Research

Our research focuses on the dynamic relationships that exist between people and built, natural, and digital environments. From this broad research base our studies relate to many of the following topics and the connections between them: artificial intelligence, climate change, geopolitics, geospatial analysis, information flows, social and cultural change, sustainable design, smart regions, social media, and environment-economy interchange. We are world leaders in these fields, undertaking local, national, and international collaborative projects and engaging directly with the public and private sectors and communities.

Our national and international rankings and significant grant income demonstrate a commitment to high-quality research connected to place, to people, and across systems, disciplines, and ways of being in the world.

Our research

Architecture and Design

From a uniquely situated and globally engaged location, we do research about materials, design, and architectural and urban futures. Our skill and knowledge are closely connected to the need to be ecologically sustainable and socially responsible. That means we can focus on architecture, urban design, building performance, and technologically advanced ways of making. Our research combines rich theoretical and practical engagement and through it we seek to transform and create place and places in new and deeply ethical ways. Read more here.

Geography, Planning, and Spatial Sciences

Using spatial data from microns to planets in scale, we do research in physical and human geography and environmental studies. We study climate risk, earth observation, landscape-scale conservation, and resilient social-ecological systems. From our work has emerged the global permaculture movement, the world’s first green party, the scientific basis to create Tasmania’s World Heritage Areas, new drone technologies to understand the planet, and the first agreed estimate of sea-level rise contributions from Greenland and Antarctica. Read more here.

Information and Communication Technology

We conduct research into topics across the breadth of the ICT spectrum. Our four strategic research themes are smart services and systems, games and creative technologies, transformative information systems, and human interface technologies. Strategic investments and initiatives help us enhance and improve our research scope and output. Our innovative platforms and research topics attract high performing researchers from around the world, as well government and industry collaborations which provide ongoing benefit both to our students and our researchers.

Study with us

Take your research degree with us. We offer a broad range of topics in and across Architecture and Design; Geography, Planning, and Spatial Sciences; and Information and Communication Technology. Focus on one or focus across one or more and help create new knowledge about the relationships among people, technology, and the world in which we live. Join us and you will be part of a leading community of scholars and practitioners who are also passionate researchers and educators. We invite potential higher degree research candidates to join existing projects or propose their own, and to come and work with us in a diverse, multicultural, and inclusive culture encouraging applications from all suitable backgrounds.

Find out more about applying

Available Research Degree Projects

A research degree candidate may develop their own research project in collaboration with their supervisor or apply for one of our currently available projects.

Applicants who are interested a specific project should first contact the supervisor listed and then find out more about our Entry Requirements, Scholarships and Fees if relevant, and then Apply Now.

Partner with us

We seek to broaden our impact by partnering with government agencies, not-for-profits, community groups and industry.

The focus of our three disciplines have broad expertise surrounding the relationship between humans and the natural, built and digital environments, and our location across three campuses in Tasmania mean our School is deeply place-based. It is critical that we engage in research collaborations with a wide variety of partners, both locally, nationally and internationally, in order to benefit Tasmania and beyond.

Learn more about partnering with us