UWA Grand Challenges
seeking a sustainable, just and equitable planet.
What are Grand Challenges?
UWA’s vision is to empower a generation of passion fuelled and purpose driven global citizens, committed to tackling the greatest challenges facing our world.
Our Grand Challenges co-curricular program supports students to learn more about the Sustainable Development Goals and the issues of Climate Change and A More Just and Equitable World and discover ways in which the University of Western Australia is contributing to solutions (through our research and education).
Grand Challenges are complex and difficult issues, with no clear solutions. Addressing them requires innovative and multidisciplinary approaches. UWA students from all disciplines are invited to join us, to generate their own solutions and discover every day changes they might take toward a more sustainable and just world.
Attend a workshop, apply for a grant to bring your own solution to life, or get involved with sustainability initiatives.
Co-curricular learning opportunities
- Repair Lab UWA: Extend the life of your things: March 4th 5-8pm
- Human Rights in Practice: March 10th 5-7.30pm
- EnviroFest: March 11th 11-2pm
- Student Solutions to Grand Challenges Workshop: March 12th 12-2pm
- Sustainable Startups Panel Night: March 13th 6-8pm
- Dirt Cheap: Composting for a Greener Future: March 26th 10.00-12.00pm
- Sustainable Fashion: Style with Impact April 9th 10-2 (12-1 Workshop)
- Breaking Chains: Forced Marriage and Exploitation in Today's World April 11 12.30-1.30pm
- Repair Lab UWA: Extend the life of your things: May 7th 5-8pm
- LGBTIQA+ Research Showcase May 16
- Grand Challenges Series
- Venture: Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship
- 2025 Global Citizenship Programme
- Joondalup Innovation Challenge
- UWA Guild
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Making a Difference Grants
UWA Grand Challenges Making a Difference Grants support and empower current UWA students to implement social and environmental initiatives aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) and UWA Grand Challenges.
The grants are one of the ways that current students can contribute to the Grand Challenges and be part of UWA’s approach to sustainable education.
- Current UWA Students: Making a Difference
- Previous Making A Difference Grant Projects
UWA Teaching and Research
Using our world-class teaching and research capabilities to address these Grand Challenges, both students and staff have had opportunities to play a role in the leadership and research that is crucial to the future of our planet and its people.
Explore UWA Profiles and Research Repository and Research Impact.
We identify ambitious projects across science and the humanities that have a large impact on our local, regional, global communities and create outcomes that will benefit the whole world.
Underpinning our Grand Challenges are the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Climate Change related SDGs
A More Just and Equitable World related SDGs
Our Champions
UWA Lecturers and Researchers are making an impact in the areas of Climate Change and A More Just and Equitable World. Here are just some examples.
Dr Marit Kragt
Mitigating Climate Change in Agriculture
Dr Marit Kragt
Climate Change
Climate Change Mitigation in Agriculture
Marit Kragt is an Agricultural Economist with degrees in Environmental Science (WUR) and Economics (ANU). Her interdisciplinary research focusses on climate change mitigation in agriculture, in particular the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices by farmers. She is passionate about making a difference to agriculture in Australia and globally.
Marit is Director of the Centre for Agricultural Economics and Development at the UWA School of Agriculture and Environment. Since 2024, she is Program Lead for the Zero Net Emissions from Agriculture Cooperative Research Centre (ZNE Ag CRC).
Marit started at the UWA School of Agricultural and Resource Economics (now UWA School of Agriculture and Environment) in July 2010. Her expertise lies in interdisciplinary research, agricultural economics, climate change abatement, and non-market environmental valuation.
"All the science in the world won't change a thing if results are not adopted."
Dr Demelza Ireland
Gender and women's health academic and innovator
Dr Demelza Ireland
A More Just and Equitable World
Gender and women's health academic and innovator
Dr Demelza Ireland is a senior lecturer and teaching-intensive academic in the School of Biomedical Sciences and the Medical School’s Division of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Her research background is in cancer immunotherapy and the prevention of preterm birth. She developed and now leads the minor in Women’s Health at UWA while teaching immunology and infection to undergraduate and postgraduate students. Demelza was awarded the 2019 Australian Award for University Teaching Excellence – Early Career for her innovative, holistic and interdisciplinary curriculum design in women’s health. As the Head of the School of Biomedical Sciences (SBMS) Education Unit, she champions innovation and excellence in biomedical sciences education. She is an active member of the UWA Student Achievement Working Party.
