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 • 18 Dec 2020
New University-designed cultural facility to put Lake Macquarie on the MAP
Work will start early in the New Year on an Australia-first arts pavilion set to cement Lake Macquarie as one of the premier cultural destinations in NSW.
News • 18 Dec 2020
University of Newcastle design students win big at national awards
University of Newcastle students have been recognised nationally for their brilliant graphic design skills, taking out more wins than ever before in the national AGDA 2020 Design Awards.
News • 17 Dec 2020
New scholarship aims to improve health and wellbeing in Indigenous communities
To help address the health needs in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities across rural NSW, the University of Newcastle has launched a new Indigenous scholarship in the field of Speech Pathology.
News • 15 Dec 2020
Indigenous collaboration wins inaugural heritage accolade
An Indigenous-led collaborative project in traditional Darug Country in western Sydney has won the inaugural Aboriginal Heritage category in the 2020 National Trust Heritage Awards.
News • 15 Dec 2020
University partnership to deliver groundbreaking leadership program in NSW public schools
Education researchers have won a government tender to deliver a first-of-its-kind professional learning program for school leaders.
News • 14 Dec 2020
A graduation like no other
There is light at the end of the tunnel for 550 students who will celebrate the culmination of their studies at the University of Newcastle Callaghan graduation ceremonies this week.
News • 14 Dec 2020
2020 University of Newcastle Excellence Awards celebrated
The University of Newcastle has recognised the outstanding achievements of staff at its 2020 Excellence Awards.
News • 10 Dec 2020
The invisible hitchhikers alerting scientists to changes in the East Australian Ocean
For the first time, tiny marine organisms – known as microbes – have been recorded riding the iconic East Australian Current (EAC) from the Great Barrier Reef right down to Tasmania, alerting researchers to significant oceanic changes impacting the marine food chain.
News • 09 Dec 2020
Shuang Zhang named ELICOS NSW International Student of the Year
University of Newcastle postgraduate student Shuang Zhang is the 2020 ELICOS NSW International Student of the Year.
News • 09 Dec 2020
New partnership supports region’s medical research capability
The region’s health and medical researchers and community will benefit from a new partnership between Port Waratah Coal Services (Port Waratah), Hunter Medical Research Institute (HMRI) and Hunter New England Local Health District.
News • 07 Dec 2020
Meet our STEM Superstars
Two stellar female role models, an electrochemist and engineer, Dr Jessica Allen, and coastal scientist, Dr Hannah Power, have been announced as Australia’s newest ‘Superstars of STEM’.
News • 07 Dec 2020
University of Newcastle places best graduate outcomes at the centre of its new degree structures
The University of Newcastle has today announced the outcome of its comprehensive review of course structures.
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.