From ideas to impact: The 2025 research seminar journey

Hosted online, the 2025 University Research Seminar Series brought together researchers, students, and industry partners to explore themes aligned to the Strategic Research Plan 2021-2025 and mapped to the 2011 Vitae Researcher Development Framework.

Year of diverse themes and engaging sessions

From Building Health Solutions to Sustainability and Security, the seminar series showcased the university's commitment to addressing pressing global challenges through research. Each theme reflects a strategic priority, whether it is improving public health, navigating societal transformation, fostering industry collaboration, or promoting societal resilience.

These sessions not only highlighted the breadth of research expertise across our faculties and research centres but also demonstrated how we align research efforts with real-world needs and opportunities for impact.

• Led by the Centre for Public Health, Equity & Human Flourishing and the Centre for Healthy Futures, these sessions explored transformative public health and heart-health research.
• Presented by the Centre of Artificial Intelligence Research & Optimisation, these seminars examined the societal impacts of AI and emerging technologies.
• The Centre for Organisational Change & Agility sessions focused on organisational agility and industry collaboration.
• Sessions hosted by the Centre for Healthy Sustainability explored interdisciplinary research at the intersection of social, environmental, and ethical dimensions of sustainability.
• Faculty Research including Health & Education, Design & Creative Technology, and Business & Hospitality, highlighted their latest research projects.

By the numbers

• 16 seminars were held between March and October 2025.
• Total attendance reached over 680 participants, with the highest turnout of 68 attendees for the 3MT Presentation, hosted by Higher Degrees by Research, featuring 11 student presenters, showcasing results from their emerging research from projects.
• Presenters included external collaborators, including Dr Vivian Isaac (Interdisciplinary Health Research at Charles Sturt University) and Dr Ann M. Bennett (Associate Director, Applied Research and Evaluation at Understood.org).

Each seminar in the 2025 series was aligned with the 2011 Vitae Researcher Development Framework, a globally recognised model for supporting the professional development growth of researchers. The framework is structured around four key domains:

• Domain A: Knowledge and Intellectual Abilities, focusing on the academic and cognitive skills needed to conduct research.
• Domain B: Personal Effectiveness, which supports the development of self-management and career planning skills.
• Domain C: Research Governance and Organisation, emphasising the importance of project management, ethics, and compliance.
• Domain D: Engagement, Influence and Impact, encouraging researchers to communicate, collaborate, and apply their work beyond academia.

By embedding these domains into each session, the seminar series ensured that participants not only gained insights into cutting-edge research but also developed the competencies essential for thriving in diverse research environments.

Accessibility and engagement

The success of the 2025 series reflects the university’s commitment to fostering a dynamic research culture. We continue to build on a strong foundation of research momentum and over the coming years, our ambition is to foster thought leadership across the university's four key research themes, while cultivating high-performing research teams composed of staff, students, and our valued partner network.

For inquiries or to get involved in the 2026 Seminar Series, contact the Research & Innovation Office at researchoffice@torrens.edu.au.