Report outlines blueprint to grow Australia’s bioeconomy

Queensland University of Technology

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from left: Madeline Smith, Professor Ian O'Hara, and Dr Jerome Ramirez

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Credit: QUT

A QUT report published today into Australia’s bioeconomy has called for a national strategy and outlined the five key steps needed to grow a sustainable economic future. 

The report, published by researchers from QUT and the ARC Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology Madeline Smith, Dr Jerome Ramirez and Professor Ian O’Hara, says “now is the time for Australia to act, or risk losing the ability to compete in this rapidly growing global market”. 

Professor O’Hara said the global bioeconomy, currently valued at US$4 trillion, was predicted by the World Bioeconomy Forum to grow to US$30 trillion by 2040, which would be a third of total global economic value. 

The bioeconomy includes economic activity that uses biological resources, such as plants, animals and organic waste, to produce food, energy and materials in a sustainable way. The bioeconomy has benefits for the economy, environment and society.  

“It is a pivotal moment of economic transformation for Australia, which is driven by the shifting global market, rapid technological advancements and the move towards a low-carbon economy,” Professor O’Hara said. 

Many countries, including most of the G20 economies, have already developed national bioeconomy strategies that are providing a focal point for coordinated government action unlocking corporate investment. 

“Without a unified effort and strategic approach by government, industry and researcher partners, Australia risks losing the opportunity to compete effectively in this market,” Professor O’Hara said. 

“Our world-class research, education and innovation are key strengths that can underpin advancing Australia’s bioeconomy development.”

The report identifies key economic growth opportunities for Australia including biomanufacturing of sustainable products and materials, value-adding to Australia’s primary industries, the development of new foods and feeds and the manufacturing of low carbon liquid fuels and renewable gases. 

“As examples, Australia is at the forefront of developing new food ingredients including proteins produced through precision fermentation and has the potential to lead in the development of sustainable aviation fuels from agricultural industry byproducts,” Professor O’Hara said. 

“Australia has one of the best biomass resources in the world which provides a huge advantage in the development of these industries. By unlocking the value of these resources we can add value to Australian agriculture and grow new biomanufacturing industries across regional areas.” 

Critical to success will be the development of scale-up facilities to better translate research from the laboratory to commercial scale.

As an example, the recently upgraded QUT Mackay Renewable Biocommodities Pilot Plant based in the Greater Whitsundays Region of Queensland is supporting the sugar industry to diversify into a wider range of value-added products, however more focus is needed on this very important aspect of technology scale-up and translation. 

The report makes five key recommendations to advance Australia’s bioeconomy: 

• Develop a national bioeconomy strategy: Assess capabilities, prioritise growth and identify strategies for market, workforce and regional benefits. 

• Cultivate world-class, economic and scalable bioeconomy feedstock: Invest in feedstock development and optimise farm-to-market supply chains. 

• Build infrastructure to scale bioeconomy solutions: Fund pilot and pre-commercial biomanufacturing infrastructure. 

• Grow bioeconomy workforce skills: Expand education and training programs with a focus on regional development. 

• Invest in bioeconomy research, development and translation: Establish large-scale collaborative research programs. 

The report identifies the key opportunities for the Australian bioeconomy to diversify revenue streams within primary industries and agribusinesses through onshore value-adding and developing emerging industries and new markets within a low-carbon future. 

However, there are also barriers and challenges ahead. The report highlights the need for a clear and comprehensive national bioeconomy strategy, reliable and sustainable access to feedstocks, a skilled and adaptable workforce and targeted programs to transfer innovative research to commercial success. 

The Growing Australia’s Bioeconomy report is available online.  

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Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Growing Australia's Bioeconomy

Article Publication Date

17-Jun-2025

 

Despite overall progress, low birthweight rates still high in certain Indian states

Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, West Bengal account for almost half of all such births

BMJ Group

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Despite overall progress in bringing down low birthweight numbers across India over the past 30 years, rates remain stubbornly high in certain states, with Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, and West Bengal, accounting for almost half of all such births, finds research published in the open access journal BMJ Global Health.

Low birthweight is important, because it often signals underlying maternal health issues and poor nutrition as well as the child’s future cognitive development and susceptibility to chronic conditions in later life, note the researchers.

While some states have made rapid progress in bringing down the prevalence of low birthweight, others have found it more difficult, they add.

