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 • 11 Apr 2022
HMRI announces new Institute Director
The Hunter Medical Research Institute (HMRI) is pleased to announce Professor Frances Kay-Lambkin has been appointed as the new Institute Director of HMRI for a period of five years.
News • 07 Apr 2022
A Fairy Tale Gone Wrong: the Politicisation of Drag Queen Storytime
New research has found that Drag Queen Storytime (DQS) childhood literacy events at public libraries and bookshops in the USA and Australia between 2018 and 2020 became sites of networked online and offline hate by anti-LGBTQ groups.
News • 07 Apr 2022
University of Newcastle climbs global rankings across every broad subject area
The University of Newcastle continues to excel as a global leader, with new rankings, released today, showing the university improved across every broad subject area.
News • 31 Mar 2022
Health trailblazers crowned with national honours
Two University of Newcastle and HMRI researchers who are trailblazing in their fields to improve the health and wellbeing of communities around the world, have been awarded prestigious National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) awards.
News • 29 Mar 2022
Evidence of brain changes in those at risk of bipolar disorder captured with MRI scans
A brain imaging study of young people at high risk of developing bipolar disorder has for the first time found evidence of weakening connections between key areas of the brain in late adolescence.
News • 28 Mar 2022
FluTracking identifies huge second Omicron wave
A second Omicron wave of COVID-19 sweeping the nation has already outstripped the peak recorded in January, a national online surveillance system for tracking respiratory symptoms has revealed.
News • 25 Mar 2022
Study to test anti-viral effects of Lactoferrin
Researchers from the Hunter Medical Research Institute (HMRI) and the University of Newcastle are looking for participants to take part in a new study on the immune and anti-viral effects of the dietary supplement Lactoferrin.
News • 24 Mar 2022
Program receives funding to continue work to address youth violence
The University of Newcastle’s Name.Narrate.Navigate (NNN) program has been awarded a grant of $599,335 from the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources; Safer Communities Fund. Announced by the Minister for Home Affairs, the Hon Karen Andrews MP, this grant brings total funding for the
News • 23 Mar 2022
New video explains why stillbirth is not the mother’s fault
Researchers and artists from the University of Newcastle and Hunter Medical Research Institute (HMRI) have collaborated to create a tool to help women who have experienced stillbirth.
News • 18 Mar 2022
Future Drought Fund win for 'Hydro Harvester'
Laureate Professor Behdad Moghtedari and his team have secured $1.75 million from the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund to scale-up the Hydro Harvester technology.
News • 16 Mar 2022
New evidence reveals Aboriginal massacres committed on extensive scale
The narrative of Australia’s early colonial history continues to be contested with further evidence released today of the violent frontier massacres of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
News • 14 Mar 2022
Clinical School and Research Institute to reshape future of Central Coast health care
The University of Newcastle Central Coast Clinical School and Central Coast Research Institute was officially opened today by the Hon Scott Morrison MP, Prime Minister of Australia.
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.