Breadcrumb Links:

Research Impact

Our applied research focus emphasizes the translation and uptake of research findings to meet external stakeholder needs – the focus is not merely on increasing academic publications and citation rates. Several aspects of our research are oriented towards real-world outcomes including: provision of high quality outcomes through translation and application of current research findings (Mental Health Nursing, Family and Domestic Violence; Population Health; Education Practice); influencing government policy and regulatory frameworks (Fatigue Management in Fly-in/Fly-out and Drive-in/Drive-out long distance commuters; Marine Biosecurity frameworks); and developing greater understanding of social issues of the day and contributing to decision-making through salient advice (Economic considerations of conflict between agrarian and resource extraction uses).

 

Education Research

CQUniversity has one of the longest collaborative industry higher education research partnerships with the Australian Publishers Association (APA). The partnership research projects have focused on developing high quality teaching and learning materials for school and university students. This research led to the establishment of the Australian Awards for Excellence in Educational Publishing in partnership with the APA, the key event in Australian educational publishing and has helped the industry to develop quality benchmarks and publishing standards. Professor Mike Horsley is the chief judge of the awards and manages the awards process with the APA, and edits the journal of the international Association for Research on Textbooks and Educational Media.  More recently the Learning and Teaching Education Research Centre has developed Eye Tracking facilities and methodologies to research digital textbooks and student self-regulation in online learning environments, leading to Australia’s initial eye tracking research methodology conference Eye Track Australia 2012.

Applied Economics

Professor John Rolfe and his team of economists have undertaken a suite of works to inform the trade-offs between land, environmental and resource uses in rural / regional Australia. One stream of work focuses on evaluating environmental protection and recreation aspects of natural resource management, with recent applications of non-market valuation techniques to protection of the Great Barrier Reef and coastal assets. Another stream of research focuses on regional development, estimating the economic impacts of resource industry developments on regional economies, employment and housing markets and how those impacts vary with factors such as long distance commuting. The third major area of research is in the agricultural economics space, with applications of bioeconomic modelling, production frontiers, auction theory and adoption analysis to a variety of primary industries and issues across eastern and northern Australia. These works have provided state and commonwealth government authorities with sound bases for decision-making.

 

Media History and Biography

Media history has attracted increasing research attention both in Australia and overseas during the last decade. Professor Denis Cryle has built both national and international links with Australian and British scholars through the biennial Australian Media Traditions conferences, as a long-serving member of its organisational committee (2002-2011), and as an Honorary Fellow of the Centre for Media History based at Macquarie University, as well as internationally, as reviewer and editorial committee member for the Media History journal, based in the United Kingdom.  His work, which includes ARC competitive research, continues to feature in international collections, in a field which has become increasingly global, spawning media conglomerates, like Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation. Professor Cryle has written extensively on Murdoch’s Australian operations and influence (2008) and is currently writing a biography of colonial communications giant, Sir Charles Todd, as well as co-authoring an extensive history of the Empire and Commonwealth Press Union in Australia, India and New Zealand over the twentieth- century.

 

Gambling Research Laboratory (GRL)

Assoc. Prof Matthew Rockloff heads the GRL, which uses experimental means to investigate gambling disorders. The GRL has investigated psychological risk factors for the development of gambling problems, social factors impacting on Electronic Gaming Machine (EGM) betting, the use of gambling “consumption” as a predictor of gambling problems, and the impact of EGM jackpots on player behaviour. The GRL is supported by an in-house developed EGM simulator and the infrastructure of the Population Research Laboratory at the Institute for Health and Social Science Research. Members Dr Matthew Browne, Dr Philip Donaldson and Dr En Li use these resources to provide a unique ability to focus on difficult research problems needed by policy makers, treatment providers and gambling-help educators.

 

Non-invasive Assessment in Agriculture

NiAg is concerned with the non-destructive analysis of quality attributes of agricultural, and in particular horticultural, produce, and associated agronomic and supply chain management actions to optimise production outcomes.  The activity falls under a ‘precision agriculture’ descriptor.   The group has achieved commercialisation of its work with near infrared spectroscopy, in terms of on-line sorting of fruit with Colour Vision Systems/MAF-Roda P/L, and in terms of an in-field handheld application with Integrated Spectronics P/L.  Work continues to evolve instrumentation features and develop new applications.

 

Precision Livestock Management

Precision agriculture is a growing area of research that has emerged from a need to improve efficiency and productivity in global food production. Dr David Swain is leading a small team that are developing research that is focussed on developing precision management tools for northern beef production systems. The research work includes the use of wireless sensor networks to track and monitor cattle behaviour in response to a range of environmental and management drivers. CQUniversity are providing leadership in precision livestock management, Dr Swain recently chaired a working committee that identified strategic research priorities for precision livestock management for the Northern Australian Beef Research Committee.

 

Ecological Security Laboratory

The Ecological Security Laboratory focusses on research that elucidates human mediated impacts on biodiversity and species in the marine and coastal environment and developing remediation and management options. The laboratory has a transdisciplinary focus, working across both the natural and social sciences to identify the pressures, the state of the environment, and to develop innovative solutions that effectively translate into policy and management. This extends to all aspects of the process, including identifying risks, determining how impacts occur in space and time, measuring, and mitigating impacts. Specifically the laboratories research focusses on marine ecosystem restoration, marine bioinvasions and marine conservation (including environmental generational amnesia) and marine debris.

 

Marine Biosecurity

Marine biosecurity is the management of non-native marine species arrivals and impacts in a quarantine context. Australia has long been a leader in this field, both for the underpinning research in marine systems, but also in relation to regulatory and management frameworks. Professor Chad Hewitt and Professor Marnie Campbell have led the development of this field in Australia and most recently developed a risk framework that underpins the recent changes to regulation of vessel entry into Australia based on the marine growths on their hulls. This suite of risk assessments has now also been applied by the US Department of Defence to the potential risks to Micronesian island ecosystems of marine introductions associated with relocating US Marine Corps assets from Okinawa to Guam.

 

Queensland Centre for Family and Domestic Violence

The CDFVR is jointly funded by Queensland Government and CQUniversity to support the development of policy and practice in the field of domestic and family violence prevention. It has built relationships with government and community agencies, including in rural, regional and Indigenous communities; facilitated the role out of best practice; and, in collaboration with the government and community services, has established and maintains a state-wide database of non-identifying client data.  Most recently it completed a Queensland state-wide study on intimate partner abuse of women and an evaluation of the Queensland Government’s Trial Integrated Response to Domestic and Family Violence in Rockhampton.

 

Centre for Mental Health Nursing Innovation

The CMHNI promotes CQUniversity’s strengths and achievements in mental health nursing and to strengthen engagement between the university, industry partners and research collaborators. Professor Brenda Happell heads a team of researchers undertaking studies in the areas of physical health of people diagnosed with a mental illness; consumer participation in mental health education and service delivery; triage; and, mental health nursing education.

 

Innovative Nursing Education

CQUniversity has a strong focus on Nursing  Education. Associate Professor Kerry Reid-Searl has developed a unique and innovative learning/teaching technique (Mask-Ed KRS Simulation) that uses realistic special effects silicone props to provide the experienced lecturer the ability to don whole body parts and assume the persona of a patient. The experienced lecturer disappears and the patient, with a history relevant to the learning experience, becomes the platform for teaching. Learners are provided with realistic simulation experiences. This technique has revolutionised the way nurses are educated at CQUniversity and the technology is now being taken up by a variety of Universities in Australia and overseas.