How Queensland science makes a difference

Queensland science makes a difference in Queensland and globally. We focus on science that is important for ourselves, our region and the planet. Find out more about our science, and come join us in making a difference .

Queensland Science making a difference

Queensland Science is addressing some of the biggest challenges the world faces—the health of our communities, and environments; the quality and quantity of food available; abundant clean energy; and sustainable economies.

Professor Ian Frazer AC

School of Medicine | The University of Queensland

Queensland has great strength across all the fields of science. But we’re particularly strong in applying that in the real world. So the Ecosciences, the agricultural sciences, health sciences, are areas where we have clear strength.

[Caption:Qld Science making a difference]

Professor Katherine Andrews

Director

Griffith Institute for Drug Discovery (GRIDD)

Griffith University

We live in a globally connected world. The challenges we face here are some of the same challenges faced across the world. Aging populations, increased need for health care, and how we can improve quality of life.

[Caption: Healthy communities]

In Queensland, we're extremely well positioned to meet global challenges. We have the right expertise and infrastructure to respond rapidly including developing new diagnostics, new drugs and new vaccines.

We’re translating our discoveries and we have the contract manufacturing capacity to make products that are ready to go into patients and this presents a real opportunity with our national and international partners – to help save lives.

Professor Neena Mitter

Director

Centre for Horticulture Science

Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI)

Good food produced sustainably is what the world needs as 10 billion people will walk on planet earth by 2050. Protein security is a challenge. In the face of climate change we are helping farmers to produce more food that is healthier with fewer inputs.

[Caption: Feeding the world]

And we are making crops more resilient by making them drought and disease tolerant.

Harnessing information technology plays another big role. Helping farmers to be more adaptable to the ever-changing conditions. All this means smarter farming options getting better results for the food industry, consumers and the environment.

Professor Margaret Mayfield

Head of School

School of Biological Sciences

The University of Queensland

Queensland is a really exciting place to do environmental science. And a big part of that is because it has examples of many of the world's ecosystems all in this one special place.

[Caption: Healthy environment]

It really represents a tremendous opportunity for scientists to expand their knowledge. Queensland has knowledgeable locals managing their lands and we're working with them and learning more which helps in their protection.

Queensland's unique biodiversity is offering exciting new solutions with potential in the drug development area or even in the development of novel materials. And what we're finding here, we're taking to the world.

Dr Paul Bertsch

Science Director, Land and Water, CSIRO

All of us want to live in a healthy environment, free from pollution. It's a challenge
but it's also critical not only for us but for generations to come. Businesses across the world are looking for new ways of doing things.

[Caption: Sustainable economies]

The 2020 shock to the global economy has given us the opportunity to reset and rethink how we actually do things but also create huge economic growth benefits and jobs in the future.

Our science is contributing to understanding how we transform to a circular economy. An area of research that's very exciting, that's transforming industries known as synthetic biology. We used bacteria, yeast, and other single cell organisms to be factories, to produce pharmaceuticals, food and advanced materials – biologically and sustainably.

Our research community here in Queensland is playing a critical role to greatly reduce the environmental footprint of our industries and move towards a global sustainable system.

Professor Peta Ashworth OAM

Chair of Sustainable Energy Futures

School of Chemical Engineering

The University of Queensland

We know that approximately one billion people currently lack access to electricity. We're seeing industry work with Queensland scientists on this energy challenge to really make a difference and lower emissions. Doing it in the lab is one thing but connecting it to large scale demonstrations. That's how we really make an impact. It presents a real opportunity to decarbonise the overall energy sector more broadly.

[Caption: Energy]

We're already helping bring a widespread hydrogen energy system closer to reality, particularly for transport and export opportunities.

Professor Neena Mitter

Smarter innovative science, that’s what we Queenslanders do.

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Featured Queensland scientists and research centres

Professor Ian Frazer AC

Frazer Institute | The University of Queensland

As a professor at the eponymous Frazer Institute, University of Queensland, Ian leads a research group working at the Translational Research Institute (TRI) on the immunobiology of epithelial cancers. He is recognised as co-inventor of the technology enabling the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines, developed to protect women and men from cervical cancers caused by the HPV and currently used worldwide.

