2025: Partnerships for impact 

2025 was a year of significant momentum for the School. Our researchers secured $9.1 million in new external funding across 61 awarded projects, and returned $10.4 million in HERDC research income. The latter was anchored by major partnerships, including a five-year, $1.24 million Transport Academic Partnership with Queensland’s Department of Transport and Main Roads, $1.23 million for koala chlamydia research with Healthy Land and Water, and defence-aligned cyber-security and corrosion programs each valued at above $600,000. 

The School published 310 research outputs, with 76.8 percent in top-quartile journals, and attracted 2,715 Scopus and 2,333 Web of Science citations alongside a strong Altmetric footprint.

Impact defined the year. Through the Ocean Futures cluster, Associate Professor Kylie Scales and team translated research funded by the Australian Research Council and Fisheries Research and Development Corporation to international policy change. In parallel, Associate Professor Andrew Olds and team’s Blue Heart wetlands partnership with Sunshine Coast Council quantified landscape-scale blue-carbon sequestration – valued at up to $93 million in ecosystem services – engaged more than 3,000 community members, and is now informing national coastal carbon accounting. Both exemplify our model of partnered, student-led research delivering measurable public benefit.

Through a diverse portfolio of industry, government and research partnerships – including with CSIRO, federal and state government departments, NGOs and First Nations Groups – the School continued to expand its research capability, attract external investment and strengthen pathways for research translation and workforce development. These collaborations have enhanced the School’s ability to deliver research with real-world impact while building future opportunities for growth.

Making a difference: Our research in action

Ocean Futures: Reducing the environmental impact of longline fishing 

Longline fishing is a globally important industry that contributes billions of dollars to international seafood trade and supports livelihoods worldwide. However, the use of thousands of baited hooks along lines extending up to 100 kilometres can unintentionally catch non-target species, many of which are vulnerable or protected. Known as ‘bycatch’, this a major driver of population decline for many vulnerable species, including sharks, seabirds, and turtles.

Since 2017, the School’s Ocean Futures Research Cluster has led an internationally collaborative research program focused on reducing the environmental impacts of industrial longline fishing. Supported by funding from the Australian Research Council and Fisheries Research and Development Corporation, Ocean Futures has partnered with industry, government agencies and international conservation organisations to better understand – and mitigate – interactions between fisheries and vulnerable wildlife. This has included developing innovative, near real-time predictive models that combine fisheries and oceanographic data to generate dynamic daily maps that identify where vulnerable species are most at risk of bycatch. Through collaborations with Tuna Australia, Global Fishing Watch, BirdLife International, the New Zealand Department of Conservation and more, researchers have identified new bycatch hotspots for endangered seabirds, as well as new insights into effective mitigation measures for reducing bycatch risk. 

The program’s findings have influenced fisheries management policy at both national and international levels. Research on albatross bycatch directly informed new regulations adopted by the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, which from 2028 will require stronger seabird protection measures across key regions of the Pacific. The research has also generated tangible industry benefits: findings contributed to Marine Stewardship Council re-certification of Australia’s Eastern Tuna and Billfish Fishery, supporting its long-term sustainability and market competitiveness. 

Through workshops, fact sheets, videos and advisory presentations to government and industry stakeholders, Ocean Futures has translated research into practical management outcomes, as well as generated broad recognition through high-impact publications, international conference presentations and widespread media coverage.

Ocean Futures is now expanding its global reach through a major international assessment of fisheries’ interaction risks for 30 seabird species, further strengthening evidence-based conservation and sustainable fisheries management worldwide.

The ‘Bue Heart’: How wetland restoration improves carbon storage and climate resilience 

Before European settlement, Queensland’s lower Maroochy River floodplain (known as the ‘Blue Heart’) supported a mosaic of wetland environments – including estuarine marshes, mangroves, saltmarsh, freshwater swamps, Melaleuca forests and eucalypt woodlands – shaped by frequent flooding and tidal influence. Since settlement, agricultural drainage has significantly altered the floodplain, reducing natural carbon storage, flood attenuation, and biodiversity. Today, much of the Blue Heart lies very close to current mean sea level, leaving around 5,000 hectares highly vulnerable to current sea level rise predictions. Without restoration, parts of the floodplain face long term waterlogging, permanent inundation, and declining ecosystem function. 

Since 2021, researchers from the School have worked collaboratively with Sunshine Coast Council in pursuit of cost-effective, nature-based approaches to restoration that will enable the Blue Heart wetlands to keep pace with sea-level rise. Led by Dr Gareth Chalmers, Mr Iroshaka Cooray and Professor David Chittleborough, the research project has monitored changes in sediment, water levels and carbon storage to examine how reinstating tidal hydrology on the Maroochy River floodplain accelerates carbon stock recovery and ecological rehabilitation after decades of agricultural modification.

Findings showed that carbon accumulation during the project averaged more than six times the longterm rates recorded in intact mangroves and up to 38 times higher than pasture systems, highlighting the carbon recovery potential of restored tidal wetlands. The research also showed that 75–80 percent of carbon entering the restoration area was carried in by tides or river flows, highlighting the importance of healthy water connections in helping the landscape keep pace with environmental change. 

The research has produced eight journal articles, along with technical datasets and sediment, carbon and hydrological models. Findings have been used to estimate the economic value of repairing coastal wetland systems – valued at up to $93 million in ecosystem services, demonstrating substantial long-term climate benefits – and have strengthened local government’s climate-adaptation planning. The data is also informing the Australian Government’s work on coastal carbon accounting, with the project’s new carbon sequestration measurement providing updates to national and regional estimates, as well as insights on how to better optimise carbon sequestration outcomes.

In addition, community engagement activities have reached more than 3,000 people, helping build awareness amongst locals and tourists of wetland restoration and its benefits, including better flood protection, healthier ecosystems and greater biodiversity.

Resources

Download the report (PDF)