional patterns of vulnerability. Transformational change in thinking, policy, infrastructure and everyday practice will be necessary in order for communities to adapt and flourish.
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OUR LEADERS
NAME D R TAMANTHA STUTCH BU RY R O LE
PR OGRAM DI RECTOR
A B OUT Driving Global Challenges funding rounds, fostering collaboration between researchers and developing internal and external networks, is critical to the success of the program. Profiling the impact directly on our community, the region and globally is also pivotal in ensuring our research is truly transformational for community and industry.
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N AME SE NI OR PROF E SSOR GEO F F R EY SPI N KS ROLE MAKI NG F UTU R E I N DU ST R I E S L E ADE R AB OUT The Making Future Industries (MFI) challenge addresses the impact of new technologies and encourages the development of new-to-world products that have a positive impact on society. The MFI challenge has a focus on emerging technologies, new product development, STEM education, the role of making and the interaction of these areas to enhance our capacity for innovation.
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NAME PROFESSOR LORNA MOXHAM ROLE
LIVING WELL, LONGER LEADER
ABOUT The Living Well, Longer (LWL) challenge is improving the lives of older Australians and people with lived experience of mental illness. The challenge connects experts from a range of fields and disciplines to understand and address ageing and dementia, mental health and therapeutic and personal recovery.
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NAME SENIOR PROFESSOR SHARON ROBINSON ROLE
SUSTAINING COASTAL & MARINE ZONES LEADER
ABOUT Sustaining Coastal and Marine Zones (SCMZ) supports research efforts that advance our understanding of coastal and marine areas, factors that influence their current state and long-term health, and how humans can protect and sustain these environments for generations to come. Healthy coastal and maritime spaces are vitally important to the global environment, food security, economic and cultural health, however, population growth, growing pressures on resources and sea-level rise are among the of myriad of challenges confronting the future of these critical, yet vulnerable habitats.
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ith the overarching aim of Transforming Lives and Regions, we take a global view by tackling challenges paramount to our local region but with great potential to make a difference on a global scale. The Global Challenges Program is built on four core themes: Building Resilient Communities; Living Well, Longer; Making Future Industries; and Sustaining Coastal and Marine Zones. Since the launch of Global Challenges in 2013, community and partner engagement is burgeoning, and the projects funded are now having direct impact in key areas of social, economic, environmental and community need.
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BUILDING RESILIENT COMMUNITIES Inequality, vulnerable populations and disaster resilience
LIVING WELL, LONGER
Ageing and dementia, mental illness, and therapeutic and personal recovery
MAKING FUTURE INDUSTRIES
Emerging technologies, new product development and the future of work
SUSTAINING COASTAL AND MARINE ZONES
Climate change, protecting coastal and marine habitats and resource security
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rom Wollongong, Vietnam, Brazil, Jakarta, Kiribati, Dubai, Bhutan to Antarctica our projects are far reaching and our networks continue to multiply.
With 500 unique researchers collaborating on over 120 interdisciplinary projects we’re approaching global issues in a myriad of ways. Our approach broadens the application of disciplinary expertise, stretching beyond disciplinary comfort zones to meet a shared challenge. We’re changing the face of mental health and teaching the next generation of health providers about what’s not in text books. We’re building greener cities and supporting the development of blue economies. We are looking at how to sequest carbon from mangroves to help fight climate change. We’re looking at sustainable future industries in the region and utilising ‘making’ technologies in STEM education.
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OUR GLOBAL IMPACT GLOBAL CHALLENGES HAS SUPPORTED
124
EACH PROJECT IS RADICALLY INTERDISCIPLINARY WITH RESEARCHERS FROM THREE OR MORE FACULTIES
PROJECTS
$3.2 MILLION
INVESTED IN RESEARCH FUNDING
PROJECTS HAVE ATTRACTED
$28
MILLION
IN EXTERNAL FUNDING AN EIGHT-FOLD RETURN ON INVESTMENT
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he UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), provide a shared global framework of development priorities including alleviating poverty, protecting the environment and ensuring a peaceful and prosperous world to live in. With the target of 2030 steadily approaching, achieving these goals requires action to be taken on a number of levels.
OUR GLOBAL COMMITMENT
From equipping future leaders and innovators with the knowledge to initiate change, executing research that works with industry and community to provide holistic solutions, to ensuring the campus is environmentally sustainable and inclusive, universities have an enormous potential to help ensure the goals are achieved by the target of 2030. The University of Wollongong has already been working toward the SDGs through its research priorities and operations, which was recognised through being ranked 13th in the latest University’s Times Higher Education Rankings results. Global Challenges is now leading UOW’s comittment to the SDGs through its research priorities and the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), an international collaboration between global sustainable development leaders from all regions and sectors.
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OUR GLOBAL IMPACT MAPPING OF GLOBAL CHALLENGES PROJECTS TO UN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS
UOW Global Challenges projects
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assion is at the heart of Global Challenges, and it’s our people that are at the heart of real change. Our researchers want to make a difference in the world – and they are not afraid to take risks.
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At Global Challenges, we’re passionate about true collaboration using diverse expertise to find answers, together. We fund riskier projects and support teams who haven’t worked collaboratively before. We don’t fund and forget either. Our people and partnerships are supported for the long haul, ensuring every project is given a chance to succeed and deliver tangible outcomes with impact. We are committed to recognising and cultivating the next generation of research leaders. Early career researchers and PhD candidates are encouraged to actively collaborate with senior professors, leading to diverse and inspired teams of like-minded researchers. Global Challenges brings passionate people together in unique ways and novel combinations to help address our global challenges. Unlikely partnerships have been forged across disciplines, across centres, industries and institutions, and often, across international boundaries and communities.
