SDG 11 – Sustainable cities and communities

In teaching, specialised programs support cultural and urban development, such as the Bachelor of Music, Master of Writing, Editing and Publishing, and Master of Urban Planning. UQ also offers lifelong learning to the public through short language courses at the Institute of Modern Languages, access to Library resources and public lectures.

UQ’s research and partnerships generate evidence-based solutions that inform policy, improve liveability and mobility, support vulnerable communities, and contribute to long-term urban sustainability across Queensland and beyond. Examples include the UQ-Springfield partnership with a new Energy Chair appointed in 2025, the UQ node of the Australian Urban Research Infrastructure Network (AURIN), the Transport Academic Partnership and housing research conducted in collaboration with Micah Projects.

UQ offers free public access to its heritage buildings, libraries, museums and green spaces. Through its outreach and engagement, the University also hosts diverse cultural events for communities in regional and remote areas, such as music festivals and exhibitions.

For staff, students and visitors, UQ promotes sustainable commuting and pedestrian-friendly campuses, accommodates flexible work arrangements for employees and provides advice on affordable housing. UQ's design standards mandate that sustainability principles are integrated into all new infrastructure developments.

Read our SDG 11 2025 report (PDF, 352.59 KB)

Read our previous SDG 11 report (PDF, 360.61 KB)

See how we make a difference across key areas:

• support of arts and heritage
• sustainable practices on campuses.

Support of arts and heritage

UQ aims to nourish intellectual vitality and enrich the regional cultural landscape by providing communities with inclusive, often free, access to its museums, libraries, historic buildings and iconic green spaces. To further support this commitment, the University delivers ongoing artistic event programs for local and regional audiences while leading projects that record and preserve intangible cultural heritage.

Free public access to buildings

UQ provides all-day, free public access to its most significant heritage-listed buildings and campus spaces. By keeping these historic environments open to the broader community, UQ directly enhances urban inclusivity and cultural engagement across multiple locations. Key accessible sites include:

St Lucia Great Court complex

The Great Court is the historic heart of UQ’s St Lucia campus and a Queensland heritage-listed landmark, renowned for its distinctive sandstone architecture and more than 1,200 carvings that celebrate Queensland’s:

• history
• Indigenous life and custodianship
• culture
• flora and fauna
• influential scholars from around the world. 

Designed in the 1930s and completed over 4 decades, it remains an iconic gathering place that reflects UQ’s academic heritage and cultural identity. As a public space, the Great Court is open and freely accessible 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, providing the community with ongoing access to its heritage architecture, landscaped grounds and cultural significance.

308 Queen St Brisbane

UQ Brisbane City at 308 Queen Street is a restored heritage building that plays a role in preserving an important part of Queensland’s history. It serves as a hub for professional development, lifelong learning, networking and community engagement in the heart of Brisbane’s CBD. The venue offers event spaces and the Atrium, a free co-working and collaboration space for alumni and the broader community, which is open on weekdays from 7 am–8 pm.

Customs House

As one of Brisbane’s most iconic heritage landmarks, Customs House reflects the city’s maritime, commercial and cultural history since its construction in 1889. The building serves as an important symbol of Brisbane’s development and is now operated by UQ as a cultural, educational and heritage venue that hosts exhibitions, events and public dining experiences. Customs House is open to the public throughout the year, providing access to its heritage spaces, restaurant and riverfront precinct, helping connect the community with Brisbane’s history and cultural life.

Herston campus

UQ’s Herston campus is a significant health, education and research hub within the Herston Health Precinct. It supports collaboration, innovation and improved health outcomes for the broader community, while helping preserve and share Queensland’s medical heritage through cultural assets such as the Marks-Hirschfeld Museum of Medical History. The campus is open to the public year-round and provides access to facilities including the Marks-Hirschfeld Museum, venue spaces, food and retail outlets and outdoor community areas, contributing to Brisbane’s educational and cultural landscape.

Gatton campus

• heritage buildings
• museums
• working farms
• environmental parklands
• world-leading agricultural and renewable energy research facilities.

