SDG 16 – Peace, justice and strong institutions

Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

2025 progress

In 2025, the University of Queensland (UQ) contributed to Sustainable Development Goal 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions, with activities spanning governance, education, outreach, research and innovation.

UQ’s Research Roadmap recognises that as a leading public research university, UQ has a major role to play in working collaboratively at the state and national levels to address complex challenges, including reconciliation and Australia’s commitment to capacity-building across the Indo-Pacific. Our research initiatives support the empowerment of diverse communities through collaboration and co-design with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, local councils and civil society organisations. UQ also regularly provides expert advice and customised training to state and federal government bodies, in addition to evidence-based technical and strategic input into shaping policymaking.

In teaching and learning, UQ offers legal education in criminal law, human rights and anti-corruption that includes hands-on experience in legal clinics, placements and international programs, ensuring students are equipped to make a real-world difference to lead change locally, nationally and globally.

Operationally, we ensure that decision-making includes a wide range of perspectives through diverse representation within our governance structures, including the UQ Student Union (UQU), which plays a key role in student advocacy.

Read our SDG 16 2025 report (PDF, 385.14 KB)

Read our previous SDG 16 report (PDF, 344.52 KB)

See how we make a difference across key areas:

university governance
working with government.

University governance

UQ prides itself on strong governance. UQ regularly seeks out multiple perspectives on key issues to inform sound decision-making and develop robust policies and procedures across various areas of our operations. Several mechanisms exist to ensure that diverse voices of stakeholders, from both inside and outside of the university, are represented and involved in institutional governance.

Elected representation

UQ has elected representation on UQ’s highest governing body, the UQ Senate, from students (undergraduate and postgraduate), faculty and staff. The UQ Senate is the University's peak governing body, as constituted by the University of Queensland Act 1998. The primary role of Senate is to exercise oversight of the University and its affairs. In particular, Senate ensures that the appropriate structures, policies, processes and planning are in place for UQ to effectively manage its activities and achieve its goals. In 2025, the Senate reviewed and approved the strategic direction of the University as outlined in UQ's Strategic Plan 2022-2025. The 35th Senate ran from 2022 to 2025 and included official, appointed and elected members. The elected positions are:

1 postgraduate student (as of 2025, Mr Richard Lee)
1 undergraduate student (as of 2025, Mr Joshua Marsh)
1 member of the Academic Board (as of 2025, Professor Greg Hainge)
1 member of the full-time or part-time academic staff (as of 2025, Professor Kristen Lyons)
1 member of the full-time or part-time general (non-faculty) staff (as of 2025, Dr Dino Willox)

Student's Union

UQ recognises the UQ Union (UQU) as an independent student body that represents students' interests. UQ encourages student participation in the UQ Union as part of student representation for careers and employability. Union representatives provide input into various university matters by sitting on official committees, such as the Teaching, Learning and Student Experience Committee (TLSEC) and the Committee for Academic Programs Policy (CAPP). Union members also work with other elected representatives to advocate for student interests at all levels of governance at UQ. The UQU is partly funded by the Student Services and Amenities Fee (SAFF), which is a fee required by the Australian Government to help provide student services, support and amenities. The University collaborates with UQU on a range of issues, including negotiating the Services Agreement (PDF, 43.73 KB) and maintaining critical student services and legacy student spaces. It also lists UQU as an official organisational unit on UQ’s website.

UQU is committed to providing support for students, hosting student clubs and societies and providing social activities. Examples of support provided to students in 2025 include:

hosting a student voice forum on 'The Future of Learning with Generative AI' (10 April 2025) in collaboration with the Institute for Teaching and Learning Innovation (ITaLI), where students could learn more about AI in their learning and understand how UQ is keeping up with current AI trends
providing free breakfasts (Morning Marmalade), lunches (Midday Munchies) and dinners (Kampus Kitchen) across UQ’s campuses, as well as free and cheap groceries through the Food Co-Op
offering placement bursaries to support students on placement who are in poverty
supporting students during exams through the Student Exam Support (SES) program, including a range of well-being initiatives, a chillout zone, free food and food trucks, such as the Library Trolley Snack Run and Late Night Pancakes.

