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 • 25 Nov 2019
Ground-breaking conflict simulator helps train budding nurses
A world-first virtual reality (VR) simulation is helping train nursing students at the University of Newcastle in conflict resolution.
News • 25 Nov 2019
Wi-Fi 6 launch keeps University of Newcastle at the front of tech for Higher Education
The University of Newcastle is introducing the world’s latest Wi-Fi technology, Wi-Fi 6, to its campuses from November 2019, just …
News • 22 Nov 2019
OPINION: Newcastle know-how to our region and the world
If I told you know Australia’s biggest-earning innovation for the past quarter century came from Newcastle, would you believe me? Indeed, it has outstripped earnings from other icons like WiFi and the Black Box, but is little known for its economic contribution to the country.
News • 21 Nov 2019
The University of Newcastle launches Maligagu blueprint for Indigenous employment
Increasing the number of Indigenous people working at the University of Newcastle is just one of the goals of the …
News • 18 Nov 2019
True extent of colonial frontier massacres revealed as new sites added to interactive map
The true extent of massacres on the colonial frontier of Australia has been revealed by researchers at the University of Newcastle. Around 97 per cent of people killed in these massacres were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
News • 15 Nov 2019
Great Hammerhead Shark is top of the food chain – new study
Crucial information about the Great Hammerhead Shark that underlines their importance for the Australian coastal ecosystem has been uncovered by marine ecologists at the University of Newcastle.
News • 15 Nov 2019
Free legal clinic to support community’s vulnerable older people
Some of the most vulnerable people in our society – older people – are benefiting from a new free community legal service established by Newcastle Law School in Newcastle and Gosford.
News • 14 Nov 2019
Investment to support female researchers
Ten promising University of Newcastle researchers have received funding to support the development of their academic careers. The investment, which totals $300,000, is part of the 2020 Women in Research (WIR) Fellowship, which is designed to champion diversity and gender equity at the University.
News • 14 Nov 2019
Mental health leader hailed on Hunter research’s night of nights
Nationally renowned mental health trailblazer Professor Frances Kay-Lambkin was named the 2019 Researcher of the Year at tonight’s annual HMRI Awards Night, capping a stellar evening in which over $10 million in grant funding was announced or acknowledged.
News • 11 Nov 2019
From Idaho to Newcastle - New Deputy Vice-Chancellor announced
The University of Newcastle is delighted to advise that after an extensive international search Professor Janet Nelson has accepted the role of Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation) and will start at the University in February 2020.
News • 07 Nov 2019
Farmers face unexpected challenges as they navigate modern life on the land
As drought concerns farmers across the country, new research has shown Australian farmers are facing other unexpected challenges as regional Australia continues to evolve and more people from cities escape to a life in the country.
News • 06 Nov 2019
Engineering student secures John Monash scholarship
University of Newcastle engineering student, Sam Parker, will continue his ambition of combining empathy and empowerment with engineering, after receiving a prestigious John Monash Scholarship to carry out postgraduate study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2020.
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.