“Globally, there is gender gap in health outcomes, largely driven by the social determinants of health, such as our income, education and status. We need to change all of those things to inform better health outcomes for women and girls worldwide. Closer to home, we are at a pivotal time in Australia as we talk about respect for women and consent. I tell my students all the time that they have power and they can affect change. We’ve got this amazing group of young people here at UWA who are well skilled and are really passionate about improving the world around them.”
Dr Nicki Mitchell
Leading researcher on threatened species and biodiversity
Dr Nicki Mitchell
Climate Change
Leading researcher on threatened species and biodiversity
Nicki Mitchell is a zoologist from UWA’s School of Biological Science and the Deputy Director of UWA's Oceans Insitute. She has spent much of her research career anticipating how climate change will affect the survival of threatened species. Currently, Nicki and her research group study how warming of nesting beaches is affecting the sex ratios of sea turtles and their capacity to withstand extreme events such as heatwaves. Another major focus is the drying of south western Australia and the vulnerability of threatened frogs and freshwater turtles to declining rainfall. Nicki is globally recognised for her work on assisted colonisation as a climate change adaptation strategy (featured recently in the New York Times) and has a national citation for outstanding contributions to student learning, where she initiated research-led teaching in first-year biology classes. Externally to UWA, Nicki is a lead councillor for The Biodiversity Council, and acted as a scientific advisor to the Commonwealth Government on biodiversity and threatening processes a member of the Threatened Species Scientific Committee from 2015-2023.
“Studying the physiological ecology of animals – how they respond to temperature changes and water availability – has never been more important. When I started my research in the 1990s, climate change was emerging as a possible threat to species’ persistence, but I never imagined we’d see its impacts so soon. Today it is clear climate change is a threat we need to be managing now. I hope to show how we can preserve many iconic species in our landscapes. It will require researchers to work closely with managers and policy makers, and something of a paradigm shift in how we regard the natural world.”Dr Caitlin Wyrwoll
Gender and women's health academic and innovator
Dr Caitlin Wyrwoll
A More Just and Equitable World
Gender and women's health academic and innovator
Dr Caitlin Wyrwoll is a Senior Lecturer in UWA’s School of Human Sciences, teaching reproductive biology and early life origins of adult disease. Before commencing at UWA, she was a postdoctoral researcher at The University of Edinburgh. Her research expertise lies in the early life environmental impacts (including climate change) on health, with a focus on maternal health, pregnancy progression and consequences for child and adult physical and mental health. She has served on Community & Engagement and Teaching & Learning committees and was named the 2020 Rising Star for the Faculty of Science.
“I am passionate about instilling in our students holistic awareness of what it means to be human by integrating biology with social and ethical considerations. Reproductive biology is a powerful example of the nexus between biology and society, including issues such as inequity in reproductive health, ethics associated with assisted reproductive and gene technologies, unmet demand for contraception, and conservatism to reproductive and LBGTIQA+ rights. As future leaders, it is imperative our students are embedded with factual knowledge of how our biology and behaviours as humans inform these issues and are empowered to undertake just and equitable considerations and action.”
Dr Ashley William Smith
Using music as a vehicle for social justice
Dr Ashley William Smith
A More Just and Equitable World
Using music as a vehicle for social justice
Clarinettist Ashley William Smith is the Chair of Woodwind and Contemporary Performance at The University of Western Australia’s Conservatorium of Music and is on the Perth Symphony Orchestra board of directors.
Ashley has performed throughout Australia, the US, Europe and Asia with the Chamber Music Society of the Lincoln Centre, Chamber Music Northwest, Bang on a Can, the Kennedy Centre and the Beijing Modern Music Festival. As a soloist and director, he has performed extensively alongside Australian and international orchestras.
A graduate of Yale University, UWA, and a Fellow of the Australian National Academy of Music, Ashley was awarded the highest honours as the most outstanding performance graduate of each institution. In 2020 he was awarded a Doctor of Musical Arts from UWA. Ashley is a laureate of prizes including the Music Council of Australia Freedman Fellowship, an ABC Symphony International Young Performer Award, and a Churchill Fellowship.
