A message from Professor Peter Høj: UQ’s Vice-Chancellor and President

Research translation is a passion of mine, and commercialisation is instrumental to sharing the benefits of excellent research with the global community.

Put another way, commercialisation helps excellence become excellence-plus.

For more than a century, UQ has made significant contributions to Queensland, Australia and the world. Today, UQ is ranked in the top 100 universities globally, according to the four leading independent university tables – QS World University Rankings, Times Higher Education World University Rankings, the Academic Ranking of World Universities and the Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers of World Universities.

UQ’s innovators have made genuinely life-changing advances. For instance, tens of millions of women and girls have been protected by the cervical cancer vaccine, invented at UQ; most of the world’s MRI machines use UQ technology; and six million children have benefited from the University’s Triple P Positive Parenting Program.

Much of this work has been conducted in collaboration with global partners. UQ is proud to partner with research institutions and industry across the globe and we currently have partnerships in 49 countries. These range from multimillion-dollar agreements with companies such as The Dow Chemical Company, through to collaborations that have resulted in developments such as the cervical cancer vaccine. We also have linkages that allow 17 per cent of UQ students to undertake overseas experiences during their studies.

To the great advantage of current students, UQ has received over 90 Australian awards for teaching, more than any other Australian university, and we have almost 100 members of Australia’s four learned academies.

Over 200,000 graduates – including more than 10,000 PhDs – have applied their UQ advantage to enhance society, the environment and economies. UQ alumni make up a community that includes Nobel Laureate Peter Doherty; Reserve Bank of Australia Board Members Catherine Tanna and Kathryn Fagg; High Court of Australia judge The Honourable Justice Patrick Keane; Geoffrey Rush, a recipient of the ‘triple crown of acting’; Australia’s first female Governor-General Quentin Bryce; and Andrew Liveris, President, Chairman and CEO of The Dow Chemical Company and the first Australian to chair the United States Business Council.

UniQuest is another key part of the UQ research ecosystem. At UniQuest, we have a talented group of commercial engagement directors, who proactively package our researchers’ expertise and innovations for the market. They liaise continually with UQ researchers to identify commercial opportunities arising from our research, and they liaise with industry to help identify market gaps and discover where UQ research can contribute.