Free public access to libraries

UQ’s libraries welcome visitors from the community and secondary schools to use their spaces and on-site collections during staffed hours. Visitors can use library computers and create, print, copy and scan documents.

Visitors can also view exhibitions featuring items from the Library’s special collections. Most library-subscribed online resources are licensed for use by UQ students and staff only. However, visitors can access selected online resources and ebooks when visiting UQ's libraries via library computers. Open access resources, including digitised cultural heritage collections from Fryer Library, can be accessed by anyone online through UQ eSpace, the University's institutional repository.

The library also provides guidance on accessing open educational resources. 

Community membership costs A$25 per year and also provides the ability to borrow books. 

Opening hours for the specific UQ Library locations are outlined below:

Free public access to museums and galleries

UQ welcomes members of the public, school groups and researchers to visit its specialised spaces free of charge during opening hours. Visitors can access a diverse range of venues across the campuses including:​

• UQ Art Museum (St Lucia), which manages one of Queensland’s most significant public art collections, comprising works by Australian artists from the colonial era to the present, as well as the Nat Yuen Collection of Chinese antiquities.
• UQ Physics Museum (St Lucia), which houses an extensive collection of instruments, books and memorabilia dating back to the university's origins, offering unique insights into early scientific history.
• Anthropology Museum (St Lucia), which stands as the largest university collection of ethnographic material in Australia, caring for the cultural heritage of Australian Aboriginal and Pacific peoples and individuals from the late 19th century to the present, as well as other smaller collections from South East Asia and East Africa.
• RD Milns Antiquities Museum (St Lucia), which holds the premier collection of classical Mediterranean relics and artefacts in Queensland, representing the profound impact that the cultures of the ancient Mediterranean have had upon the literature, art, politics and society of our modern world.
• Geology Museum (St Lucia), which offers a permanent display of rare specimens from historic mines and mineral localities across Australia as well as fine minerals and fossils from around the world.
• Marks-Hirschfeld Museum of Medical History (Herston), which holds one of Australia’s finest collections of medical material heritage and preserves Queensland’s medical history through more than 8,000 historic instruments.
• UQ Gatton Museum (Gatton), which displays photographs and artefacts featuring the development of the community under its identities as the Queensland Agricultural College, Queensland Agricultural High School and College and since 1990 as UQ Gatton Campus.

Free public access to green spaces

Free public access is available to UQ's campuses, including general grounds, green spaces and feature locations such as:

• two Bush Tucker Gardens at St Lucia campus (open 24/7 for public access)
• St Lucia Lakes, eco-walk and Amphitheatre (open 24/7 for public access)
• St Lucia campus grounds including the Great Court (open 24/7 for public access) 
• St Lucia barbecue and picnic areas (open 24/7 for public access)
• UQ Sustainability Walk at St Lucia campus (open 24/7 for public access)
• UQ recreation precinct playground, a state-of-the-art, all-abilities and nature-based public play space located along Sir William MacGregor Drive at St Lucia campus (open 24/7 for public access)
• Gatton Environmental Park (open 24/7 for public access)
• Boyce Gardens at Gatton campus (open to the public daily from 9 am to 4 pm)
• Community gardens provide a space for students, staff and local community members to grow their own produce, share food together, learn new skills and meet friends. They are places for people of all ages, from different disciplines and cultures, with all levels of gardening experience to come together. Garden location: 
  • St Lucia: Corner of Sir Fred Schonell Drive and Sir William MacGregor Drive
  • Gatton: next to the Resource Recovery Centre.

Arts and heritage contributions

UQ contributes to local arts and culture by delivering annual public performances in the form of concert series and theatrical productions by several university-run ensembles, societies and groups, including:

• UQ’s School of Music, which encompasses the UQ Symphony Orchestra, UQ Wind Symphony, UQ Chorale, Pulse Ensemble, UQ Singers, Sketch Ensemble, Signwaves Flute Ensemble, the Saxophone Ensemble, the UQ Brass Ensemble and the affiliated Brisbane Chamber Choir
• Queensland University Musical Society, which operates as a non-audition choir based at UQ and open to both students of the university and members of the general public
• The Underground Theatre Company, which is UQ’s resident student theatre group.