He has designed a concert program for 2021 that focuses on telling the 'musical stories of the unheard, unseen, and undiscovered', showcasing music as a vehicle for social justice.
“I believe that the role of the artist is a powerful one. I want to empower my students to use their creative practice to imagine a better future. By shaping and renewing culture, the role of the artist is to inspire new understandings and new ideologies. The arts can cut through the dissonance and distraction of the modern world and speak the truth with a humbling clarity.”
A/Prof Celeste Rodriguez Louro
Expert in language, diversity and inclusion
A/Prof Celeste Rodriguez Louro
Climate Change and A More Just and Equitable World
Expert in language, diversity and inclusion
Celeste Rodriguez Louro is Director of the Language Lab and an Australian Research Council fellow in Linguistics at The University of Western Australia. She is also Vice-President of the Australian Linguistic Society, Editorial Board Member for the Australian Journal of Linguistics, and area consultant to the Oxford English Dictionary. She is a member of the Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Working Party at UWA and presenter of ‘Language Lab’, a language and diversity segment on The Agenda, RTRFM radio. Celeste has recently worked with the Heart Foundation to produce two original medical videos fully scripted in Aboriginal English.
Trained in Argentina, the USA and Australia, Celeste’s research tracks language change across time. Her work deals with sociolinguistic issues including standard language ideologies, language contact and multilingualism. Celeste is also interested in decolonization, and in ways to make academic work sustainable, inclusive, equitable and collaborative. Her publications have appeared in high-ranking international journals. Her work has featured in more than 80 peer-reviewed conferences, including recent invited international plenaries and panels. She has won multiple research and teaching awards and has a strong media presence, a testament to her commitment to making linguistics available to a wide audience.
Celeste is currently writing, in collaboration with Nyungar scholar Glenys Collard, a monograph titled ‘Variation and change in Aboriginal English’ – contracted to Cambridge University Press for publication in 2024. This work is funded through a highly competitive Australian Research Council DECRA Fellowship.
Celeste has also recently been commissioned to edit the Routledge Handbook of Australian Linguistics, currently in preparation.
With her PhD students, Celeste is developing a bespoke online course on language, diversity and inclusion for primary and secondary school educators in Australia. Funded through a UWA Impact Grant, this offering will go live in mid-2022.
Georg Fritz
Pioneering a Greener and Cleaner Future with Synthetic Microbiology
Georg Fritz
Climate Change
Pioneering a Greener and Cleaner Future with Synthetic Microbiology
Georg Fritz is an Associate Professor at the UWA School of Molecular Sciences, where his research team develops genetically engineered microbes to tackle some of humanity’s most pressing challenges. Their applications range from combatting antimicrobial resistance in bacteria, to biological plastic degradation and sustainable bioplastic production using ultra-fast growing marine microbes.
Awarded a prestigious ARC Future Fellowship in 2023, Georg is recognized for his pioneering work in genetically engineering microbes for a sustainable future. His academic journey, marked by interdisciplinary exploration, led to significant contributions in systems and synthetic microbiology, reflected in 50 peer-reviewed publications, over $5M in competitive grant funding, and strong partnerships with international research institutions and industry leaders. Georg's research is not just about making scientific advances; it's about creating a sustainable and greener future for all.
"In my lab we are fascinated with the question of how we can turn the fastest-growing bacterium known to science, called Vibrio natriegens, into a superstar for Environmental Biotechnology. Imagine: this bacterium duplicates itself in just ten minutes, and therefore it can produce enzymes extremely quickly! One of our goals is genetically engineer this microbe to rapidly produce enzymes that can break down PET plastics - the material of everyday plastic bottles cluttering our planet.
But that's not all. Our little microbial friends have massive potential, and together with our colleagues in chemistry we're exploring new frontiers to combine electrochemistry and microbiology to turn industrial CO2 emissions into valuable bioproducts, such as compostable plastics. Once successful, our superbug could help to tackle plastic pollution head-on, revolutionizing recycling technologies to become cleaner, greener, and more efficient."
For more information on Georg Fritz visit the Fritz Lab or LinkedIn.