Examples of social activities provided to students by the UQU in 2025 include:

the Atlas Ball 2025, hosted at Cloudland, Fortitude Valley on Friday 3 October, featuring food, drinks, music and performances
the Winter Carnival, hosted at the Forgan Smith Front Lawns, UQ St Lucia on Friday 8 August, including food trucks, amusement rides and market stalls
the Queer Skate Night event, hosted on Sunday 18 May at Albany Creek Skateway
the Communitea Connection every Thursday on the Grassy Knoll from 11 am–4 pm, enabling students to take a break from study with a free drink and social chat with peers.

Additionally, the UQU Disability Collective supported students in 2025 through:

events and training opportunities such as an 8-week 'Intro to Auslan I' course from 1 April, and an inclusive design day on 9 November
providing the Disability Space, a safe environment on campus where members can relax, recharge, socialise, administer medications and access literature and information.

The UQU International Collective supported international students in 2025 with:

post-study work visa workshops on 8, 12 and 15 May to help students understand eligibility and the process around post-study visa options
co-hosting several events celebrating multiculturalism, such as Diversity Night on 1 May, Dragon Boat Festival on 15 May, the Latin Festival on 7 August and Africa Fest on 25 September.

Identify and engage with local stakeholders

UQ's Community engagement approach advances inclusive, participatory and joint decision-making through a structured, 8-stage Community Partnership Lifecycle. To institutionalise this approach, UQ robustly identifies and engages local stakeholders, such as non-government organisations (NGOs), government bodies and industries, alongside underrepresented learners and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Driven by principles of authenticity, equity and reciprocity, the process begins with the 'Initiate' and 'Align' stages, leveraging formal planning tools and goals alignment templates to co-create purposeful outcomes and clarify mutual expectations without making assumptions. By centering engagement on being community-led and locally embedded, UQ values and embeds Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of knowing, being and doing, while strictly upholding the self-determination principle that 'nothing is done for us without us'. The remaining stages of the lifecycle, incorporating manage, mitigate, resolve, reflect, transition and exit protocols, ensure institutional transparency, accountability and adaptive governance, creating long-term partnerships that build community capacity for the public good.

Participatory bodies for stakeholder engagement

UQ’s collaborative governance structures, processes and initiatives ensure that diverse stakeholders, including local residents, local government and civil society representatives, have a meaningful mechanism for participating in university decision-making. Examples of this in 2025 include:

the UQ Senate, which is the University’s peak governing body that integrates several community appointees who bring in external expertise and viewpoints. These include graduates of the University and other upstanding members of the community, such as those involved in NGO governance and those part of the state judiciary.
institute advisory boards across many of UQ's research institutes, which comprise external experts and community representatives from industry sectors and government departments who provide independent advice and guidance and help guide strategic direction, such as:
faculties and schools advisory boards across various UQ academic units, which maintain membership drawn from relevant industries or organisations to inform strategic direction in teaching and research, including strengthening connections with industry, such as:
2 Human Research Ethics Committees and 6 Animal Ethics Committees, which require and value community members' perspectives to ensure research practices meet ethical obligations.
the Stretch Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) Oversight Committee, which ensures that the RAP is underpinned by consultation and genuine partnership between UQ and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, giving voice to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and others in decisions that affect them. The Committee is co-chaired by a UQ honorary professor who is also an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community representative, and its membership includes 2 alumni who are also Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander representatives. The Committee meets at least 3 times per year to monitor and formally report on Stretch RAP implementation to UQ’s key governing committees. Additionally, the Stretch RAP Working Group includes representatives from the Goorie Berrimpa Indigenous student collective, as well as staff members from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community.
UQ’s Regional Roadshow, which travels across regional Queensland to foster collaboration with local leaders and community members to understand local priorities and create opportunities for meaningful collaboration. The Roadshow facilitates strategic discussions and community meetings, as well as school events and educational workshops across the state involving business owners, Traditional Owners, employers, local Council members, school principals and other community members.

University principles on corruption and bribery

UQ publishes the University’s principles and commitments on organised crime, corruption and bribery in its Fraud and Corrupt Conduct Policy. UQ has zero tolerance for, and denounces all forms of, fraud and corruption. This includes 'Corrupt Conduct' as defined by the Crime and Corruption Act 2001 (CC Act), which includes bribery.

