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 • 10 Oct 2019
Voyage of ocean discovery
University of Newcastle Senior Lecturer Dr Hannah Power, along with her research collaborators A/Prof Tom Hubble and Dr Samantha Clarke from the University of Sydney, have been awarded the exciting opportunity to join a transit voyage on the CSIRO research vessel (RV) Investigator.
News • 10 Oct 2019
Fellowship awarded to nutrition and dietetics leader
University of Newcastle researcher Professor Clare Collins is among 40 new Fellows elected to the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (AAHMS).
News • 09 Oct 2019
Major funding to train the next generation of surgical researchers and reduce surgical infections
Academic surgeons from across Australia have been awarded more than $780,000 from the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) to investigate the causes of surgical site infections and train the next generation of surgical researchers.
News • 03 Oct 2019
More than $1.4million awarded to investigate PFAS remediation
The University of Newcastle has established itself as leader in PFAS remediation research, receiving more than $1.4 million in Australian Research Council (ARC) funding for two of the four national research projects selected in Round Two of the PFAS Remediation Research Program.
News • 01 Oct 2019
A new dawn for Australian minerals
A new $35 million Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence based at the University of Newcastle will make mineral processing more environmentally sustainable and do much to secure the future availability of the metals we depend on for modern living.
News • 30 Sep 2019
Australian and Thai universities launch new two-degree program to develop talent in age of global disruption
The University of Newcastle, University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce and Nurture Higher Education (UK) today announced the launch of a two-degree program in Bangkok, enabling students to earn a degree from each university without studying abroad and attend graduation ceremonies in two countries.
![The Newcastle & Suburban Co-Coperative Society Ltd at its Charlton (now Hunter Street West) premises, [1914]. Community stories keep the memory of iconic ‘The Store’ alive](https://www.newcastle.edu.au/__data/assets/image/0011/562709/varieties/sidebar_thumb.jpg)
News • 27 Sep 2019
Community stories keep the memory of iconic ‘The Store’ alive
Memories and stories from members of the Newcastle community of the iconic co-operative ‘The Store’ have been captured and digitised by the University of Newcastle in an oral history project.
News • 26 Sep 2019
University of Newcastle researchers named top in their field
Six University of Newcastle researchers have been named as top in their field in new data published in The Australian’s 2019 Research magazine this week.
News • 26 Sep 2019
Unlocking answers to the energy supply system of the future
An initiative has launched aimed at providing ways Australia can successfully integrate new energy technologies into the power grid.
News • 25 Sep 2019
Vice-Chancellor inducted to prestigious Bragg Membership
Receiving the highest category of membership awarded by The Royal Institution of Australia, the University of Newcastle’s Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Alex Zelinsky AO, will be inducted as an Honorary Bragg member today.
News • 20 Sep 2019
Communities shape but don’t determine student aspirations
Communities exert a powerful influence on young people’s aspirations for university education, according to new research led by the University of Newcastle, Australia.
News • 20 Sep 2019
Newcastle nanotechnologist awarded prestigious international lecture
Leading the charge in translating basic materials research into real-world products, Professor Ajayan Vinu has been awarded the highly coveted C.N. Rao Distinguished Lecture on Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT) Bombay – the highest ranked university in
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.