UQ Ipswich, with its modern approach to learning and technology, is well placed to establish and attract research in a variety of emerging industries.
The Campus has developed an impressive research record in its six years of operation, with a number of individual academic research projects, supervision of student research, and more collaborative research attracting a wealth of grants and funding.
BUSINESS
UQ Business Schoool staff in the Centre for Business Forensics are involved in partnership with international firm KPMG. Recent funding secured through an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant will enhance this partnership through a research project investigating factors driving intra-firm fraud.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
The Information Environments Program at Ipswich, linked with the Interaction Design Research Division of the School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, is UQ's node in the Australian Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Interaction Design (ACID). As a CRC, ACID is funded by the Australian Government, universities and industry partners and was established to improve the effectiveness of Australia's research and development efforts by linking researchers with industry. Information Environments researchers are currently involved in three major ACID projects:
- Surburban Communities: aims to understand how to design and build internet technologies, ranging from mobile phones to large-screen public displays, to support and formation of and communication within outer suburban communities. Industry partners are major property developers.
- Virtual Communities: investigates tools and techniques to support idea generation and idea evaluation in collaborative work within distributed organisations. Industry partners are media and intellectual property firms
- Touchstone: develops a component-based method to support human-centred design aspects of ACID's research and consulting projects.
HEALTH
Health education, promotion and positive health outcomes in the local community are the key focus areas currently being investigated by researchers within the School of Nursing and Midwifery at the Ipswich Campus. The School was fortunate in 2005 to secure five-year funding from the Ipswich Hospital Foundation for a health research program focusing on issues surrounding health education and prevention and health capacity building within the Ipswich region. The project will prompt a new era for the Ipswich region as a hub for health research and education, making the region more attractive to health experts and boosting infrastructure.
Australian Research Council funding of more than $700,000 has also been secured for five years to establish the nurses and midwives e-cohort, a longitudinal, population-based study that will examine workforce and health outcomes among nurses and midwives in Australia and New Zealand. Funding was obtained through the linkage grants scheme and the e-research strategic initiatives program. A further $750,000 over five years has been committed by industry partners (including Queensland Health) towards the research project with additional in-kind support from nursing councils.
The School is also active in research into clinical practice development through the discovery of new and improved approaches to the health care of individuals, as well as the optimisation of health education and service delivery through the discovery of improved approaches to the educational preparation of health professionals.
COMMUNITY
The UQ Boilerhouse Community Engagement Centre is at the focal point of community interaction, engaging with diverse stakeholders from the private, public and community sectors in developing informed and collaborative responses to both existing and emerging community issues.