This week the UTS Research Community came together at a “Celebrating research success” breakfast hosted by Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research) Professor Kate McGrath.
Celebrating research success
Kate opened the breakfast by highlighting the remarkable growth in grants and contracts secured by UTS academics over the past seven years.
During that time, UTS has made extraordinary advancements in research excellence, with our researchers already awarded close to $30 million in Australian Research Council (ARC) funding this year while still awaiting the outcomes of two remaining funding schemes.
These achievements have far surpassed Kate’s expectations when she joined the university in 2018.
“Back then, UTS had only one Australian Research Council (ARC)-funded hub in place. I would never have imagined it possible that we would be able to create the capability and capacity we now have to not only win such significant research grants, but to keep winning them, over and over again. This is amazing,” she said.
Among recent UTS success stories are several projects that raised over $1 million:
- Distinguished Professor Jie Lu has secured two major, prestigious ARC grants. Under the Industrial Transformation Research Hubs scheme, she will spearhead the ARC Research Hub in Responsible AI for a Sustainable Grain Industry, awarded $5 million. This visionary hub will revolutionise Australia’s grain sector through cutting-edge responsible AI technologies, reducing carbon emissions and positioning Australia as a global leader in sustainable agriculture.
- Prof Lu also received $3.9 million through the Industry Laureate
Fellowships scheme to advance personalised machine learning for women’s health, unlocking genomic insights to empower healthy living and ageing.
- Distinguished Prof Daichao Sheng who has been awarded $3.8 million under the Australian Laureate Fellowships scheme to develop next-generation geotechnologies for high-speed and heavy-haul rail, paving the way for cost-effective infrastructure and regional economic growth.
- Prof Jahangir Hossain who secured $1.3 million for resilient power grids through an ARC Future Fellowship.
- Prof Yang Yang received $1.17 million for pioneering 3D-printed antennas under a Mid-Career Industry Fellowship.
- A/Prof Yam Siwakoti has raised $1.06 million to advance next-generation power converters to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles.
While still awaiting the outcomes of a large portion of NHMRC and MRFF opportunities for 2025, UTS has already been awarded $6.7m from the NHMRC and MRFF this year.
- A/Prof Deborah Mitchison Crawford raised $2 million from the MRFF for a project that builds on her foundational work in establishing the TrEAT Registry, the Australia and New Zealand clinical quality registry (CQR) for the treatment of eating disorders. She has also been awarded $1.6 million from the NHMRC for a project to ensure the quality and safety of the Australian eating disorder healthcare landscape.
- Dr Peter Su won $1.6 million from the NHMRC for his research on probing, diagnosing and monitoring thrombotic disease at the molecular level.
Cross sector capability
Kate discussed the different ways the UTS research community is activating the whole university to collaborate across various research themes. She referred to the water strategy as an example of how UTS has developed capability across a range of disciplines.
“Today, UTS has the largest capability, diversity and expertise covering the full breadth of water research needed to help the globe deal with the water issues,” she said.
“And not only do we have those water research capabilities, but globally, we are increasingly known to be among the best in the world in terms of our expertise in this area.”
We are a totally different research university than when I arrived, and we have the ability to become an incredible research university in the next five years.
Kate thanked the research community for its contributions over the year and urged everyone to recognise and appreciate how far we have come as a research university in a relatively short period of time
“We are a totally different research university than when I arrived, and we have the ability to become an incredible research university in the next five years,” she said.
“We’ll do this by believing in ourselves, by working together and holding on to that vision of what it is that we're able to do collectively rather than as individuals.”
What's next?
- Discover ten more UTS researchers that are among the world’s most influential according to the latest Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers list.
- Read about how UTS offers Research Support to achieve excellence.