To try and build an accurate picture of progress across the country over the past 30 years, the researchers drew on data for women and girls aged 13 or 15 to 49 in five waves of the nationally representative National Family Health Survey spanning the period 1992–3 to 2019–21. Low birthweight was defined as less than 2500 g.

Of the total 626,087 live births during the study period, 165,073 (26.5%) newborns weren’t weighed and the information was missing for 20,814 (just over 3%); and 440,200 (just over 70%) were weighed. The size of 614,428 (98%) was subjectively assessed by the mother.

The number of recorded births rose from 48,959 in 1993 to 232,920 in 2021. And the proportion of these babies who were weighed increased over time, resulting in 7,992 being included in the analysis in 1993 (16%) to 209,266 in 2021 (90%). 

The state-level average prevalence of low birthweight fell across the 5 surveys from 25% in 1993 and 1999; to 20% in 2006; 17% in 2016; and 16% in 2021. And the overall prevalence of low birthweight across India fell by 8 percentage points from 26% in 1993 to 18% in 2021. 

The greatest prevalence of low birthweight in 1993 was observed in Rajasthan (48%) and Chhattisgarh (42%) while the lowest was observed in Mizoram (6%) and Nagaland (11%). 

In 2021, the greatest prevalence was observed in Punjab (22%) and the union territory of Delhi (22%) while the lowest prevalence was observed in Mizoram (4%), Nagaland (5%), and Manipur (7%). 

The 2019–21 survey suggests that there were 4.2 million low birthweight babies in a single year in India. Just four states—Uttar Pradesh (858,000), Bihar (430,000), Maharashtra (399,000, and West Bengal (318,000)—accounted for almost half (47%) of all these births. 

The figures suggest a degree of convergence, where states with greater prevalence in 1992–93 experienced faster falls.

The 2021 survey also indicated that in a single year 2.5 million children were born smaller than average size, as assessed by their mothers. 

The largest number were born in the same four states as those with a high prevalence of low birthweight: Uttar Pradesh (462,000); Bihar (318,000); Maharashtra (261,000); and West Bengal (208,000), accounting for 50% of such births.

For both low birthweight and smaller than average size babies, the 2021 survey showed that these children were considerably more likely to be born to women with little or no formal education and from the poorest households.

“Low birth weight is likely to be more prevalent among non-weighed children since weighing correlates strongly with healthcare infrastructure and being born in a health facility. Also, low socioeconomic status is linked to both lack of access to healthcare and low birth weight,” explain the researchers.

“The insights from data spanning nearly three decades shed light on both promising progress and enduring challenges. Our results point to a general decline in the prevalence of low birth weight and convergence between states over time,” they suggest. 

“However, the levels and specific numbers should be interpreted with caution due to data quality issues, particularly low levels of recorded birthweight in the older surveys,” they caution. 

They conclude: “Despite the overall progress, the persistence of high prevalence of low birth weight in certain states highlights the need for ongoing efforts to address maternal and neonatal health disparities. Despite improvements, data collection at healthcare facilities must also be further enhanced, to provide quality data for decision making across India.”

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Journal

BMJ Global Health

DOI

10.1136/bmjgh-2024-016732 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Trends in low birth weight across 36 states and union territories in India, 1993-2021

Article Publication Date

16-Jun-2025

 

In search of a way to improve humans’ faulty memories and bad habits

In a new paper, Allison Harvey, a UC Berkeley psychology professor, says lessons from science can help everyone instill good habits — and even lead to more effective patient treatments.

University of California - Berkeley

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Allison Harvey knew she’d have to study hard when she enrolled in an 11-week course on parenting techniques earlier this year. A UC Berkeley professor of psychology who researches memory, habits and sleep, Harvey printed her notes and meticulously completed each week’s homework. She engaged with the instructors, who were also well-respected clinical psychologists. And she was far more engaged than her classmates, including her husband. 

Yet, when the class ended, Harvey was confronted with a familiar reality: Despite studying hard, she’d forgotten many of the lessons she was supposed to have learned and put into practice.

“I was far short of where you’d want a patient to be at the end of 11 sessions,” she said. 

Frustrating as it was, Harvey said her experience was a personal window into the shortcomings of what are called evidence-based psychological treatments. These treatments, which include various forms of counseling, trauma interventions and cognitive behavioral therapy, are rooted in science and used widely to treat an array of mental health challenges. 