The policy sets out the following principles and key requirements by UQ, and details minimum mandatory requirements of all UQ staff, affiliates and volunteers in implementing them:

implement effective UQ-wide anti-fraud and anti-corrupt conduct procedures
take all reasonable steps to proactively establish a culture and an operating environment that denounces all fraud and corrupt conduct
effectively manage the risks of fraud and corrupt conduct
encourage and facilitate, through planning and provision of resources, the identification and honest disclosure of reasonably suspected fraud or corrupt conduct
unless directed otherwise by the CCC, promptly refer complaints to the CCC for assessment where UQ reasonably suspects corrupt conduct
investigate and report on all complaints and allegations of fraud or corrupt conduct
discipline those who have engaged in corrupt conduct, notwithstanding their position and power
promptly address any deficiencies in controls or culture
develop and implement training that raises awareness regarding culture, accountability and internal controls
deal with frivolous or vexatious complaints including the possible commencement of disciplinary actions
treat all allegations of reasonably suspected fraud or corrupt conduct confidentially.

UQ's Fraud and Corrupt Conduct Procedure details the minimum mandatory requirements of all UQ staff, affiliates and volunteers in implementing the above key requirements within UQ.

Working with government

Through strong partnerships and collaboration with industry and government, UQ aims to support the building of Australia’s prosperity and sovereign capability. The University's dedicated strategic partnerships team delivers a coordinated approach that responds to the needs and priorities of local, state and federal governments. This includes driving commercial outcomes in priority areas and supporting policy debate and solutions by leveraging expert knowledge and cutting-edge research.

Providing expert advice to government

Through its research and engagement, UQ regularly provides specific expert advice to local, regional or national government. This includes supporting and guiding policy development, contributing towards a thriving knowledge-based economy and supporting government decision-making processes through provision of evidence-based research findings.

Best practice regulatory principles for the adoption of standards

Commissioned by the Australian Treasury, research led by Professor Flavio Menezes from UQ's School of Economics informed national regulatory reform under the renewed National Competition Policy following consultation with more than 20 government agencies, regulators and industry organisations across Australia and New Zealand. Subsequently, Professor Menezes was invited to contribute to the Treasurer's Economic Reform Roundtable to support evidence-based policy development, where the research informed discussions on Australia's long-term economic reform agenda supporting Australia's transition to a net zero economy.

Advancing fair and effective criminal justice through evidence law

Led by Dr Rebecca Wallis from UQ's School of Law, this project examined evidence law and victim protections to influence criminal justice policy and practice in Queensland. A major area of impact has been the evaluation of Queensland's Video Recorded Evidence in Chief (VREC) Pilot Program for domestic and family violence matters. This evaluation informed reforms, resulting in legislation being introduced into the Queensland Parliament in 2025 to make video-recorded evidence a permanent feature of the criminal justice system to support victim-centred justice. During 2025, Dr Wallis's research also informed Queensland Government guidance on domestic and family violence and sexual violence reporting to translate legal research into practical reforms and strengthen justice systems through collaboration with government agencies.

Queensland Decarbonisation Hub

The Queensland Decarbonisation Hub is a multi-institutional initiative funded by the Queensland Government to connect universities, industry, government and communities in co-creating solutions for a leading decarbonised economy. The Hub works in direct partnership with the Queensland Government, providing expert advice regarding its commitment to take action to achieve net zero emissions and lead the state’s approach to climate adaptation. This is done through interdisciplinary research that is demand-driven and collaborative, policy brokerage that enables 2-way dialogue with decision-makers, policy advice that is scoped and timed to inform live decisions, and outputs and deliverables that are designed for system-level influence. Connecting Queensland universities, industry, government and communities, the Hub draws together existing decarbonisation knowledge to develop research and policies that support Queensland industries and communities while safeguarding and enhancing Queensland’s natural environment. During 2025, the Hub completed the following activities to provide expert advice and research evidence to government:

delivering several webinars to public and private stakeholders, including government agency representatives, covering regulatory and policy themes such as 'Healthcare sustainability – measuring and managing greenhouse gas emissions’ on 18 March 25, and ‘Queensland’s Pathway to Net Zero’ on 20 May 2025.
announcing funding in April for 8 research projects designed to provide empirical evidence and operational insights that support the Queensland Government’s net-zero roadmap, establishing an institutionalised pipeline where academic research guides regional development and public policy.
conducting an interim review in August 2025 to evaluate the operational progress of state-wide decarbonisation initiatives, providing the Queensland Government with data-driven recommendations to refine its Queensland Climate Action Plan frameworks.
launching the 'Quantum Meets Decarbonisation' workshop on 15 October 2025 in partnership with CSIRO and Quantum Australia, aligning sector experts across 4 major policy and industrial panels to map technology frameworks for carbon monitoring and heavy industry transitions.
hosting the 'Quantum Meets Decarbonisation Forum' in Brisbane on 10 December 2025, directly engaging Queensland’s Chief Scientist and Australia’s former Chief Scientist with independent research evidence on corporate climate disclosures, technology barriers, and utility-scale quantum integration for public policy framework adoption.

