Grand Challenges

The UWA Grand Challenges Series aims to provide students with an understanding of UWA Grand Challenges and the UN Sustainable Development Goals, inspire interdisciplinary collaboration and empower students to make meaningful actions towards Grand Challenges. 

This aligns with our vision to empower a generation of passion fuelled and purpose driven global citizens, committed to tackling the greatest challenges facing our world.

The Grand Challenges Series will take UWA students on a journey to;
• gain insight and knowledge,
• develop skills, 
• be inspired,
• connect with a broad network and 
• engage with and make a positive impact towards addressing grand challenges.

Involvement in the Grand Challenges Series can contribute toward students' UWA Careers and Employability Award. 

Our final Session in the Series is the 2024 Grand Challenges Making A Difference Grants Showcase: Friday October 25th 12.30-2.30. 

This event celebrates the innovative projects funded through the Making A Difference Grant Program. This event highlights the impactful work of student groups addressing critical social and environmental challenges. Enjoy a networking lunch hear insights from our executive and watch inspiring presentations showcasing the diverse initiatives. Come and see how our students are making a difference in the community and beyond.

Please register here: UWA Grand Challenges Showcase Registration

Global Citizenship Monday 23rd Sept -Friday 11 October 2024

Global Citizenship is an experiential online course through which you will develop the skills and competencies needed to thrive in the 21st century, whilst learning more about the UN Sustainable Development Goals, enabling you to play an active role in advancing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. 

UWA Students will complete a series of experiential activities, offline tasks, reflections and discussions that will increase your knowledge and awareness of the UN SDGs whilst developing your leadership potential.

The course contains 9 hours of interactive content which you can access as a co-learning experience with peers across the Matariki Network of  Universities over 3 weeks.

As a result of the programme, you will be:

· Equipped to take rapid action on the Sustainable Development Goal that you choose
· Able to step outwards and collaborate with diverse networks
· Ready to challenge preconceptions and better inform people’s perspectives
· Better equipped to operate across hierarchies

· Better prepared to live and maintain your values and integrity

Upon successful completion of the course, you can earn the ‘Global Citizenship’ micro-credential, demonstrating to the world that you’ve developed the skills to tackle complex global issues. This can be displayed on your LinkedIn page and in your digital backpack.

Register Here

Registrations are now open for the 2024 UWA Grand Challenges Hackathon. 

Brought to you by Venture, Enactus and the Guild Environment Department and sponsored by UWA Grand Challenges and Campus Management. 

How might we develop a more equitable world? How might we tackle the generational challenge of climate change?

Kick off: Thursday September 26th 4-6pm

Hackaway over the weekend with posters due 11.59pm Sunday September 29th

 Pitch Night: Monday September 30th

Interested in developing ideas and projects to solve real-world problems over a 72 hour period? Apply your discipline knowledge in multidisciplinary team, meet other change makers and work towards potential solutions for the Grand Challenges of Climate Change and a More Just and Equitable World. Join with friends as a team or as an individual and be paired with a group. 

$1000 First Prize

$500 Second Prize

Winners get the opportunity to enter Venture's Incubator for Social and Environmental Impact!

Hackathon Posters will be displayed as part of the Contemporary Issues in PRME Annual Lecture: Climate Change and Gender Equity on Tuesday October 1. 

Campus Management will work with the most implementable project to see if it's viable to deliver the project on campus!

Register for the Hackathon here

Venture’s partnership with Grand Challenges enhances support to current UWA student entrepreneurs who have a social enterprise concept that uses social innovations to make a positive difference and create change in the world. All incubated businesses seek to address 1 or more of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) and 1 or more of the UWA Grand Challenges, A More Just and Equitable World and Climate Change.

Venture is a UWA Student Guild initiative that exists to better prepare students for the future of work, whatever that might look like. Through the curation of a suite of industry events and hackathons, industry-led skills development workshops, and via three flagship programs:

1. Venture’s Innovation Consultancy works with industry partners to solve challenges;
2. Venture’s Incubator supports the development of social and/or environmental impact student-led businesses through mentorship, a structured education program, industry-led workshops and equity-free seed funding;
3. Venture’s Startup Internships where students learn industry-specific, practical tools with our industry partners before interning in one of Venture’s incubated start-ups.

Venture’s programs can be completed as work-integrated learning units or as additional, co-curricular opportunities.

Find out more or get involved by contacting [email protected].

UWA Grand Challenges teamed up with Venture to sponsor student participation in the 2023 Joondalup Innovation Challenge!

