Affordable and Clean Energy
Local Community Outreach for Energy Efficiency
The University of Newcastle delivers community and school outreach that helps people explore energy efficiency, clean energy technologies and the role of engineering in a lower-emissions future.
Clean energy innovation in the Hunter
On 2 April 2025, the University's I2N Startup Stories program at the Honeysuckle Innovation Hub featured University alumnus Peter Richardson, founder and CEO of Facet Amtech. The public event explored how a Newcastle cleantech startup is making ammonia production cleaner and more energy efficient, using less energy while reducing emissions and manufacturing costs.
The session connected clean-energy research and entrepreneurship with the Hunter's startup community, showing how energy-efficiency innovation can move from the laboratory into practical industrial applications.
Peter Richardson, founder and CEO of Facet Amtech.
Energy learning through the Science and Engineering Challenge
The University's Science and Engineering Challenge is a nationwide STEM outreach program delivered in partnership with communities, Rotary clubs, universities and sponsors. In 2025, more than 26,800 students from over 873 schools took part, including Challenge and Discovery Days in Newcastle, the Central Coast and other regional communities.
Energy and sustainability are built into the program's hands-on activities. In ElectraCITY, students design an electricity network for a model city and must find the most efficient, lowest-cost way to supply buildings while accounting for cable resistance and infrastructure costs. Other activities include wind-turbine design and environmentally responsive housing.
The 2025 event calendar included Newcastle Challenge Days from 4-10 April and Newcastle Discovery Days from 8-12 September, alongside events throughout New South Wales and every Australian state and territory.
The National Science and Engineering Challenge
Building energy literacy through practical outreach
These programs give school students, community members, innovators and local industry practical ways to engage with energy efficiency and clean-energy solutions. They connect technical concepts with real-world decisions about electricity use, industrial processes, renewable technologies and sustainable design.
2024 Annual Spring School
The University of Newcastle's centre for organic electronics (COE) successfully hosted its 14th annual spring school. In 2024, this three-day event provided undergraduate students from various disciplines, including Science, Math, IT, Engineering, and Medical Sciences, with an opportunity to explore cutting-edge research in organic electronics. The program featured lectures from local and international experts, hands-on experiences in COE labs, and interactive think tank sessions aimed at inspiring students to pursue research careers. Highlights included fabricating organic solar cells, operating advanced microscopes, racing simulated EV cars, and learning about Printed Solar and its recycling. Accredited by CIFAL Newcastle and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), students received formal recognition for their participation. The event, sponsored by Spruson & Ferguson Intellectual Property and the Australian National Fabrication Facility, saw students awarded for solar cell efficiency and EV racing. Following the event’s success, many students expressed interest in continuing their research journey with the COE.
COE, the University of Newcastle Australia 5:43
Learn more
News • 08 Feb 2024
$438,000 funding to boost cleantech innovation in the Hunter
Local clean technology innovators will have more opportunity to bring their products to market with the NSW Government awarding $438,375 in funding for the University of Newcastle’s Hunter Cleantech Accelerator.
News • 06 Feb 2024
New study aims to unlock secrets of effective stress management
University of Newcastle and Hunter Medical Research Institute researchers are working to better understand which stress management techniques and tools work, and who they’re working for.
News • 31 Jan 2024
Major breakthrough in hypertension diagnosis could save Government billions
HMRI and University of Newcastle researcher, Professor Murray Cairns, along with his Precision Medicine team have discovered a way of predicting who will respond to blood pressure treatments to lower sodium in the body.
News • 29 Jan 2024
Celebrating our outstanding community with 2024 Australia Day Honours
The University of Newcastle congratulates all recipients who have been recognised in the 2024 Australia Day Honours, in particular celebrating those that make up a vital part of the University community.
News • 29 Jan 2024
Community encouraged to have their say on proposed City Campus Student Accommodation
The University of Newcastle will present its proposed city campus student accommodation plans and design to the local community in February, encouraging public input as planning and development on the project progresses. The proposed student accommodation is the second stage of development and will accommodate upward of 450 students.
News • 23 Jan 2024
Female leadership key to community ‘saving itself’ in unprecedented trauma
As the two-year anniversary of the devastating Northern Rivers’ flooding looms, new research from the University of Newcastle has shown the female-led response to the trauma prevailed where authorities failed.
News • 23 Jan 2024
Cutting-edge facility set to get the most out of athletes
Hunter Sports Centre is raising the bar on athlete performance in the Hunter with the opening of a cutting-edge new facility at the Glendale site.
News • 23 Jan 2024
Citizen of the Year honoured for pioneering COVID-19 treatment
Two leading University of Newcastle health researchers, Professor Nathan Bartlett and Professor Julie Byles have each been honoured in the 2024 City of Newcastle Citizen of the Year Awards.
News • 15 Jan 2024
$3.6m NHMRC funding fuels innovative ideas
Premature birth, severe asthma and sperm stress will be a key focus for innovative researchers from the University of Newcastle and Hunter Medical Research Institute (HMRI), who were successful in the latest round of National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Ideas Grants.
News • 12 Jan 2024
Newcastle’s largest reconciliation event Ngarrama returns stronger than ever
Building on two successful years of reflection, the University of Newcastle is proud to welcome the wider community once again to Ngarrama.
News • 15 Dec 2023
$10.3m NHMRC Investigator grants help search for health solutions
Six University of Newcastle researchers have been awarded more than $10.3m in National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Investigator grants* to tackle health problems such as pre-term labour, schizophrenia, endometrial and lung cancers, as well as asthma.
News • 15 Dec 2023
Evidence of equity action puts University of Newcastle first in Australia
The University of Newcastle has today been recognised as a national leader in gender equity and Indigenous participation.
The University of Newcastle acknowledges the traditional custodians of the lands within our footprint areas: Awabakal, Darkinjung, Biripai, Worimi, Wonnarua, and Eora Nations. We also pay respect to the wisdom of our Elders past and present.