But as Harvey describes in a recent paper in the journal Behaviour Research and Therapy, these treatments often fall short because of humans’ flawed memories and difficulties creating new, healthier habits. Her research explores how subtle treatment changes could significantly improve patient outcomes — both mentally and physically. 

Memory gaps in health care

First, change requires acknowledging the profound gap between what’s discussed in a clinical setting and what people actually remember after they leave. Doctors may have said the right thing, but there’s often a lack of follow-up to ensure the patient retains the information. People also have notoriously terrible memories, Harvey said, pointing to research showing patients only retain about 30% of information shared in a session. 

“I don’t think us humans realize how fallible our memories are,” Harvey said. “We’ve got decades of psychological research showing that we fail to encode memories accurately. We fail to store them accurately. And we fail to retrieve them accurately.”

That memory gap can undermine even the best-laid treatment plans. If a patient forgets the majority of what was discussed, they’re less likely to see positive, lasting benefits. 

Habits take time — and effort

Memory is only part of the puzzle. Additionally, Harvey said, we must confront how difficult it is to build new behaviors into routines — a process that social and health psychologists say can take between 18 days and 36 weeks. 

There are science-backed strategies to help, like pairing new actions with existing routines or activities. But without explicit discussion in clinical settings about how to make new skills habitual, patients may struggle to maintain progress after treatment ends.

In other words, Harvey said, existing treatments too often lead patients to forget what they’re supposed to do, and those who know what they should do often fail to regularly do it. 

“We’ve got a mental health crisis. We’ve got treatments that work. But those treatments need to be improved to get people much better,” she said. “That, I think, is a real scientific challenge.”

Ongoing sleep research seeking solutions

Finding ways to address the memory and habit formation elements of health interventions doesn’t need to be overly complicated. Sometimes it’s as simple as a carefully worded text message. 

Harvey’s ongoing sleep research, backed by the National Institutes of Health, focuses on memory and habit change that can lead to better sleep. In one study, her team sends participants text messages with cues, reminders and follow-ups to understand what drives habit change and, ultimately, better health. “At 10 p.m. I will dim the lights and put my phone down,” said one automated message, setting the goals. A morning message asks if the goals were met. If so, participants were rewarded with a fun fact: “Did you know dolphins and whales sleep with only half of their brain at a time so they can still swim during sleep?” If not, they were encouraged to try again the next night. 

Early results are encouraging, she said, adding that it would be important to also study how similar interventions could scale into mental and physical health settings.  

“We can come up with augmentations that could be applied before a session, in the middle of a session or at the end of a session that are not costly,” Harvey said. “They don’t have side effects, but they’re effective at improving outcomes.”

Behind those improvements is a commitment to basic science, she said. Her work on memory is based on cognitive science and education research, and habit formation is deeply tied to social psychology. Breaking down research silos, like she’s attempting to do with sleep research, is a pathway toward improving patient outcomes more broadly. 

“Unless we’re paying attention to and adhering to what’s being found in those other fields, we just won’t be effective or as effective,” she said. “It’s like a pipeline of science at every step.”

As for the parenting class she took, Harvey said there were valuable lessons. But many of them faded from memory and never became second nature.

“It’s sort of funny though, isn’t it? Despite all that studiousness, only a few months later, I’m struggling to recall. This, I guess, is the whole point.”

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Journal

Behaviour Research and Therapy

Article Title

Maximizing benefits from evidence-based psychological treatments: Memory support and habit formation as key strategies

 

Train teachers on how to get parents involved in children’s learning, say researchers

Fewer than three in 10 teachers reported their initial training covered the basics of what parental engagement is or why it is important

Taylor & Francis Group

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Over half of primary and secondary school teachers in England have not been trained in how to support parents’ involvement in children’s learning and education at home and at school.  

 

That’s according to research published today in the peer-reviewed journal Educational Review, which is a first study of its kind based on a survey of more than 1,700 teachers reveals concerning gaps in skills. 

 

Led by academics from the University of Warwick and UCL, the paper shows teachers’ essential pre-qualification training fails to prepare teachers to build relationships with parents or to support families with activities such as reading to children, accessing learning resources and attending school events. 