The Joondalup Innovation Challenge (JIC)  is Western Australia’s foremost collaborative Innovation Challenge, bringing together over 100 students from six educational institutions. Students work in multidisciplinary teams to solve real-world problems faced by Joondalup residents, students and businesses. Students develop key employability skills including communication, innovation, leadership, business agility and networking.

Students prepare themselves for the future of work by learning how to rapidly make decisions and deploy creative, technology-based solutions. They can build their confidence and capability in digital literacy and critical technology skills by attending both live and virtual summits and mastermind sessions and by preparing video pitches using the latest technology platforms.

Find out more on the Joondalup Innovation Challenge website.

Next Gen Grants for High School students are worth up to $500 and are available to WA high schools, who want to make a positive difference by creating a social and/or environmental impact initiative in their school and/or connected communities, that addresses one or more of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) and one or more of the UWA Grand Challenges, A More Just and Equitable World and Climate Change.

Congratulations to Busselton Senior High School, Duncraig Senior High School and St Norbert College who received Making A Difference Next Gen Grants this year. We look forward to working with you and hearing about the impact of your projects at the Making A Difference Showcase on Friday 20 September. 

Making a Difference Grants will be offered again in 2025. Please express your interest/any questions to: [email protected] 

Applications are awarded based on the following:

• Impact and Objectives
  • Do the objectives create a measurable social and/or environmental impact?
  • Are the objectives clear and achievable in the proposed timeframe?
  • How will the proposed impact affect the school community, and/or wider community?
• Alignment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and UWA Grand Challenges
  • Does the initiative demonstrate strong alignment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and UWA Grand Challenges of Climate Change and a More Just and Equitable World?
• Need and Sustainability
  • Is there a broader need for the proposed initiative in the wider community?
  • Is this a new or existing Initiative? Greater weighting will be placed on new innovative initiatives.
  • Is there potential for this initiative to be ongoing?
  • Have you considered the sustainability/recurrence of the initiative beyond the grant funding?
• Benefit and Collaboration 
  • What are the potential benefits of the initiative on the community?
  • Will the project involve collaboration with other organisations i.e. local governments, Not for Profits etc?
• Resources and Evaluation 
  • Does the application articulate resources required and why?
  • What additional resource contributions could be leveraged i.e. In-Kind funding, volunteer time.
  • How do you intend to measure the impact of the initiative?

The 2024 Grand Challenges Making A Difference Grants Showcase will be held Friday October 25th 12.30-2.30. 

This event celebrates the innovative projects funded through the Making A Difference Grant Program. This event highlights the impactful work of student groups addressing critical social and environmental challenges. Enjoy a networking lunch hear insights from our executive and watch inspiring presentations showcasing the diverse initiatives. Come and see how our students are making a difference in the community and beyond.

Please register here: UWA Grand Challenges Showcase Registration

The Impact Making a Difference grants are available to current UWA students and are designed to stimulate social and environmental impact initiatives that address one or more of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) and one or more of the UWA Grand Challenges, A More Just and Equitable World and Climate Change. There are two sub-categories:

1. Grants up to $500 for current UWA students to create an initiative or series of small initiatives to stimulate social and/or environmental impact.
2. Grants up to $2,500 for current UWA students to connect, advance or add value to current UWA research or area of study, stimulate new areas of student research, produce a resource or policy, or implement a program.

Impact projects will have access to mentoring and support from UWA staff and/or Alumni.

The 2024 Making a Difference Grants have been awarded to the following projects:

• Bio-Plastic Research, combining bacterial plastic degradation with bioplastic production to address marine plastic pollution effectively.

• The Birthing Kits Project, providing clean birth kits to under-resourced communities to prevent maternal and infant deaths and infections during childbirth.

• Coders for Causes, a student-led team that assists charities and non-profits by providing free technical solutions, enabling them to redirect funds to essential initiatives.

• Women UNI-ted, a support group for female university students who have experienced domestic or intimate partner violence.

• Modern Forms of Slavery Awareness Initiative, raising awareness and educating students about modern forms of slavery in Australia.

• The SciComm Collective Podcast, a podcast by UWA Science Communication students enhancing science engagement and understanding through a professionally developed podcast. 

• UWA Oceans Institute Marine Science Exhibition, aimed at bridging the gap between science and the public by presenting marine science research and fostering collaboration.

• Robotics Club Outreach Program, promoting STEM education, equity, and sustainability by introducing robotics education to younger students.

• Mental Labour Gender Gap Initiative, working on research to tackle workplace implications of mental labour to promote workplace equality.

• Equality at UWA, an initiative encouraging students to showcase projects aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

• Banksia Media Study, examining the ecocultural significance of Banksia media in the Southwestern Australian Floristic Region.