Centre for Policy Futures

UQ’s Centre for Policy Futures plays a central role in translating academic research into policy-relevant insights. In 2025, the Centre continued to collaborate with governments, international bodies and NGOs to address complex policy challenges. Key themes included climate adaptation, digital governance and food security. The Centre informed the Queensland Government on a variety of prescient topics during 2025 via the following parliamentary submissions, policy briefs and reports:

Towards a movement map for Australia: final report. Published in 2025, this report is intended to support civil society organisations, the social service sector and government entities to accelerate Australia’s implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Policy pathways to advance Australia’s biomethane sector: learning policy lessons from international jurisdictions. Published in May 2025 under the Future Fuels Cooperative Research Centre, this final report examines the current state of biomethane production, policy instruments, enablers, barriers and opportunities in Australia, contrasting them with initiatives employed in a number of international jurisdictions with more mature biomethane industries to identify and discuss potential policy mixes that could be applied to the Australian context.
The Global Job Quality Divide: Evidence of Winners and Losers in the World of Work. Published in June 2025, this policy brief investigates the question of what a 'good' job is and who gets it, via a typological analysis of job quality in a global sample of countries.
Social Justice and the ‘Right to Food'. Published in September 2025, this policy brief recommends tackling food poverty, reforming institutional procurement based on the Fair Food Futures project research, strengthening civil society engagement and co-designing research and policy to build a fairer, more sustainable Australian food system.
Mapping the SDG Ecosystem of Civil Society Organisations in Queensland. Published in September 2025, this policy brief recommends that governments should prioritise funding, capacity-building and co-governance mechanisms that empower civil society organisations to contribute to SDG debates and local implementation.
Response to the National Food Security Strategy (‘Feeding Australia’) discussion paper: Recommendations on progressing food security through the Right to Food and inclusive food governance. Submitted on 23 September 2025, this paper provides recommendations for the Australian Government’s National Food Security Strategy to move beyond a narrow focus on supply chains, productivity and competition, establishing that the Strategy must be grounded in the Right to Food and institutionalise participatory food governance to address the structural drivers of food insecurity, including poverty, inequality, over-reliance on charity and the exclusion of community voices from decision-making.
Social Science for Meeting Australia’s Ocean Goals. Published in November 2025, this white paper presents a structured framework that groups the enabling role of marine social sciences into 3 interlinked functions, encompassing understanding human-mediated drivers, designing human-centred ocean actions and innovations, and science programming of integrated, participatory and future-facing marine science.
Building a resilient and sustainable workforce for the future. Commissioned by Anglicare Southern Queensland in 2025, this research investigates the specific factors influencing workforce attraction and retention in aged care and youth work roles through a mixed-methods study involving focus group discussions, semi-structured interviews with current and former workers in the community services sector and a large-scale discrete choice survey experiment.

UQ Law School submissions

In 2025, UQ’s School of Law made 21 submissions to national and international bodies, informing policy reform in Queensland and beyond, including:

Research on public policy processes

'How do Changes to Institutional Memory Affect Public Policy Processes?' project was undertaken from 2021 to 2025 at UQ’s School of Political Science and International Studies. Institutional memory changes as ministers, public servants and public agencies come and go, but it is uncertain what effect these changes have on the quality of public policy. This project analysed how changes to institutional memory have influenced public services and policies in Australia and the UK. Expected outcomes include best practice recommendations for government on how to address memory loss to improve public policy, alongside novel academic findings about how institutional memory influences the character of public service delivery, lesson-learning and long-term reform.

Policymakers and lawmakers outreach and education

UQ provides outreach, general education, upskilling and capacity-building to policymakers and lawmakers on diverse and relevant topics by leveraging our research and teaching expertise in a range of fields.

Short courses in social research methods

UQ’s Institute for Social Science Research delivers short courses in social research methods that provide upskilling and capacity-building in design, implementation and evaluation of research projects, policy and programs. They support professionals in government, NGOs, university staff, as well as postgraduate students to learn more about methods for social analysis and how to translate scientific social research into public policy and practice.

