We acknowledge the Kaurna people, the original custodians of the Adelaide Plains and the land on which the University of Adelaide's campuses at North Terrace, Waite and Roseworthy are built.

Interim and Deputy Director's Message

November 2024
ISER has had a productive few months since our last newsletter, hosting a range of high profile and very successful events, including the multi-stakeholder Fourth High Temperature Minerals Processing Forum and the national conference for the Heavy Industry, Low-Carbon Transition CRC.

The Fourth High Temperature Minerals Processing Forum (21-23 Oct), an initiative of the University of Adelaide’s Centre for Energy The HiTeMP forum identified a wide range of technologies, policies and pathways that are emerging with strong potential to accelerate the net-zero transition, fostering the partnerships and identifying the further analysis that is needed to allow industry to identify which of the bespoke pathways is most prospective for their context.

ISER has been building its partnership with the FAME Sustainability Strategy, and work on socially just energy is ongoing and has included creation of a partnership with the Varduoo Institute of Sami Research, based on Sweden to consider how to work between and engage First Nation peoples in the energy transition.

It has been a very busy year, and we would like to thank each and every one of you for your ongoing support of ISER and look forward to continuing to build our initiatives in 2025.

Interim Director Professor Graham (Gus) Nathan, and Deputy Director Professor Melissa Nursey-Bray

In the Media

Impact Story "Waves to watts: converting wave power to electricity"
Dr. Nataliia Sergiienko recent impact story focuses on two issues that Australia faces at present, climate change and coastal erosion. To discover more about how Dr. Nataliia and her associates are tackling this issue, read full article click here. The University of Adelaide also contributed to the Ocean Wave Energy Report, to find out more click here.

The High Road to Hydrogen
The breakthrough solar reactor technology developed by CET’s Acting Director, Professor Greg Metha, produces hydrogen through the use of concentrated sunlight, water, and a photocatalyst in a solar reactor (known as photocatalytic water splitting), is highlighted in a new article from Chronicle of Higher Education.

Click here to read "The High Road to Hydrogen" and watch the video to learn more about Professor Metha's work with Sparc Hydrogen, where he is pioneering an entirely new approach to green hydrogen technology.

Out and About

Sustainability Spotlight Series
The Sustainability Series were held to showcase recipients of the Foci and Magnets for Excellence (FAME) Sustainability grants projects. We would like to thank all recipients who presented and those who attended.

HiTeMP 4 Forum 2024
On October 21st-23rd, the Fourth High-Temperature Minerals Processing Forum, an initiative of the University of Adelaide Centre for Energy, was held at the beautiful National Wine Centre of Australia.

Our very own Interim Director, Graham 'Gus' Nathan, chaired the program, there were 51 presentations, 30 poster presentations and six prizes. Hosted across three days, with 165 delegates from 15 countries and amazing speakers addressing pathways to net-zero emissions for high-temperature industrial process industries. This event was proudly presented by the University of Adelaide, ISER, the HILT CRC, and NIM - The Net-Zero Industries Mission.

2024 AIST-TMS John F. Elliott Lecturer Dr. Sara Hornby
In association with HILT CRC, we had the amazing opportunity to hear from the 2024 AIST-TMS John F. Elliott Lecturer Dr. Sara Hornby present "The Green Steel Revolution".

This engaging presentation discussed various Green challenges faced. Steel is a part of all infrastructures, contributing to 7-9% of earth's carbon dioxide equivalent emissions (CO2e). The green steel revolution aims to capitalise on new perspectives and sharp thinking to foster new ideas and techno-economic solutions, mitigating emissions.

"Accelerating Decarbonisation in Australia: Leveraging Industrial Methods for a Modular Energy System"
We had the pleasure of hosting Prof. Henrik Stiesdal for a guest academic lecture. The lecture focused on the Australian Government's Net Zero Plan aims to achieve ambitious emission reduction targets by 2035, with a vision to attain Net Zero by 2050, and how early adoption and demonstration of innovative energy systems can position Australia as a global leader in decarbonisation efforts, catalysing accelerated progress worldwide.

Ingenuity 2024
Held at the Adelaide Convention Centre in October, Ingenuity is the exhibition of students projects that displays students STEM-focused activities in areas of architecture, engineering, science, technology, computer and mathematical sciences, and how they apply to a real-world context. We congratulate winners of the ISER Ingenuity Prizes and extend our congratulations to all other 2024 prize winners.

Winner of the Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage Prize Allana Sagubo has shared with us a little more about her winning project:

"Ingenuity 2024 was such a great platform to showcase students' honour's projects to different industries as well as to the general public. "Laboratory study of formation damage associated with CO2 injection" was one of the many projects presented. This delves into mitigating climate change through Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), a critical technology for reducing CO2 emissions.

The research investigates how CO2 and nitrogen gases affect underground formations during injection, identifying factors like formation damage that can hinder the storage process. By using core flooding experiments to assess these effects, this project provides insights to enhance CCS efficiency, thus, contributing to the university’s commitment to innovative solutions for a sustainable future." - Allana Sagubo

Useful resources

ISER's Sustainability-related Course Portal assists in finding a course or program related to any of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), from undergraduate programs to postgraduate coursework. If a sustainability-related course is not featured on the list, please contact us to update.

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ISER has widely promoted the Sustainability Experts Portal amongst our stakeholders. Through this portal, they can explore the leading-edge work of the University of Adelaide experts transforming technologies, products, policies, and practices to support sustainable development goals locally and globally. Register here to be added to the portal.

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Resources for UoA researchers

Pivot-RP is a comprehensive, searchable database of international research funding opportunities and collaborators across all disciplines and funding types.

Learn how to use the tool, get support to create a curated list of funding opportunities by emailing Research Services, or register your EOI to request individual or group training sessions.

Submission opportunities

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