New name as CQU changemakers grow social impact
Social impact isn’t new at CQUniversity – but a new name for a big-impact team is giving fresh focus to the vital work.
For more than a decade, CQUniversity has been driving social impact initiatives with students, staff and communities, by embedding social innovation principles and practice across education, training and research.
The work to achieve inclusive, sustainable change has seen CQUniversity accredited as Australia’s first and only social enterprise university by Social Traders Australia, and recognised as a trailblazer, thought-leader and capacity-builder in the for-purpose space.
Now the newly-renamed Social Impact Lab, formerly the Office of Social Innovation, is driving fresh initiatives to connect communities, and change lives.
The team works across CQU, and with government, industry, business and the for-purpose sector, to solve systemic problems for people, planet and society.
In 2025, key Social Impact Lab projects have included:
• Co-designing Confidence: Careers in Health for All, a collaborative project with neurodivergent nursing students, to develop employment skills and inclusive supports, enabled by a Queensland Government Growing Workforce Participation Fund grant. Read the funding announcement.
• Q-SEED (Queensland Social procurement, Employment and Economic Development) and Q-SEED Youth, an 18-month initiative to transform Townsville through social, Indigenous and local procurement, while working with local young people and employers to co-design initiatives for youth jobs, funded by the Queensland Government and The John Villiers Trust, with partners ArcBlue and Smart Precinct NQ. Explore Q-SEED’s latest update.
• Diverse Workforces, a research collaboration with Queensland Social Enterprise Council, showcasing inclusive employment across social enterprises and providing a best-practice hub for business and industry. Explore the Diverse Workforces project.
Program Managers Steve Williams and Sara Brown said the new name highlighted the importance of driving meaningful, measurable change.
“Our approach continues to be innovative, inclusive, and trauma-informed and the new name reflects the end goal – that we’re having real social impact for the communities we work with,” Mr Williams said.
“The Social Impact Lab equips people and organisations to work through human-centred design and co-design processes, to achieve really sustainable solutions for the challenges they face,” Ms Brown said.
“That delivers social impact within the project, and just as important, it empowers participants to continue growing their social impact throughout their careers and their lives.”
Across CQUniversity, social impact work is aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
CQU was ranked number 25 in the world amongst universities for social, environmental and economic impact, in the 2025 Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings.
Learn more and connect with the team at CQUniversity’s Social Impact Lab website.