A prominent example of this commitment is UQ’s Festival of Outback Opera, which partners with Opera Queensland to bring world-class music experiences to regional communities in Winton and Longreach in Outback Queensland. This collaboration gives UQ School of Music students the chance to perform alongside professional opera singers and orchestral musicians, while sharing the joy of music with communities that have limited access to major arts events. In 2025, the festival:

• delivered 18 performances
• had participation from 20 students
• reached 1,684 community members
• travelled 1,595 kilometres between regional venues.

In total in 2025, UQ hosted more than 1,235 events, celebrations, exhibitions and performances at locations across Queensland. Some of these are included below.

Record and preserve cultural heritage

Throughout 2025, UQ continued to play an important role in recording, safeguarding and preserving intangible cultural heritage across diverse local, migrant and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities through integrated research, education and public outreach. By actively documenting oral histories, supporting traditional craftsmanship, celebrating performing arts and honouring localised rituals, university programs prevented the erasure of vulnerable cultural traditions. These collaborative projects expanded public access to ancestral knowledge, facilitated intergenerational learning and celebrated the living history of multicultural diaspora and historically displaced populations within contemporary society.

UQ Art Museum and heritage partnerships

In 2025, the UQ Art Museum strengthened its role as a dynamic cultural hub by leveraging university collections to safeguard heritage, support local artists, and provide inclusive public access. Through campus-wide activations and inter-institutional partnerships, the museum directly advanced SDG 11 by preserving cultural legacies and fostering community cohesion. Key activities and programs include:

• hosting 'Museum Crawl 2025' during Orientation Week from 18 to 21 February 2025 to build early community connections, while embedding cross-disciplinary education by aligning the ‘to come together as water’ exhibition with marine science curricula to study Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander water protection.
• organising the free, community-focused UQ St Lucia 'Museums Block Party' on 1 March 2025, which activated multiple campus institutions simultaneously to democratise access to regional heritage, featuring the Fryer Library’s Hidden Library talk, the RD Milns Antiquities Museum’s guided tours and the UQ Anthropology Museum’s workshop with practitioner Ranu James to pass down living traditions.
• embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander storytelling into public spaces through the 'UQ Alumni Campus Art Walking Tour' on 3 May 2025, which showcased prominent works by several celebrated artists, including Rosella Namok, Teresa Baker, Hector Burton, Lily Kelly Napangardi, Gloria Petyarre, Johnny Yungut Tjupurrula and Nora Wompi Nungurrayi, with this legacy being extended in July 2025 during NAIDOC Week through student-led collection tours developed in partnership with Blaklash.
• partnering with the UQ School of Music to host the 'Music Meets Art: Entangled Worlds' concert on 3 May 2025, later expanding this acoustic collaboration in September 2025 during the Brisbane Festival with an immersive performance by Robert Curgenven that brought the historic Mayne Hall pipe organ to life.
• funding and hosting contemporary creators from February to September 2025 through installations like Alicia Frankovich’s commissioned choreographic work ‘Feather Star’ on 28 February and 1 March 2025 and Caitlin Franzmann’s ‘recompose’ from April to June 2025. Cultural continuity was further elevated through the SUNA TOK TOK festival on 6 September 2025, marking Papua New Guinea independence, alongside ongoing research by Mittelheuser Great Ocean Scholar Aunty Sana Balai on passing down ancestral knowledge.
• launching its 50th anniversary program titled ‘groundwork’ on 12 December 2025, initiating a structural reflection on its material and relational responsibilities to Country as it prepared for its relocation to a new purpose-built facility in the Forgan Smith Tower opening in 2027.