 

Previous research has identified a strong link between parental engagement and children’s success at school. The more interest a parent takes in their child’s learning outside school, the better that pupil’s behaviour, attendance and overall motivation to do well in school. 

 

Teachers have an obligation to know how to work with all parents. But the authors of this new analysis say participants reported they were least confident engaging parents who faced additional barriers or disadvantages. 

 

They are calling on policymakers to ensure teachers are better trained to support parents to engage with children’s learning effectively, especially beyond the classroom. 

 

“It’s clear there’s still work to do in ensuring that teachers are fully equipped with the knowledge and skills required to facilitate effective parental engagement,” says lead author Cat Jones, an ESRC-funded PhD student at the University of Warwick. 

 

“The results reveal important training gaps. Most teachers reported receiving no training on the types of parental engagement that are most effective. Or how to identify and remove barriers to parental engagement.” 

 

Co-author Professor Olympia Palikara, who is also based in the Education Studies department at Warwick, adds: “Gaps in teachers’ parental engagement knowledge and skills suggest a continuing preoccupation with parents’ involvement with school-based activities. This is at the expense of more effective parental engagement with learning beyond school.”  

 

Taking an interest in what children are learning, working in partnership with schools, and providing learning opportunities are among many examples of how mothers and fathers can engage with education in a positive way.  

 

There is some evidence to suggest parental involvement can have a bigger effect on pupil outcomes than socioeconomic status. In the UK, successive education ministers have been actively involved in supporting schools in engaging with parents.  

 

However, not all engagement strategies have proven to be effective in improving outcomes for pupils. For example, trying to get parents involved in homework has mixed results. The researchers therefore argue that teachers need to understand which strategies are likely to be effective. As such, many researchers have called for parental engagement to be a key element of teacher education, across Europe, the US, and Australia.  

 

Data for this study was based on 1,782 qualified primary and secondary school teachers in England of various ages and years teaching experience.  

 

An online survey was emailed to all schools in England to collect information on an anonymous basis between June 2023 and March 2024. The purpose was to investigate the current state of teachers’ parental engagement training, knowledge and skills in England. Additionally, the authors set out to examine whether this relates to teacher and school characteristics.  

 

Participants were presented with a list of parental engagement topics. They were asked to indicate whether they had encountered them during their initial teacher education and ongoing training. 

 

An open-ended question asked teachers to define parental engagement and to provide examples of strong parental engagement.  

 

They were also asked to rate their confidence in relation to skills such as engaging with parents who speak other languages, with those who have had negative school experiences, and with those experiencing poverty. 

 

The researchers also gathered other information such as how many hours the teachers worked, if they were parents themselves, and what percentage of their pupils were eligible for free school meals. 

 

Results showed that fewer than 3 in 10 (29%) participants reported that their initial teacher education (ITE) had covered the basics of what parental engagement is or why it is important.  

 

Only 13% said their ITE covered which parental engagement activities are effective, and less than 7% had covered parental engagement in the context of poverty, language differences, cultural differences, or prior negative school experiences. 

 

The study did identify what characteristics of teachers predicted higher self-reported skills for getting parents to engage effectively. Those who were more experienced, had leadership roles, and had children of their own were more confident in with parental engagement.  

 

Primary school teachers generally scored more highly than secondary teachers. The authors say this is unsurprising because primary school teachers tend to work with fewer pupils and generally have more opportunities to interact directly with parents. 

 

They are calling for further analysis into the effects of a teacher’s training, workload and their job role to predict teachers’ parental engagement skills. 

 

“Parental engagement with their children’s learning has such a powerful effect on children’s outcomes. It is therefore essential that teachers have both the time and the training to be able to build relationships with parents and to support all families to access resources outside school,” adds Cat, who is also an experienced primary school teacher and school governor. 

 

“Importantly, our findings provide specific directions on how to ensure that teachers have the knowledge and skills to facilitate effective parental engagement moving forward,” concludes co-author Dr Vassilis Sideropoulos, a senior research specialist at the Institute of Education at UCL.
 

A limitation of the paper is that the authors had to create their own measures of teachers’ parental engagement knowledge and skills. Going forwards, studies which validate these measurement tools, the authors state, “would support more large-scale research and lay the ground work for evaluating parental engagement training interventions in the future”. 

