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 • 26 Nov 2022
Preschoolers’ screen time logs link to sleep and development
Australian preschoolers’ growing screen time use, whether at day or night, is associated with poorer sleep, and poorer language and cognitive development, University of Newcastle researchers have revealed.
News • 25 Nov 2022
Researchers investigate recovery from intimate partner violence
Hunter Medical Research Institute (HMRI) and University of Newcastle researchers have discovered women who experience Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) are nearly twice as likely to suffer mental health disorders and only around 22 per cent felt fully recovered after a decade.
News • 23 Nov 2022
$1m to improve schizophrenia treatment
Professor Murray Cairns has been awarded $1 million in NSW Government funding to explore genetically informed precision medicine for schizophrenia using human cerebral organoids.
News • 23 Nov 2022
University dives into new swimming Performance Hub
Elite swimmers in the region will now be able to train in Newcastle with the University of Newcastle today officially opening its new NUsport Performance Hub, created in partnership with Swimming NSW and the NSW Institute of Sport.
News • 22 Nov 2022
University groundwater scientist joins Academy royalty
Globally-recognised groundwater scientist Professor Craig T. Simmons will be officially inducted into the Australian Academy of Science today.
News • 21 Nov 2022
Exploitation of migrant workers highlights systemic issue across Australia
Migrants and refugees currently working in the Hunter region face a range of complex challenges, including wage theft.
News • 18 Nov 2022
Six local founders accelerate their businesses
Six inspiring local founders pitched their start-ups at the Integrated Innovation Network (I2N) Accelerator Demo Night this week – sharing their ideas and impressive growth trajectory.
News • 18 Nov 2022
University of Newcastle Graduations take to Singapore
More than 320 students from the Newcastle Australia Institute of Higher Education, a campus of the University of Newcastle, will graduate this weekend.
News • 17 Nov 2022
Researchers discover why viral infections are worse for people with COPD
Researchers from the Hunter Medical Research Institute (HMRI) and the University of Newcastle have identified immune killer cells that are responsible for exacerbating viral infections in people with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).
News • 16 Nov 2022
Researchers reveal breast cancer protein could predict chemotherapy sensitivity
Researchers have identified a protein that, when present in high amounts in breast cancer tumours, is an indicator of whether DNA-damaging therapies will work or not.
News • 15 Nov 2022
Science challenge helping students discover a love of STEM for over 20 years
Today the United Nations estimates that the global population has reached 8 billion people. While this milestone is largely symbolic, the impacts of humanity on our planet are both real and acute.
News • 11 Nov 2022
2022 HMRI Researchers of the Year announced
University of Newcastle’s Professor Brett Nixon is the 2022 Hunter Medical Research Institute Researcher of the Year.
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.