Professor Katherine Andrews

Director | Griffith Institute for Drug Discovery (GRIDD) | Griffith University

The Griffith Institute for Drug Discovery supports a multidisciplinary scientific team working in the areas of chemical biology, cell biology, neurobiology, and drug discovery. As well as being Director of GRIDD, Professor Andrews is respected as a leading researcher in tropical parasitology focusing on the identification of new antimalarial drugs and physiological targets areas in malarial process.

Professor Neena Mitter

Director | Centre for Horticultural Science | Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI)

Professor Mitter has been involved in molecular biology and biotechnology in Australia and India for over 20 years. As Director of The Centre for Horticultural Science, she oversees developing improvements to productivity, profitability and sustainability of horticulture industries. Professor Mitter is also Director, ARC Research Hub for Sustainable Crop Protection (QAAFI), and the innovator of BioClay for crop protection.

Professor Margaret Mayfield

Head of School | School of Biological Sciences | The University of Queensland

Professor Mayfield is one of Queensland’s most respected in ecology and conservation biology, whose research broadly focuses on understanding how plant communities reassemble, persist and function following human land-use change.

Dr Paul Bertsch

Former Science Director | CSIRO

Dr Bertsch’s key responsibility as Science Director is ensuring that the science strategy for Land and Water, and CSIRO more broadly, is positioning CSIRO to be globally leading in R&D areas of greatest priority to Australia. The focus of Land and Water is to work with partners to deliver innovative solutions to the complex challenges that arise from the demands and impacts of human activities on the environment.

Professor Peta Ashworth OAM

Chair of Sustainable Energy Futures | School of Chemical Engineering | The University of Queensland

Professor Ashworth is a globally recognised expert in the fields of energy, communication, stakeholder engagement, and technology assessment. For almost two decades, Peta has been researching public attitudes toward climate and energy technologies, including wind, carbon capture and storage (CCS), solar photovoltaic, storage and geothermal.

Researchers and facilities featured

Telehealth facilities in the Townsville University Hospital which works to improve the health of our region through discoveries in nursing/midwifery, allied health and numerous medical specialties.
The School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences is home to the Molecular Clamp platform, enabling rapid vaccine development work. The clamp can be used on any virus including Ebola, influenza and MERS coronavirus.
Patheon by Thermo Fischer Scientific is a leading global Contract Development and Manufacturing Organisation (CDMO), and is a state of the art facility, specialising in clinical and commercial manufacturing, and single use biologics technology.
Vaxxas is a Queensland biotech startup developing needle-free vaccination and vaccine delivery solutions that safely and cost effectively amplify vaccine efficacy using Nanopatch technology.
The Centre for Agriculture and the Bioeconomy offers research to help feed the world sustainably and develop cleaner, greener bioproducts.
Researchers at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology are part of a collaboration to turn Spinifex into a material called nanofibrillated cellulose. The work is being undertaken in work in collaboration with indigenous industry partner the Myuma Group, owned and managed by the Indjalandji-Dhidhanu traditional owners of the Camooweal area.
The QUT Centre for Robotics is working to allow robots to see, to understand their environment using the sense of vision.
The Seaweed Research Group is improving environmental, economic and social outcomes through the production of world-class seaweed research and development.
Quantum dot solar cell that can be made into thin, flexible films and used to generate electricity even in low-light conditions, developed by researchers at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology and the Faculty of Engineering, Architecture, and Information Technology (EAIT).
The Centre for Materials Science, in collaboration with German industrial giant Siemens, is developing superconductor technology to enable dense currents to be carried with virtually no energy loss and could reduce the size and weight of conventional motors by more than 30 per cent.
Production and export of green hydrogen is under investigation by the Centre for Clean Energy Technologies and Practices, in partnership with the Japanese company JXTG.
The Mount Kent Observatory is at the forefront of planet discoveries working with global partners like NASA, and is Queensland’s only professional research observatory for astronomy teaching and research training.

Finding Queensland’s institutes, facilities, precincts, laboratories and other research organisations is made easy by searching the Queensland science capability directory.