Kirrenderri, Heart of the Channel Country touring exhibition

As part of its tour to regional and remote Queensland centres, the 'Kirrenderri, Heart of the Channel Country' exhibition was displayed at the Yarrawarra Aboriginal Cultural Centre in Corindi Beach from 2 August to 28 September, followed by a showing at the Redcliffe Museum from 15 November 2025 to 15 February 2026. Curated by UQ's Anthropology Museum and Mithaka Aboriginal Corporation, the exhibition presents a visually striking and narrative-rich resource of knowledge, chronicling the stories and perspectives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples living on Channel Country via rarely seen artefacts, historic and contemporary photographs, letters and maps. The exhibition continues its tour throughout Australia into 2026. 

Stories through time exhibition

The UQ Anthropology Museum hosted the free public exhibition 'Stories through time: Living cultures, enduring connections' from 3 March to 14 November 2025. The exhibition celebrated the collaborative relationships forged between Indigenous and non-Indigenous producers and scholars in Australia and the Pacific, presenting some of the key collections that have been part of the museum’s custodianship and through which makers, storytellers and knowledge holders have connected to their material culture since the 1950s.

Queensland Atlas of Religion

This resource shares stories of Queensland’s faith communities, past and present, to explore aspects of religious practice in Australia. This is the first time that a place-based approach has been employed for the scholarly study of Queensland’s religious pluralism and diversity, emphasising the patterns of historical accommodation and inclusion needed to inform religious toleration and cross-community understanding. 

The project was undertaken by researchers from the School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry in partnership with the State Library of Queensland. Throughout 2025, the 'Queensland Atlas of Religion' continued to be updated with new entries and media content to record and inform on the rich diversity of faith and religious practices in Queensland’s past and present. 2025 releases include:

• ‘Any Given Sunday: Pentecostal Christianity in Contemporary Brisbane’, which examines how contemporary Pentecostal and Charismatic churches adapt to the modern urban landscape of Brisbane's suburban Bible Belt. By blending high-tech multimedia production with secular youth and popular culture aesthetics, a phenomenon known as ‘Cool Christianity', these spaces successfully foster community belonging and cultural inclusion for local young families.
• 'Ross Parisi, Cairns', which highlights the enduring impact of Italian-Sicilian migration on the cultural landscape of regional Far North Queensland through the annual Feast of the Three Saints in Silkwood. By safeguarding and transplanting this traditional religious festival, the local community maintains generational cultural continuity, fosters deep regional fellowship and enriches the multi-ethnic heritage of rural Queensland towns.
• 'A Parish of 173,746 Square Miles', which documents how the Presbyterian Church pioneered vital medical, social and communication infrastructure in remote Queensland. Through the creation of the Royal Flying Doctor Service, pedal radio networks and remote bush hospitals, the work established lifelines that reduced geographical isolation, supported diverse populations, and laid the groundwork for safe, sustainable and inclusive outback communities.
• 'Contemporary Spiritualism in Queensland', which explores how Spiritualist movements across South East Queensland evolved since the 1970s into 'Occulture', an open cultural network, reflecting the state's shift toward religious pluralism. By operating decentralised community spaces that integrate diverse interfaith practices, these centres exemplify how modern communities create fluid environments that embrace diversity and social harmony.

Language Data Commons of Australia

Led by UQ in collaboration with partner institutions, the Language Data Commons of Australia (LDaCA) makes nationally significant language data available for academic and non-academic use and provides a model for ensuring continued access with appropriate community control. With ongoing support from the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy through the Australian Research Data Commons, the project continued its core operations throughout 2025. With Australia being one of the world’s most linguistically diverse regions, this project preserves intangible cultural heritage by securing at-risk collections and improving access to underutilised collections of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages, Australian Englishes and regional languages of the Pacific.

