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 • 30 May 2023
Drug combination discovery extending life expectancy of children with brain cancer
Newcastle and Hunter-based researchers have discovered a drug combination that could dramatically improve the life expectancy of children living with brain cancer.
News • 24 May 2023
Brightest minds power quest for brain cancer cure
The world’s best and brightest experts on the quest to find a cure for brain cancer will unite in Newcastle to share research insights and identify further ways to collaborate and accelerate their mission.
News • 23 May 2023
Green growth in Asia not ‘greenwashing’ but strategic energy shift
A new book endorsed by former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and prominent scholar Ross Garnaut explores why East Asia has become a leader in green energy industries but has been slow to reduce carbon emissions.
News • 17 May 2023
HSC Students Sign up for Early Entry
High school students will have access to more support for their HSC, with the University of Newcastle launching an Early Entry Program that will offer students new resources, mentorship and peer support, once they have submitted an application to study at the University.
News • 16 May 2023
New method to thaw frozen frog sperm produces better swimmers
Scientists have uncovered a superior method of freezing and thawing frog sperm leading to improved sperm quality. Driven by mass declines of frogs worldwide, research into cryopreservation of amphibian sperm has expanded for the purposes of conservation.
News • 10 May 2023
Transgrid partners with the University of Newcastle to create energy jobs for Hunter graduates
Transgrid has established a formal partnership with the University of Newcastle to create education, training and employment opportunities for students and support future energy projects in the Hunter.
News • 10 May 2023
University takes another step in its efforts to deliver hydrogen innovations on a global scale
The University of Newcastle is one of more than a dozen international signatories on a new Global Partnership for Hydrogen Innovation. An official signing of the partnership agreement took place on 10 May 2023 at the World Hydrogen Summit in Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
News • 09 May 2023
Partnership puts Green Ammonia project on fast track for real world use
A cleaner greener future is one step closer thanks to a new $18 million research partnership between the University of Newcastle and Australian company Element One, and the Australian Government.
News • 08 May 2023
The true impact of the Black Summer fires on frogs
The first extensive survey of amphibian communities since the 2019-20 Australian Black Summer bushfires has revealed the true impact of severe fire on frogs in eastern NSW.
News • 05 May 2023
Launch of frog ‘hotels’ in Olney State Forest
Olney State Forest is now home to a series of frog ‘hotels’ designed to support threatened frog species, thanks to a partnership between Forestry Corporation of NSW and the University of Newcastle.
News • 04 May 2023
Hunter bird jet sets to Japan
A Bar-tailed Godwit shorebird from Stockton NSW has been sighted more than 8000 km north in the Ramsar-listed Higashiyoka-higata mudflats in Japan – a frequent ‘layover’ site for migratory birds.
News • 04 May 2023
Rethink needed on Hunter’s economic development priorities
For the first time, knowledge-producing jobs in Newcastle and Lake Macquarie, such as those in the professional and information services, outnumber goods generating jobs, like manufacturing and mining.
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.