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Journal

Educational Review

DOI

10.1080/00131911.2025.2506802 

Method of Research

Survey

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Do teachers have the knowledge and skills to facilitate effective parental engagement? Findings from a national survey in England

Article Publication Date

17-Jun-2025

 

Study identifies molecule in stingless bee propolis that can kill dengue mosquito larvae

Researchers have found a substance in propolis from bees native to Brazil that kills 90% to 100% of Aedes aegypti larvae

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo

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A substance found in pine sap that is processed by mandaçaia bees exhibits larvicidal activity, eliminating 100% of dengue mosquito larvae within 48 hours

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Credit: Laila Salmen Espindola

 In Brazil, researchers from the University of São Paulo (USP), the University of Brasília (UnB), and two startups in the city of Ribeirão Preto have found a compound in the propolis of the stingless bee known as mandaçaia (Melipona quadrifasciata) that kills Aedes aegypti larvae. The results were published in the journal Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry.

In addition to support from FAPESP, the work is the result of a project funded by the Brazilian Ministry of Health. The project aimed to find natural larvicides to combat the mosquito that carries viruses such as dengue, yellow fever, chikungunya, and Zika. Currently, this mosquito is controlled using a highly toxic chemical insecticide.

“Bees are known to collect materials in nature to build their colonies, which in some cases can protect against invasive fungi and bacteria. We conducted a series of analyses on geopropolis, which mixes plant resins with soil or clay particles in its composition [traditional propolis contains only resins, wax, and bee secretions]. We observed that the diterpene present in it was responsible for the larvicidal activity,” explains Norberto Peporine Lopes, a professor at the Ribeirão Preto School of Pharmaceutical Sciences (FCFRP) at USP.

Lopes is coordinating the project “Inventorying Secondary Metabolism through Metabolomics: Contribution to the Valuation of Brazilian Biodiversity”, which is supported by FAPESP as part of the FAPESP Research Program on the Characterization, Conservation, Restoration, and Sustainable Use of Biodiversity (BIOTA).

The researchers compared the action of traditional propolis produced by European honeybees (Apis mellifera) with that of geopropolis from the mandaçaia tree in Aedes aegypti larvae. The former exhibited very low activity even after 72 hours of exposure. However, in tests with geopropolis, 90% of the larvae died within 24 hours, and 100% within 48 hours.

Analyses performed with computational tools indicated that the most likely larvicidal agent among the compounds present in geopropolis is diterpene. While studying the habits of bees in Bandeirantes, in the state of Paraná, where geopropolis was collected, it was observed that mandaçaias frequently visit plantations of pine (Pinus elliottii), a species of tree from the Northern Hemisphere that is cultivated in Brazil for timber and resin.

“It was known that the chemical composition of propolis is influenced by the resins collected for nest construction and protection, as well as by the floristic composition of the environment, the biome, and seasonal factors. In this case, it became clear that the pine resin processed by the mandaçaias’ saliva is what provides the larvicidal action,” says Luís Guilherme Pereira, the first author of the article. The study was conducted with support from FAPESP during Pereira’s PhD at FCFRP-USP.

Brazilian bee

Mandaçaias are of particular interest in Brazil because they are easy to cultivate, they have no stingers, and they are native to the country. One idea of the researchers is to evaluate products other than honey produced by these bees.

In the case of propolis, that of the mandaçaia differed from that of the other native bees analyzed in the study and found in the same municipality: the borá (Tetragona clavipes), the mirim (Plebeia droryana), and the jataí (Tetragonisca angustula). The propolis of these three native, stingless species had low larvicidal activity.

The researchers explain that the volume of geopropolis produced by mandaçaia bees is very low, making its use as a larvicidal agent impractical. However, it is good news that diterpene is found in pine resin. Since the resin is produced on a large scale for various industrial applications, such as solvents and glues, it could undergo chemical processes similar to those performed by mandaçaias.

“These are modifications that can form molecules with greater activity than the original compound and that can be induced in bioreactors, equipment used in the pharmaceutical industry,” says Lopes.

According to Feitosa, the workflow used in the study involving different mass spectrometry techniques can be applied to the search for compounds with a wide variety of purposes. “We’re currently searching for natural molecules with anti-tumor activity,” says the researcher, who is now pursuing postdoctoral studies at FCFRP-USP.

