Plastic waste has become one the biggest challenges impacting humankind. Low degradation rates of plastic leads to prolonged environmental problems, and there are climate change issues with the release of greenhouse gas both during the production, recycling and environmental degradation. Different recycling methods exist, but only a few are commercially employed. All current methods have shown some commercial promise; however, they have significant limitations.

From a wider societal perspective, it is of utmost importance that materials synthesis is in harmony with environmental concerns, making use of renewable resources and supporting the circular economy. There is significant incentive to replace petrochemical building blocks, such as styrene frequently employed in thermoforming food and beverage packaging applications, with bio-based monomers derived from natural plants. The overall aim of this project is to prepare new materials suitable for thermoforming applications for food and beverage packaging based on copolymers and (co)polymer blends involving styrene and various sustainable (biomass) vinyl monomers. Overall, this project relates to the objective of transforming the current food and beverage packaging market from virgin plastics to sustainable materials by providing a new pathway to synthesis of sustainable food and beverage packaging materials from sustainable, renewable monomers (polymer building blocks) derived from biomass.

This project aims to develop a nano sensor manufacturing technology for real-time monitoring of food and food packaging quality. The data collected by the sensor platform will provide consumer information to support the discrete choice econometric model as defined. Our innovation offers a solution to reduce the complexity in nano sensor manufacturing by directly depositing nano sensors on polymeric packaging materials.

Freight transport systems deviate from passenger transport systems in: accounting for multiple dimensions in mode-choice models, freight generation models, trip estimation and other key decision-making models. For policymakers and stakeholders, understanding freight transport’s unique needs is crucial in making efficient and effective choices.

Urban planning has extended its vision from horizontal to vertical to volumetric. This complex social and economic environment implicates 3D floor use change. We aim to establish an analytical model framework applying the principles of Volumetric Urbanism to assist the development of smart and sustainable urban floor space mixed use strategy.

Agrisma is developing a proof-of-concept for a novel encapsulation technology for feed additives and its application in the reduction of methane production in ruminants. The project will look to create nanoparticles, investigate the stability, and efficiency of the encapsulation and monitor the properties of the long-term delivery system of our active ingredients in ruminants.

Development of predictive diagnostic algorithms using machine learning models have the potential to improve the management of egg production. The project aims to develop supervised machine learning algorithms that are useful to assess the predictive ability of forecast parameters (and the impact of various events that these parameters describe) and to predict the performance of egg production in free-range hens in Australia.

The project aims to upcycle EcoMag’s hydrated magnesium carbonate/magnesium (di)hydroxide (HMC/MDH) product, derived from a blend of agri-food wastes agrifood waste into low-carbon construction material.

The confluence of urbanisation and globalisation has prompted urban food problems to increasingly manifest in urban areas around the globe, including Australia. Research shows that Australia is not immune to these identified urban food problems, ranging from urban food insecurity, urban epidemics, food-centred social injustice, food economy’s negative externalities to ecological imbalance.

The project will deliver an industry database that geographically maps grain, beef, lamb and poultry businesses in the region along with the agri-commodities they produce, and a multi-criteria decision support tool to guide selection of locations for animal protein agribusiness development.