Preservation of storytelling and the literary ecosystem

In 2025, UQ contributed to the preservation of storytelling and Australia's literary ecosystem through:

• publishing 35 literary works through University of Queensland Press (UQP), including award-winning literature such as Siang Lu’s 'Ghost Cities' that won the Miles Franklin Literary Award and Peter Carnavas’s 'Leo and Ralph' that was named the 2025 Australian Book Industry Awards Small Publishers’ Children’s Book of the Year
• hosting the annual Fryer Lecture through UQ Library, which celebrates Australian literature and the library's important role in collecting and preserving the nation's literary heritage
• maintaining lively partnerships with local cultural organisations and initiatives throughout 2025, including the Brisbane Festival, Brisbane Writers Festival, World Science Festival and Opera Queensland’s Festival of Outback Opera
• maintaining AustLit, a national information resource and authoritative database of Australian literature and storytelling led by UQ, which continued to expand its comprehensive collection throughout 2025 and provide resources for researchers, teachers and students through new projects, including:
  • ‘Re-mapping Darwin/Larrakia Country' from 2025 to 2028
  • 'BlackWords', a vast database of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writing and storytelling that continues to undergo maintenance and growth
  • ‘Irishness in Aust. Lit' from 2024 to 2027
  • ‘Australian Fantasy Fiction & Japan' in 2025

Institute of Modern Languages

The Institute of Modern Languages (IML) offers one of Australia's most comprehensive language learning programs, supporting personal, academic and professional development. It provides opportunities for learners of all ages and proficiency levels to develop practical language skills while fostering intercultural understanding. Open to the wider community, the Institute delivered courses in more than 35 languages in 2025, which were taught by a team of more than 300 qualified language teachers who are native speakers or have native-level proficiency. Languages offered ranged from widely studied languages such as Japanese, Spanish, French, Chinese, German and Italian to less commonly taught languages including Tetum, Latin, Croatian, Turkish and Swahili. The offerings in 2025 include:

• high school enrichment programs, with specialised French and German programs successfully conducted on 12 and 13 January 2025.
• high school beginner language bootcamp, which was delivered as a 5-day immersive school holiday language program from 22 to 26 September 2025, tailored specifically for Year 7 and Year 8 high school students.
• short courses for beginners, which were run online during the spring term from October to November 2025, providing a wide selection of languages for participants to choose from.
• Winter Survival, which offered beginner survival courses in a diverse range of languages from around the world, utilising online classes that were kept intentionally small to maximise personalised learning.
• conversation, semester, accelerated and intensive programs, which were scheduled across alternate Summer, Autumn and Winter blocks to ensure flexible learning choices each year.

Sustainable practices on campus

UQ has anchored its sustainable campus operations within the UQ Strategic Plan 2022–2025 and is a proud signatory to the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN). Driven by these overarching commitments, the University has set institutional targeted goals to contribute to advancing SDG 11 across its operations. 

Promote sustainable commuting 

UQ undertakes actions to promote more sustainable commuting by aligning its campus operations with local, state, national and international transport planning objectives and strategies, such as those published by the Brisbane City Council, the Queensland Government and the Australian Transport Assessment and Planning Guidelines.

Public transport

UQ actively supports sustainable urban mobility and reduced carbon emissions by ensuring comprehensive public transport connectivity across its St Lucia, Herston and Gatton campuses. Examples include:

• operating integrated multi-modal infrastructure at the St Lucia campus as a major transit hub, featuring 2 large-capacity bus stations as well as a dedicated CityCat ferry terminal, enhanced further by the Brisbane Metro project, where major infrastructure upgrades were completed at the UQ Lakes Bus Station for the launch of high-frequency Brisbane Metro M2 route permanent operations on 28 January 2025.
• providing inter-campus shuttle services to minimise private vehicle usage, with free services running every half hour between St Lucia and Long Pocket as well as a daily scheduled return service between the St Lucia and Gatton campuses.

Micromobility transport

UQ promotes micromobility transport by providing key resources that support people travelling to, from and within our campuses. These include:

• dedicated bicycle paths and a range of cycling facilities including end-of-trip showers, change rooms and locker spaces, secure and open-air bicycle parking, bike maintenance and repair stations
• marked locations for hired electronic micromobility devices such as e-bikes and e-scooters to ensure they are dropped off or picked up on campus
• marked routing maps that help riders to identify safe paths, slow zones, dismount and parking areas
• ODIN PASS smartphone application, which provides staff and students with an easy-to-use platform to access multiple transport options including e-scooters and buses.