The Ministry of Health project, which is coordinated by Professor Laila Salmen Espindola from UnB, also led to the discovery of another larvicidal compound present in an essential oil produced on a large scale. This discovery has not yet been published, and the data are with the Ministry.

The researchers even produced a powder and a tablet based on the essential oil, which protects water for up to 24 days. The powder kills the larvae immediately, while the slow-release tablet gradually dissolves to keep the water free of mosquitoes.

About São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP)
The São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) is a public institution with the mission of supporting scientific research in all fields of knowledge by awarding scholarships, fellowships and grants to investigators linked with higher education and research institutions in the State of São Paulo, Brazil. FAPESP is aware that the very best research can only be done by working with the best researchers internationally. Therefore, it has established partnerships with funding agencies, higher education, private companies, and research organizations in other countries known for the quality of their research and has been encouraging scientists funded by its grants to further develop their international collaboration. You can learn more about FAPESP at www.fapesp.br/en and visit FAPESP news agency at www.agencia.fapesp.br/en to keep updated with the latest scientific breakthroughs FAPESP helps achieve through its many programs, awards and research centers. You may also subscribe to FAPESP news agency at http://agencia.fapesp.br/subscribe.
 

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Journal

Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry

DOI

10.1002/rcm.10025 

Article Title

Characterization of Larvicidal Diterpene Resin Acids in Melipona quadrifasciata Geopropolis via LC-ESI-MS/MS, GC–MS and Computational Analysis

 

Energy poverty’s mental health harms are about more than money

University of Adelaide

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A University of Adelaide study has found that the negative effects of energy poverty on mental health are not only related to income stress and therefore differ depending on how energy poverty is defined.

Lead author Dr Rubayyat Hashmi, from the University’s Australian Centre for Housing Research, compared the impacts of monetary energy poverty, measured through energy expenditure and income, and self-reported energy poverty, which is a measure of perceived energy-related hardship or wellbeing.

A person is defined as experiencing monetary energy poverty if 10 per cent or more of their household income goes to energy bills, or if their energy costs exceed the population median and push their residual income below the poverty line.

Self-reported energy poverty is when a person reports not being able to keep their house adequately warm or cool, or if they are having difficulty paying bills on time.

“We found that monetary energy poverty alone does not significantly impact mental health outcomes. In contrast, self-reported energy poverty has severe adverse effects on mental health,” Dr Hashmi says.

“The situation is even worse for those experiencing both types of energy poverty. This finding highlights the impacts of energy poverty on mental health beyond financial hardship. “

While energy poverty impacts a broad range of Australians, there are several cohorts that are at an increased risk.

“Our research found that monetary energy poverty is more common among males and people aged 65 and over who are on low incomes, and it is more prevalent among those who are unemployed or not in the labour force,” says Dr Hashmi.

“On the other hand, self-reported energy poverty is notably more prevalent among females, younger age groups, specifically those aged between 25–54, and renters – especially those in homes and neighbourhoods they are unhappy with.

“And families with children, including both couples and single parents, are especially at risk for all types of energy poverty.”

The research also examined how long the mental health effects of energy poverty last.

“We found that current exposure to energy poverty has a more adverse effect on mental health than past exposure, though past self-reported energy poverty may have a lingering adverse effect,” says Dr Hashmi.

“However, it is worth noting that we found no evidence that the type of energy poverty makes a difference in the long run; rather, longer cumulative exposure appears to have a more harmful impact.”

Dr Hashmi says it is important that energy poverty is well defined and understood, both in the academic literature and amongst policymakers who are working to address the issue.

“Energy poverty has a major effect on mental health, but how we measure it makes a big difference to our understanding of its scale and who is affected,” says Dr Hashmi, whose study was published in Energy Research & Social Science.

“Recognising these nuances is crucial. Without metrics that account for housing conditions, governmental and non-governmental interventions may miss the mark, leaving vulnerable populations without the support they need.

“Policy responses must go beyond income-based eligibility and incorporate lived experiences, housing quality, and energy stress indicators to more effectively target and support those most at risk.”

The University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia are joining forces to become Australia’s new major university – Adelaide University. Adelaide University will open its doors in January 2026. Find out more on the Adelaide University website.

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Journal

Energy Research & Social Science

DOI

10.1016/j.erss.2025.104115