USQ awarded $5 million for research into Digital Futures

USQ has been awarded $5.1 million for research into digital futures under the Federal Government’s Collaborative Research Networks (CRN) scheme. The funding will provide opportunities to strengthen research capacity and further build research partnerships.

Professor Graham Baker

USQ will lead a partnership with the Australian National University (ANU) and the University of South Australia (UniSA) exploring the future in the digital age, with a particular focus on social and policy challenges, technologies influence on participation in higher education and the nature of technology-rich learning environments.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Scholarship) Professor Graham Baker said the success of this bid is a reflection of USQ's reputation for expertise in the use of digital environments.

‘We are proud to have been recognised as a leader in this field and look forward to this opportunity to develop research investigating the impact of digital environments on our community,’ he said.

The Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator Kim Carr, announced the funding yesterday. Twelve projects are being funded under the CRN scheme which is designed to bring networks of universities together to develop research capabilities around topics of interests to all partners in the network.

‘World-class research is one of the keys to Australia's future and these university partnerships will strengthen Australia's research capability and excellence,’ Minister Carr said.

Professor Baker said USQ will bring together strengths in ethics and privacy, access and equity, digital and on-line learning, high performance computing and information management from across the network members.

'USQ has strong relationships with its local communities and the regional economy of these catchment areas. This network will enable us to expand our role in relation to digital environments in regional economies and will also allow us to explore those areas where government policy will be required,’ Professor Baker said.

‘For instance, we are interested in the interaction between digital environments and various forms of policy and social issues.

‘This funding will allow us to bring researchers from our network partners to form teams with our local researchers. Regional universities sometimes struggle with having sufficient 'critical mass' to engage in large research projects and we are very excited by the opportunities that will now be available to us. We look forward to working with ANU and UniSA in this venture.’

Contact Details:
Connie-Louise Rego, USQ Media, +61 7 4631 2977