Electric vehicles

UQ has a number of electric vehicles available within its fleet for staff to hire for business purposes. UQ also provides electric vehicle charging for both staff and the general public.

Through its UQ Recharge program, UQ offers staff-only electric vehicle charging stations with dedicated parking zones at P4 and P11.

Pedestrian priority on campus

UQ prioritises pedestrian access on campus by enforcing a zero-vehicle policy within its inner campus core, such as the Great Court precinct, creating designated pedestrian-only zones. 

For mixed areas, UQ mandates the integration of dedicated safe walking paths, advanced wayfinding and natural vegetation corridors that separate foot traffic from vehicles. Furthermore, vehicle speeds are strictly restricted, and parking infrastructure is pushed to the campus periphery. 

To support a pedestrian-priority culture, UQ provides extensive campus-wide infrastructure including:

• interconnected, shaded walking paths and dedicated pedestrian crossings, complemented by comprehensive end-of-trip showering facilities
• advanced wayfinding services that offer digital and physical navigation assistance via the UQ Maps app and the UQ St Lucia self-guided tour
• curated walking experiences along specially designed scenic routes, such as the John Oxley River Walk at St Lucia, the Gatton Environmental Park, and the UQ Sustainability Walk.

Allowing remote working

UQ aims to promote a positive balance between healthy work and a healthy life and accommodates flexible work for staff, including allowing remote working, upon request from the employee and by mutual agreement. Flexible work is any approved variation to the standard daily or weekly work pattern within a workplace. UQ provides a number of flexible work options for staff subject to the provisions of UQ’s Enterprise Agreement 2021-2026 and the Fair Work Act:

• working from home
• flexible working hours
• 9-day fortnight
• 19-day month
• voluntary banked time
• flexi-time
• purchased leave
• part-time work
• job sharing.

Affordable housing

As part of The Queensland Commitment, UQ is dedicated to improving accommodation for students by implementing strategies that ensure availability and affordability and that cater to the diverse needs of those requiring housing support. In 2025, UQ progressed construction on a second student residence complex with 1,020 beds, which is on track to open for Semester 2, 2027 and will increase the total number of student resident places at St Lucia to 2,500. 

Currently, UQ offers the following accommodation to students, and information and services for staff and students about accessing affordable housing:

• UQ Res, which is a student living community that offers competitively priced long-term and short-term accommodation of various types at both St Lucia and Gatton campuses, including:
  • Kev Carmody House, offering 610 state-of-the-art student accommodation rooms for rent
  • apartments at 48 Walcott Street
  • the Halls of Residence at Gatton
  • UQ Res Homes, which are prioritised for students from regional Queensland, interstate, overseas, or those facing difficulty
  • the Gatton Motel, which offers 14 rooms
  • the Gatton Cottage for visiting academics and international students completing an internship.
• UQ Rentals, which is an online resource available to UQ students and staff to assist them in finding accommodation during their time at UQ, including through UQ Residential Colleges, purpose-built student living and private rentals. The platform connects these prospective tenants to a wide variety of providers with vacant properties and rooms close to campuses at St Lucia, Herston and Gatton.
• UQ Residential Scholarships Scheme, which offers financial support to help cover accommodation costs at a UQ-approved provider for students who have experienced financial hardship.
• online information and resources on the cost of living in Brisbane, including a comparison of the affordability of student housing options.
• salary packaging, which is available for eligible staff to access pre-tax arrangements through external financial partners to help manage their living costs, allowing staff to structure regular personal expenses before income tax is calculated, thereby increasing their overall take-home pay.
• Appointment Relocation Assistance Procedure, which is in place to provide eligible appointees with financial assistance to meet some expenses incurred when they are required to relocate to work at UQ.