Courses delivered in 2025 include:

Gathering and Analysing Qualitative Data, a 6 half-day online course equipped participants with qualitative skills to design, collect, analyse and make evidence-informed decisions.
Survey Design, a 3-day online course provided participants with the skills to plan, conduct or commission cost-benefit analyses for social, health or human service programs.
Data literacy, storytelling and influencing decision-makers, a 1-day online course introduced essential knowledge and skills to enable data to be translated into compelling narratives to influence decision-makers.
Evaluating Social, Health and Human Service Programs, a 2-day face-to-face course introduced key evaluation concepts and techniques, providing participants with the foundational skills to plan, conduct or commission social, health or human service program evaluations.
From Data to Insight: Applied Introduction to Quantitative Data Analysis, a 3 half-day online course provided a practical, hands-on introduction to data handling and introductory statistical analysis for research and evaluation, allowing participants to work with real datasets through guided, step-by-step activities that reflect real-world research practice.

UQ Executive Education and Queensland Futures Institute partnership

UQ’s Executive Education partners with Queensland Futures Institute (QFI) to deliver a range of short courses, targeted at public sector policy professionals, program managers, administrators and regulators across the Queensland Government.

Courses delivered in 2025 include:

Adaptive and Inclusive Strategies for Collaborative Change, where participants learned flexible strategic planning techniques for changing environments, applied transparent and inclusive stakeholder engagement practices and developed adaptive strategies to improve outcomes.
Public and Private Stakeholder Engagement, where attendees developed an executive understanding of public and private sector environments, enhanced their understanding of stakeholder value drivers, and designed strategies to support cross-sector collaboration and sustainable and accepted outcomes,
Building Cross-Sectoral Trust and Relationships, where participants improved their understanding of the factors that foster trusted relationships, appreciated diversity across sectors and explored ways to build trust and strengthen relationships.
Systems Thinking for Enhanced Decision Making, where participants learned to classify different types of systems, identify those relevant to their roles and apply tools and frameworks to explore system behaviours to achieve desired outcomes.

In 2025, UQ's Executive Education also co-developed an AI Executive Leadership Program with the Queensland Government Department of Customer Services, Open Data, Small and Family Business to deliver a 6-month program targeting executive public sector leaders. To design the course, leaders were brought together from 24 different departments and government-owned corporations to inform the program development and strategic priorities. The program built AI capability across senior leadership to support informed, ethical and confident decision-making, equipping senior leaders to guide trusted, human-centered innovation and enhance public value in an AI-enabled future.

Current legal issues seminar series

Current Legal Issues Seminar Series is a collaboration between UQ's School of Law, the Bar Association of Queensland and the Supreme Court Library Queensland. It seeks to bring together leading scholars, practitioners and members of the Judiciary in Queensland and from abroad, with a view to:

providing a forum for the critical analysis and discussion of current legal issues
bringing to bear upon those issues the different perspectives offered by leading academics, legal professionals and the Judiciary
forging stronger links between academic and practising lawyers in Queensland.

In 2025, the following seminars were held:

'Frail Lawyers and Their Fearless Logics: What Drives Ethical Error?' on 21 August
'Contemporary Issues in the Australian Legal System' on 3 September
'A Second Chamber for the Queensland Parliament: Four Reasons, Four Features and Four Design Principles' on 30 October
'Sexual Offences – Has the Pendulum Swung too Far?' on13 November

UQ international development online modules

During 2025, UQ delivered 44 international development programs to more than 1,000 participants, including many from the government sector, from 44 different countries. The programs addressed key development challenges such as climate change and resilience, poverty and inequality, access to quality health and education, food security, gender equity and inclusiveness, economic development and good governance, alongside supporting Australia’s foreign policy, international relations and national interest objectives.

Cost-benefit analysis training and advice for Bangladesh and Bhutan

In 2025, UQ's School of Economics supported sustainable economic development and institutional capacity building in Bangladesh and Bhutan through projects with the World Bank. The initiatives strengthened the ability of government agencies to undertake evidence-based public investment decisions using cost-benefit analysis, with a particular focus on long-term economic resilience and climate risk assessment. Through practical project evaluations, training and mentoring, UQ helped build local capability in assessing the social and economic impacts of public investments, supporting more transparent, effective and sustainable development outcomes.

