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 Sep 2019
Game-changer lets students decide how they want to learn
In a world-first for higher education, the University of Newcastle will place students at the centre of their own learning by adopting the Big Picture Education design, which is implemented in some of the most innovative high schools across the globe.
News • 06 Sep 2019
Massacre map and Guardian Australia partnership project wins NSW Premier's History Award
The Killing Times, a digital project resulting from a partnership between The University of Newcastle’s Colonial Frontier Massacre Map research team and The Guardian Australia has won the NSW Premier’s History Award.
News • 05 Sep 2019
2019 Alumni Award Recipients Announced
Public health physician Ruth Lopert has received the University of Newcastle’s 2019 Alumni Medal for professional excellence and her dedication to global health and pharmaceutical policy.
News • 05 Sep 2019
University’s fundraising trek unites staff, alumni and community in support of Indigenous health
Trekking 100 kilometres across the arid Australian outback in five days is a challenge, but one that 25 brave individuals are eager to tackle in the name of Indigenous education and health research.
News • 04 Sep 2019
Strong partnerships and a shared vision for the future of integrated healthcare is set to improve the wellbeing of our Central Coast community
The future of healthcare delivery on the Central Coast is taking shape, with work starting today on a new education and research facility located at Gosford Hospital.
News • 03 Sep 2019
Fellowship awarded to respiratory leader
Laureate Professor Paul Foster has been awarded the title of Fellow of the American Thoracic Society, (ATSF) for his commitment to respiratory health research.
News • 03 Sep 2019
Professor John Maynard to deliver Annual History Week Lecture
The University of Newcastle's Professor of Indigenous Education and Research, John Maynard, has been selected to deliver the prestigious Annual History Lecture – an event produced by the History Council of New South Wales as part of this year’s History Week.
News • 30 Aug 2019
$10 million funding boost for local health researchers
More than $10 million has been awarded to further world-class, solution-based research at the University of Newcastle, Hunter Medical Research Institute (HMRI), and Hunter New England Health in the latest round of National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) funding.
News • 30 Aug 2019
Dr Myles Young wins Bupa’s Emerging Health Researcher Award
Dr Myles Young has been named Bupa Foundation’s Emerging Health Researcher for 2019 in recognition of his work to improve men’s physical and mental health.
News • 28 Aug 2019
Professor Brenda Happell, University of Newcastle wins top Australasian award in mental health
Professor Brenda Happell has won TheMHS Exceptional Contribution Award at the 2019 Mental Health Service Awards of Australia and New Zealand for her exceptional contribution to mental health.
News • 22 Aug 2019
Outdoor gym study aiming to give the masses more strength
In partnership with Lake Macquarie City Council and Newcastle City Council, University of Newcastle researchers are recruiting for a new, nationally-funded trial that blends smartphone technology with park-based fitness facilities to encourage community exercise in the great outdoors.
News • 21 Aug 2019
Age isn’t an issue – you can retrain the brain
Multi-tasking has traditionally been considered the domain of the young and frantic. But a new, large-scale study by researchers from Australia and California has shown that older people can keep pace with those in their twenties – it’s simply a matter of practice.
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.