Staff support is available for employees experiencing financial distress that may impact areas such as food security and housing. Employees can request support through Human Resources. This is addressed on a case-by-case basis depending on individual circumstances, and UQ works with the employee to provide appropriate assistance. In an event such as a natural disaster, UQ proactively communicates to employees regarding support and assistance available through Human Resources.

Local authority collaboration on planning and development

UQ directly supports sustainable regional urban growth by partnering with government and industry to deploy targeted research into city infrastructure. The University provides local government bodies with the critical data and technical roadmaps needed to manage a population projected to reach 5 million by 2046 while preparing for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games. 

To optimise urban transport planning and reduce congestion, UQ transport modelling experts utilise advanced digital models to map and predict regional traffic pain points before they manifest. Concurrently, UQ researchers collaborate with the timber sector across the forest-to-building supply chain to streamline construction efficiencies, providing local authorities with practical pathways to unlock housing supply and tackle pressing affordability crises. 

This tripartite relationship between research institutions, government and industry serves as a proven blueprint for regional development, as demonstrated by the establishment of the ENTRI biomedical manufacturing facility within the Boggo Road Innovation Precinct to scale local infrastructure and workforce capabilities. In addition, the below examples demonstrate how UQ is collaborating with local authorities on planning and development through research, student projects and community initiatives.

AURIN URBANiQ node launch at UQ

The Australian Urban Research Infrastructure Network (AURIN) launched a new node at UQ in 2025 that focuses on data-informed responses to urban health, liveability and equity challenges. The Urban Intelligence for Healthy and Equitable Places (URBANiQ) node brings together researchers with expertise in urban planning, health, transport, geography and the social sciences. Its purpose is to apply spatial and administrative data in ways that improve how evidence is used in planning, policy and investment decisions. URBANiQ collaborates with stakeholders across sectors, including government authorities such as the Brisbane City Council, the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, as well as Health and Wellbeing Queensland. In 2025, 2 projects were started: the first examining how transport behaviours and environmental exposures interact with demographic factors to shape health outcomes; and the second looking at urban liveability for equitable and healthy futures to support policy development across levels of government. Both contribute to developments underway for the 2032 Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Transport Academic Partnership 2025-2030

The Transport Academic Partnership 2025-2030 is a A$4.3 million agreement between the Queensland Government Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR), the Motor Accident Insurance Commission (MAIC), Queensland University of Technology, UQ and the University of the Sunshine Coast. On 3 December 2025, TMR held its annual Transport Academic Partnership (TAP) Showcase, where UQ researchers in the areas of planning, urban design and geography presented projects as part of the Partnership, including:

• 'Evaluation of separated cycle tracks in new developments', which evaluates the performance and impacts of new separated cycle tracks in three EDQ Priority Development areas.
• 'Connected Regional Communities – Gaps, Barriers and Opportunities to Improve Mobility in Regional Queensland', which developed a critical evaluation framework to help TMR understand transport disadvantage in regional, rural and remote (3R) Queensland.
• 'Designing better tropical bus stop shelters', which presented new design ideas and solutions to bus stop shelters in the tropical Far North and Northern Queensland regions.

Brisbane Metro at UQ Lakes

UQ collaborated with the Brisbane City Council (BCC) on major infrastructure works to facilitate the new metro M2 route. Fully funded by the BCC, these works included upgrading the existing station platforms, shelters and seating to increase station capacity, and providing end-of-route charging for the electric metro fleet.

Following these preparation works, the high-frequency Brisbane Metro M2 route officially launched permanent operations on 28 January 2025. Operating at 5-minute frequencies during peak travel periods, the fully electric M2 line permanently replaced traditional diesel bus route 66. This active infrastructure deal successfully eliminates local tailpipe emissions and scales transit capacity by up to 3.4 million seats annually.