Executive Short Course: Competition Law, Policy, and Economics

In 2025, UQ academics developed and delivered an executive training course for the Philippines Competition Commission on competition, law, policy and economics. Supported by the Asian Development Bank, this initiative equipped participants with core concepts and economic frameworks across US, European and Australian regimes, applying these lessons to build effective domestic competition frameworks.

Law Matters webinar series

Hosted by UQ's School of Law, Law Matters is a thought-provoking webinar series open to the legal, academic and general community that delves into new and meaningful research with community-wide impact. The series showcases world-leading researchers in collaboration with guest speakers from industry, academia and the legal profession on important topics in law and social policy, including Indigenous rights, disability rights, defence technology and deaths in custody. In 2025, the Law School partnered with the Institute for Molecular Bioscience to deliver the Mattick Lecture on the intersection of science and the legal system, featuring internationally recognised researchers from Denmark who discussed how genetics, protein science and expert evidence contributed to the acquittal of Kathleen Folbigg. The session explored how advances in genetics and medical research can shape legal decision-making and influence justice outcomes.

Participation in government research

UQ undertakes policy-focused research in collaboration with government departments. As stated in its Research Roadmap, UQ has the most comprehensive discipline profile of any university within Australia. This positions us well to address a range of challenges in partnership with government departments, not only locally and nationally, but also internationally.

FamilyLinQ Evaluation framework and plan

In collaboration with the Bryan Foundation and the Queensland Government, researchers from UQ's Institute for Social Science Research and UQ’s School of Education and Business School have created a plan to evaluate the effectiveness of FamilyLinQ. Funded by the Queensland Government Department of Education, FamilyLinQ is an integrated school-based hubs initiative running from 2022 to 2025. It brings together education, health and community services to support children and their families, with the goal of improving life outcomes by making it easier for families to access the help they need in one place. The evaluation project running from 2022 to 2026 will lead to a full review, and the results will guide future best practice and policy in the form of improvements and new initiatives for the Queensland Government.

Samoa National ICT Policy

Funded by the Asia-Pacific Telecommunity (APT) and the Australian Government Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts (DITRDCSA), Professor Stan Karanasios from UQ Business School partnered with the Samoan Ministry (MCIT) to deliver a national evaluation of Samoa’s digital transformation, leading to the co-development of Samoa’s new National ICT Policy 2025–2030. In parallel, the APT-supported 2025 UQ Tech4Change Hackathon engaged 97 students to design 38 innovative digital solutions for socio-economic and digital inclusion challenges across the Asia-Pacific, utilising data from the World Bank, United Nations and regional governments to deliver evidence-based proposals.

Evaluating effectiveness of integration outcomes for refugees

From 2022 to 2025, UQ ISSR partnered with the Australian Institute for Family Studies to develop a new approach to evaluate the Community Refugee Integration and Settlement Pilot (CRISP) and Community Support Program (CSP). Commissioned by the Australian Government Department of Home Affairs, this work assessed the effectiveness of these initiatives compared to long-running social frameworks, such as the Humanitarian Settlement Program (HSP). This evaluation, which involved sourcing input from all parties involved, utilised both existing data and new surveys and interviews to examine the programs’ effectiveness. The goal was to use this feedback to inform program improvements for future participants and achieve strong integration outcomes for refugees.

Evaluation of the Resilient Homes Fund

From 2024 to 2027, UQ researchers from the School of Business are working with Natural Hazards Research Australia and the Queensland Reconstruction Authority (QRA) to evaluate the Resilient Homes Fund, demonstrating the success factors and lessons learnt as they apply to the 4 resilience dimensions, including physical, financial, social and emotional. Evaluating the program helps ensure the building of knowledge and capability to help make Australian people and communities more resilient to disasters. Developing this knowledge relies on high-quality data and good trust between organisations, as demonstrated by QRA and UQ as partners in this study. This collaborative model enabled the co-design of key elements of the research process to ensure the project’s findings and outcomes are academically rigorous and practically applicable. This form of partnership highlights the benefit of academia and government working together to develop, implement and evaluate policy that builds resilient communities and creates lasting, meaningful change. In 2025, the team published an interim report, Resilient housing policies: A framework for evaluation.

ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families Over the Life Course

Led by UQ, the Life Course Centre's research is focused not only on describing and understanding the key causes of disadvantage but also on developing innovative solutions to address them. By examining how people construct their lives, the Centre strives to identify the drivers of disadvantage, and also the critical life course junctures and opportunities for innovative public policy and social interventions. Several of the Centre’s 2025 activities directly influenced government policy and strategy development. For example, the 'Empowering Peer-Parent and Family Advocacy in Australian Child Protection' project addresses concerns about the financial sustainability and harms of Australian child protection systems. By expanding knowledge, the project identifies new opportunities to embed peer-parent and family advocacy across these systems to improve protection outcomes.

Co-designing Indigenous education policy in Queensland

This study, which ran from 2021 to 2025, provided an evidence base and framework for the new co-design approach being implemented across State and Commonwealth Indigenous policy domains. It investigated co-design within the context of Indigenous education policy in Queensland to create a large dataset on how co-design is conceptualised and enacted. As the concept of co-design is new in Indigenous policy development, this project generated new knowledge that will directly benefit Indigenous people, schools, policymakers and governments. The project addresses the social justice issue of Indigenous education inequalities through investigating best practices in education policy development and enactment.

Predicting the benefits of legal reform for marine and coastal restoration

Researchers from UQ’s Faculty of Business, Economics and Law and Faculty of Science were awarded funding from the Australian Research Council in 2025 for the Discovery Project 'Predicting the benefits of legal reform for marine and coastal restoration'. This work will build the case for legal reform to facilitate marine and coastal restoration. Currently, restoration is hindered by the need to obtain numerous development and environmental approvals, and engage with legal processes not designed for restoration. These problems are amplified when attempting to restore multiple habitats simultaneously. The research draws together legal research, social science, restoration science and environmental modelling to build the evidence base for why reform is needed, how reform can be done and what difference this reform can make to ecosystem health. This can inform government, support the restoration needed to meet international restoration targets and to secure critically important ecosystem services.

Neutral platform to discuss issues

Through inclusive access to knowledge sharing, public lectures and community engagement, UQ provides opportunities for a neutral platform or 'safe' space where different political stakeholders can come together to frankly discuss challenges. To support this commitment across the institution, the University hosts open forum events and speaker series that bring diverse stakeholder groups together to participate in structured dialogue.

Dialogues across difference

In 2025, UQ’s newly appointed Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Campus Culture and Leadership launched the Dialogues Across Difference speaker series, which aimed to strengthen understanding, respect and cohesion across our UQ community. The series was developed with a working group composed of academic and professional staff, alongside the UQ Union. Events in 2025 include:

'Skills for Dialogue' on 21 May, providing strategies for listening, communicating clearly and engaging respectfully across diverse perspectives
'Why is it so hard to talk?' on 27 August, exploring how communities can engage in better and more respectful conversations and debate, even when they disagree, amid the increasing challenges surrounding major societal issues over the past decade.

POLSIS open forum events

UQ's School of Political Science and International Studies (POLSIS) holds open forum events for stakeholders to join in the discussion of topical events and challenges. Topics that were covered during 2025 include:

'Pathways to Peace: From Theory to Practice', held on 22 March as part of 2025 Rotary Peace Fellows’ Seminar, which provided an opportunity for the Class XXII Rotary Peace Fellows who were nearing the completion of their Master in Peace and Conflict degrees to present their studies and the applied fieldwork experience. This activity is vital in building and maintaining links between the Rotary Centre and Rotarians, serving as a platform for fellows to share their experiences firsthand, explore their academic progress and unpack their journeys as scholars and practitioners. The seminar also serves as the University's expression of gratitude for Rotary's contributions, support and funding of the program, celebrating its long-standing commitment to advancing world peace, justice and understanding. These core values are deeply shared by UQ, as reflected in the University's substantial institutional commitment to the School's teaching and research programs in peace and conflict resolution.
'In Conversation with Mr Kishore Mahbubani: Can Australia learn geopolitical lessons from ASEAN?', a public event held on 17 July that explored how Australia has been receiving a geopolitical dividend of peace from the continued competence of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in managing its geopolitical environment, presenting lessons on how to manage the dramatically different global geopolitical environment of the 21st century.
'Who killed the Liberal International Order and what comes next?', an inaugural professorial lecture held on 17 September where Professor Andrew Phillips drew on historical and contemporary examples, offering a post-mortem of the Liberal International Order’s decline and asking what might emerge from its ruins. The lecture offered a compelling exploration of the global forces shaping our future and why they matter for Australia, the Indo-Pacific and the world.