• A “What Were You Wearing?” Exhibition, challenging victim-blaming narratives placed on sexual assault survivors.

We look forward to working with these students across 2024 and hearing about their impact at the Making a Difference Showcase (Friday 25th October 2024)

To stay informed about Making a Difference Grants: 

Register your interest

Applications are awarded based on the following:

• Impact and Objectives
  • Do the objectives create a measurable social and/or environmental impact?
  • Are the objectives clear and achievable in the proposed timeframe?
  • How will the proposed impact affect the university community, and/or wider community?
• Alignment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and UWA Grand Challenges 
  • Does the initiative demonstrate strong alignment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and UWA Grand Challenges of Climate Change and a More Just and Equitable World?  
• Need and Sustainability 
  • Is there a broader need for the proposed initiative in the wider community? 
  • Is this a new or existing Initiative? Greater weighting will be placed on new innovative initiatives.
  • Is there potential for this initiative to be ongoing?  
  • Have you considered the sustainability/recurrence of the initiative beyond the grant funding? 
• Benefit and Collaboration 
  • What are the potential benefits of the initiative on the community?  
  • Will the project involve collaboration with other organisations i.e. local governments, Not for Profits etc?  
• Resources and Evaluation 
  • Does the application articulate resources required and why? 
  • What additional resource contributions could be leveraged i.e. In-Kind funding, volunteer time.   
  • How do you intend to measure the impact of the initiative?  

Please reach out to [email protected] if you have any questions.

Congratulations to the following schools for receiving grants in 2023:

• Busselton Senior High School
• Duncraig Senior High School
• Greenwood College
• Presbyterian Ladies’ College
• Santa Maria College
• St Norbert College

The high school projects focused on waste reduction, mental health, plastic monitoring and bee habitats from Busselton SHS, Duncraig SHS, Greenwood College, Presbyterian Ladies’ College, Santa Maria College and St Norbert College. Busselton SHS’s Caring for Country program saw students undertake environmental recovery, including anti-erosion and revegetation activities, on Wadandi Boodja and installing sanctuaries for the endangered Quenda after the Meelup Regional Park fires.

The current UWA student initiatives included the Robotics Club initiating a primary school outreach program down in Albany, Guild Volunteering developing a new UWA Guild Community Garden, Venture and Enactus collaborating to run a Grand Challenges Hackathon and students in the Business school running SustainFest allowing more students to engage with the Grand Challenges. Numerous initiatives including those by AISEC also engaged and partnered with industry.

Previous Making a Difference Grant Projects [PDF 12MB]

The UWA Guild contains many opportunities for students to get involved.

You can turn your passion into action with Guild Volunteering. There are many opportunities to make social and environmental impact and your volunteer hours can be added to your academic transcript. 

There are numerous clubs and societies whose activities align with the UWA Grand Challenges and/or the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

The Student Guild Environment Department also works to promote sustainable change by providing a platform for students to engage with and advocate for environmental action. Visit the Environment Department website to learn how to get involved.

Explore clubs and societies

• AIESEC
• Man Up
• Students for Refugees 
• Teach Learn Grow 
• Ignite Mentoring
• TedxUWA
• Amnesty International 
• UneARThed 
• Artists Against Poverty UWA 
• Venture
• WA Youth Public Policy Institute
• Bloom 
• Enactus 
• Coders for Causes 
• Multicultural Students Union
• Progressive Energy Society 
• Save the Children UWA 
• Students for Refugees UWA
• Amnesty International
• Who Gives a Buck 
• UWA Science Union 

The Coronavax project is a joint initiative between the VaxPolLab at UWA and the Wesfarmers Centre of Vaccines and Infectious Diseases at Telethon Kids Institute. The project documents community attitudes regarding COVID-19 vaccines and communicates these to State and Commonwealth governments. It involves qualitative interviews and focus groups with key consumers, social media analysis, and functional dialogues with government departments, linking the voices of the community with the ears of government.

Coronavax contains numerous sub-projects. Coronavax 1 and 2 focus on young adults, adults 65+ years, healthcare and aged care workers, and parents and guardians. Coronavax 3 looks at hard-to-reach groups:

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults in the Perth metro area
• Adults from culturally and linguistically diverse communities
• Non-Indigenous adults living in regional or remote WA
• Adults from vulnerable communities experiencing homelessness, domestic violence or substance abuse
• Adults aged 18 to 64 years with comorbidities

Coronavax 3 asks what these groups need in terms of government communication and information regarding a COVID-19 vaccine. How do their attitudes compare to other vaccines? What are their concerns? How do they want government to speak to them? How can government best motivate or assist these groups to get vaccinated? By using interviews, focus groups, social media analysis and dialogue, we can document their concerns and communicate them to governments.