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GLOBAL CHALLENGES SUPPORTS
UNIQUE RESEARCHERS AN AVERAGE OF 6.4 INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCHERS PER PROJECT
103 TRAVEL
OF PROJECTS ARE LED BY EARLY CAREER RESEARCHERS
11%
GRANTS
AWARDED TO STAFF & STUDENTS
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xternal engagement is key to the success of the Global Challenges Program. By creating strong partnerships with industry, government, the private sector, nongovernment organisations and other Universities and community, we ensure our research has the most tangible impact on people and places that need it most. We nurture collaborative research projects to foster a supportive research community that drives social, economic and cultural change. Ultimately our research aims to touch lives and change worlds.
OUR PARTNERSHIPS
Many of our projects benefit from external support, enabling researchers to examine diverse and urgent issues such as the impact of dementia in an ageing population, the decline of regional manufacturing, the imminent threat of climate change on community fisheries or safeguarding against declining food security.
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OF GC PROJECTS INCLUDE CO-INVESTIGATORS FROM EXTERNAL ORGANISATIONS
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ENGAGED LOCAL ORGANISATIONS ACROSS FOUR KEYSTONE PROJECTS
LAUNCHED
REGION’S FIRST MULTISENSORY ROOM WITH CAREWAYS
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UOW PART OF TEAM AWARDED
$1M
MEDICAL RESEARCH FUTURE FUND INVESTIGATING ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE
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CHILDREN
PARTICIPATED IN KOORI KIDS AFTER SCHOOL WORKSHOPS ACROSS THREE COMMUNITIES
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PARTNERSHIP ESTABLISHED WITH AIIM AND SCIENCE SPACE TO PILOT REGION’S FIRST COMMUNITY MAKERSPACE
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NORTH AMERICA
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lobal Challenges is true to its name and the goal of addressing real-world problems with researchers from all disciplines and all backgrounds working collaboratively. With a 300-strong network with other Universities and industry organisation across the globe, we continue to solidify how, and where our local research expertise has the capacity to impact many lives and regions. We fund travel scholarships for staff and PhD students to attend conferences, participate in research at leading international laboratories, undertake exchange visits or conduct fieldwork anywhere in the world.
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We continue to invest in the next generation of research leaders, committed to growing research excellence.
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ASIA
PACIFIC
SOUTH AMERICA
ANTARCTICA
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y building a strong online presence via social media and a dedicated Global Challenges website and blog, we continue to help grow UOW’s research reputation for path-blazing, interdisciplinary research on a global level. We regularly host an informal seminar series called “A Conversation with…”various researchers to share learnings, as well as engage the wider community about the research directly making an impact on the ground. Global Challenges has supported research events each year from workshops on how we can establish a blue economy, to a disability research network, to an Australian-wide summit on antimicrobial resistance or Global Climate Change Week. In 2017, Global Challenges hosted an inaugural interdisciplinary research conference bringing together researchers from diverse fields to respond to the challenge to transform vulnerability. This coincided with the launch of the McKinnon Walker Fellowship Program, where four international scholars were hosted for a period of two to four weeks to collaborate with UOW researchers.
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NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL EVENTS TO DATE
7108
PEOPLE HAVE PARTICIPATED IN GC EVENTS
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MILLION PEOPLE HAVE WATCHED GC’S NEXT GEN CONDOM VIDEO
30%
OF OUR WEB VISITS ARE INTERNATIONAL
The McKinnon Walker Fellowship is made possible by former UOW Vice-Chancellor Emeritus Professor Ken McKinnon AO and his wife Ms Suzanne Walker, a UOW alumnus, who have made a life-long commitment to the importance of investing in bright ideas, cultivating innovation and supporting excellence through a personal philanthropic gift to UOW. The fellowship will help build global interdisciplinary research partnerships and grow a supportive, applied research community to address real-world problems in novel and unique ways.
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OUR GLOBAL IMPACT GLOBAL CHALLENGES MILESTONES Now in our fifth year, Global Challenges has achieved some significant milestones. These have been characterised by grassroots engagement among researchers, genuine novelty and lateral thinking, risk taking and scaling up dedicated resources for projects gathering steam.
Transforming Vulnerability
AUG 2016 IMPACT LAUNCH & GLOBAL EVENT
DEC 2013 FIRST GRANTS ALLOCATED DEC 2015 INTERDISCIPLINARY SHOWCASE
JUL 2013 PROGRAM COMMENCED
Transforming Vulnerability
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Transforming Vulnerability JUN 2018 LAUNCHED SECOND 5 YEAR TERM NOV 2017 CONFERENCE & MCKINNON WALKER FELLOWSHIP
Transforming Vulnerability
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OCT 2018 124 PROJECTS SUPPORTED TO DATE JUL 2018 BRC & MFI CHALLENGES LAUNCHED
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OCT 2019 JOINED SDSN NETWORK
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FOR MORE INFORMATION ON UOW’S GLOBAL CHALLENGES PROGRAM: Level 2, Building 20 UOW Main Campus P: (02) 4221 4261 W: globalchallenges.uow.edu.au E: globalchallenges@uow.edu.au B: uowblogs.com/globalchallenges Tweet us: @UOWGC