Report on the immediate response to housing for families living in motels

In 2025, UQ researchers published a research report for Micah Projects, which is a Brisbane-based not-for- profit organisation providing integrated support and advocacy services for individuals and families experiencing poverty, homelessness, domestic violence, mental illness and social exclusion. The report, The Immediate Housing Response for Families: A Study of Families Living in Motels, presents the findings of a study conducted to develop critical empirical evidence about Queensland’s overarching framework, known as the Immediate Housing Response for Families (IHRF), which is delivered by Micah Projects. The authors sought to understand how the IHRF operates in practice, alongside the experiences and outcomes of families accommodated through the program. Given the ongoing housing crisis and increasing strain on the service system, this timely report provides important insights into emergency housing operations and their direct impacts on vulnerable families.

UQ-Springfield Energy Chair

In 2025, UQ welcomed Dr Frederik Geth as the UQ-Springfield Chair in Energy and the 10th academic staff member in the power, energy and control engineering discipline within the UQ School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. The UQ-Springfield Energy Chair is a partnership between UQ and Springfield City Group, aimed at advancing energy initiatives to help achieve Net Zero Energy status for the city of Springfield by 2038. This position will drive research and teaching programs in power system economics, renewable energy integration and energy management, involving collaborations with industry and government to develop innovative engineering solutions for the energy sector. 

Bachelor of Urban Planning student placements

UQ’s Bachelor of Urban Planning provides students with hands-on experience through real-world planning projects in collaboration with local councils and planning bodies across Queensland. In addition to enhancing students’ skills in sustainable development and community engagement, this program contributes valuable academic input to local planning initiatives, fostering stronger ties between UQ, planning authorities and regional communities. 2025 initiatives include:

• an overnight field trip where students engaged with stakeholders, such as Traditional Owners, local residents and the Queensland Government, about the real planning challenges being experienced on Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island), located in Moreton Bay, Southeast Queensland
• a 2-day development intensive at the UQ Brisbane City campus, where students engaged with leaders in the planning and development sectors through workshops, guided walks and site visits to a selection of Brisbane’s signature infrastructure and commercial projects
• consultant team projects where students prepared a Health Strategy for the City of Brisbane, considering issues of health, community wellbeing and climate resilience, thereby developing an applied understanding of how to draft, communicate and defend a citywide strategy while investigating opportunities for government and private sector funding.

Planning development

UQ seeks to improve the sustainability performance of its buildings and infrastructure.

As stated in the UQ Design Standards (PDF, 1.05MB), sustainability must be a consideration for every aspect of a project. Sustainability principles must be applied in ways that allow the benefits to be measured prior to project commencement. UQ's Design Standards detail mandatory minimum sustainable building requirements across a range of measures, including but not limited to, architectural, landscape, civil, hydraulic, mechanical, electrical, fire, acoustics, IT, wayfinding and laboratory design. These are available on the UQ staff website to all parties involved in the design and construction process.

Alongside the UQ Design Standards, the Campuses on Countries Design Framework acknowledges Traditional Owners and their custodianship of lands on and around UQ's campuses across Queensland. The Framework has produced a set of guidelines for those designing the built and landscape environments in recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, histories and connections to UQ. The guidelines apply to all project types, whether they involve new works or adaptations to buildings, landscapes, infrastructure or any other modifications to the physical settings of UQ campuses.

Building on brownfield sites 

When UQ expands or modernises its campuses, such as St Lucia or Herston, it follows a sustainable brownfield approach for on-campus urban redevelopment. This strategy is guided by the St Lucia Campus Master Plan, which states that the University will meet evolving growth and infrastructure demands through the redevelopment of existing underutilised buildings and facilities rather than clearing fresh greenfield land. Because the University operates within a fixed geographical footprint and aims to protect its green open spaces, it prioritises repurposing existing underutilised land and replacing aging structures that no longer meet contemporary needs.

In 2025, this commitment was demonstrated by the Union Complex redevelopment, which commenced its staged adaptive reuse and refurbishment program with physical works to renew Building 21C beginning in November 2025, modernising existing student service areas and the administrative hub while retaining the precinct's legacy and village-style footprint rather than clearing new green space.