One of UWA’s Grand Challenges is A More Just and Equitable World Post-COVID-19. Relatedly, two of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals are Good health and well-being (SDG 3) and Reduced inequalities (SDG 10). Coronavax 3 fulfils this Grand Challenge and these goals by focusing on population groups that are difficult to reach and at risk of being ‘left behind’ during a mainstream COVID-19 vaccine rollout.

For a successful COVID-19 vaccine program, it is imperative we pay attention to groups at high risk of morbidity and transmission, particularly those expected to be poorly reached by mainstream rollout.

The COVID-19 outbreak experience in Melbourne’s public housing towers illustrates that communities are not homogenous, and need to be consulted regarding their own wellbeing and resilience. Western Australia’s Aboriginal communities have successfully advocated for policies and programs that keep them COVID-free. We need to build on these strengths and capacities by working with communities to research and develop plans for optimal vaccine uptake.

In a general sense, our climate is shifting poleward and the corridors of habitat that allowed species to track such shifts in the past are now in fragments. In 2010, a UWA-led team began a world-first initiative to circumvent this problem for a critically endangered reptile.

Seasonal wetlands 300km south of the known range of the Western Swamp Turtle (or tortoise) that are likely to provide suitable microclimates in the future were identified, and trial translocations of captive-bred turtles to candidate wetlands began in 2016. This type of action, known as ‘assisted colonisation’ or ‘assisted migration’ is controversial due to the risk of the introduced species transforming its new environment, but is not unlike situations where threatened animal species have been rescued from extinction by moving them to islands safe from invasive predators.

Western Swamp Turtles are also vulnerable to introduced predators, but critically, they need reliable winter rainfall to fill the seasonal wetlands where they breed and grow. The combination of lowering groundwater, reduced rainfall and heavily fragmented habitat surrounding the last remaining viable wild population north of Perth is making it impossible for this very rare species to mount a recovery without conservation interventions.

This project is an ongoing collaboration between university researchers (including many UWA PhD, honours and master’s students), and the Western Australian Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, and in recent years has been supported by the Threatened Species Recovery Hub of the National Environmental Science Program and WWF Australia. It addresses SDG 13 Climate action and SDG 15 Life on land.

The research has been featured in the New York Times and Nature as a pioneering example of assisted colonisation, and project leader Nicki Mitchell has given several plenary addresses at international conferences on this emerging option for maintaining wild populations of threatened species under a changing climate.

The UWA Modern Slavery Research Cluster (MSRC) was established in 2019 and brings together interdisciplinary researchers from across UWA. Modern slavery is an umbrella term used to describe a number of crimes, including, but not limited to, human trafficking, forced labour, sexual slavery, child labour and trafficking, domestic servitude, forced marriage, bonded labour, slavery and other slavery-like practices. In 2018, Australia introduced its Modern Slavery Act (Cth) which requires businesses with an annual turnover of $100 million or more to publish annual statements on their actions to assess risks of modern slavery in their operations and supply chains.

According to the International Labour Organisation and the Walk Free Foundation, there are 40 million people in modern slavery around the world – 25 million people in forced labour and 15 million people in forced marriage. 71% of those in modern slavery are women and girls, and 25% are children. Some industries present a particular modern slavery risk and certain countries and regions are known to present a higher risk of modern slavery. The Asia Pacific region has a high incidence of modern slavery, so this is a risk for Australian companies with operations and supply chains in the region.

Robust research in this area is necessary and UWA’s MSRC brings together researchers from a number of schools including Law, Business, History, Social Sciences and Oceans with diverse interests in human rights, corporate law, supply chains, SMEs, forced marriage, consumers, and the history of slavery in Australia. 

Our work aligns closely with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. In particular, given the focus on issues such as forced labour, bonded labour and the worst forms of child labour, it links closely with SDG 8 Decent work. Severe worker exploitation also leads to and is facilitated by poverty (SDG 1 No poverty). In seeking to understand the causes of, and propose solutions to, modern slavery, we work towards SDG 10 Reduce inequalities.

Modern Slavery Statement [PDF, 2,404KB] - Contact Geraldine Tan for more information

The UWA Business School's commitment to advancing social responsibility is marked by its recognition as a signatory to the United Nations Principles of Responsible Management Education (UNPRME). Inspired by internationally accepted values embodied in the principles of the United Nations Global Compact, the PRME initiative connects business schools and business leaders to shape business management education in support of attaining the UN sustainable development goals.

The UWA Business School's commitment to advancing these goals is reflected in its teaching, research and community engagement activities. The activities of the Centre for Social Impact, academic staff and the student body have enhanced the School’s reputation as an organisation that is at the cutting edge of researching social issues such as homelessness, migration, workplace restructuring, and now the effects of COVID-19 and thinking through strategies that can respond to these big challenges.

Becoming a signatory to the UN PRME initiative reinforces the School's commitments in the areas of ethics, social responsibility and sustainability, and helps forge national and international collaborations that open up opportunities for UWA to both share with and learn from the best practice examples of other top academic institutions participating in the global PRME community.

The PRME principles provide a unique opportunity for the School and University to engage with our students to develop their capabilities to be future generators of sustainable value for business and society. The principles also provide us with the opportunity to develop our students’ potential to be leaders who are able to work with all community sectors, especially that of the business community, to explore effective approaches to address the sustainable development goals and meet social and environmental responsibilities.

UNPRME Report - Contact Donella Casperz for more information

Marine Energy Research Australia (MERA) is an externally funded research initiative within UWA established in 2017, then named Wave Energy Research Centre. MERA’s mandate is to assemble and consolidate the world-leading research expertise on ocean science and engineering at UWA in their transition to ocean renewable energy.

MERA is currently focused on the Albany M4 Wave Energy Demonstration Project, with funding from the Blue Economy Cooperative Research Centre and the Government of Western Australia. Formally commenced in 2022, the project aims to design, construct, deploy, operate and decommission a wave energy converter in Albany’s outer harbour, King George Sound, to demonstrate:

i. the potential of the wave resources in the Great Southern to power the local economy and develop an export industry;

ii. the capabilities of the local supply chain in undertaking large scale ocean energy projects; and

iii. the efficiency of the M4 wave energy technology.

The total project cash value is $4 million of which the majority is re-invested in the supply chain of local businesses and Albany-based MERA staff. The M4 technology is non-commercial and based on the design developed by project partners at the University of Manchester, UK. The Great Southern coast boasts one of the world’s best wave energy resources for power density and consistency, and a grid connection point exists at the Albany Windfarm at Moodrenup/Sandpatch for a future full-size wave energy converter. The M4 Project established a nursey site for wave energy technology testing and uses a reduced-scale converter to model the potential for wave energy in decarbonising nearby end user operations such as the Albany Shellfish Hatchery and Albany’s Historic Whaling Station on the Torndirrup peninsula. The M4 wave energy converter is surface-riding with two frame segments on floater buoys, generating electricity through the flexing motion in the hinge.

The Centre is the conduit for marine and renewable energy projects in the region, with additional leverage of national and international academic and industry networks. Data from WERC wave buoys is freely available to the public and to technology developers and is a trusted source for the local surfing community and ecotourism operators.

MERA headquarters are in Albany, in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, where operations, fieldwork and community outreach contribute to the prosperity and resilience of a regional community and local supply chain. MERA is founder and Steering Committee member of the Australian Ocean Energy Group (AOEG), which is an industry-led consortium that aims to accelerate innovation in and cost-competiveness of the ocean energy sector.

The United Nations Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development (Western Australia) is a network of leaders in sustainability research, training and education, working towards social, cultural, economic and environmental sustainability, using education as a central tool. A UN Regional Centre of Expertise (UNRCE) is not a physical centre or building, but rather an apolitical network of individuals, organisations and experts who understand the sustainability challenges in their home regions and are committed to using education as a tool for building a sustainable future. As of September 2023, over 190 RCEs have officially been acknowledged by the United Nations University worldwide, five of which are in Australia.

UNRCEs aspire to achieve the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals by building innovative ways for diverse organisations to work together to share information and collaborate. UNRCE networks include formal learning institutions, like schools and universities, as well as informal learning establishments, such as parks, museums, private enterprises, local governmental organisations, non-governmental organisations and the media. UNRCEs ensure that the many facets of sustainable development have a place in primary, secondary, and tertiary education and research, as well as in informal learning spaces.

There are currently two UNRCE WA Network Hubs:

• Perth
• Albany

UNRCE (Western Australia) website

Global RCE Network

Email [email protected]

Under the banner of the two UWA Grand Challenges: A more just and equitable world, and Climate Change, the summit brought together, students, industry representatives, leaders in business and government, thought leaders, academics, and the community to explore the solutions for some of society’s most complex problems. It was a fantastic day of engagement, with over 200 participants, keynote sessions, 8 collaborative conversation workshops, and the interactive Game Changer Village.

UWA Grand Challenges Summit