Dear staff,
We received some wonderful news yesterday with UQ being named Australia’s leading university in the inaugural Best Universities Ranking published by the Australian Financial Review (AFR).
The AFR’s ranking system provides a comprehensive assessment of performance based on 5 key categories: student satisfaction, research performance, global reputation, career impact, and equity and access. So, this great result is a credit to teams working right across our University.
I’d like to thank you all for your contributions to the sustained excellence of our teaching, student experience and support, research, and community engagement programs.
Leading the nation in Highly Cited Researchers
The excellence of our research community was highlighted once again last week, with UQ receiving 40 Highly Cited Researcher (HCR) Awards in the 2023 Clarivate HCR list. This result places UQ equal first among Australian universities on the global ‘HiCi’ list, along with the University of Melbourne.
To be named on the HiCi list, researchers must be ranked in the top 1% of researchers globally, as measured by citations in the world’s leading journals over the past decade.
This year, 36 UQ researchers made the list (with 4 of these researchers achieving HCR status in 2 different subject areas). This is the third successive year that UQ has topped the nation in this global survey and the result places UQ equal 25th in the world for HCR awards in 2023.
Recent grants, awards, and recognition
In further great news, it’s been announced today that two UQ research teams have been successful in securing $5 million grants, each, through the 2023 NHMRC Synergy Grants scheme. Professor Gail Garvey will lead a project to improve cancer screening for Indigenous Australians; while Professor Paul Hodges will lead a team that seeks to improve treatments for patients suffering from chronic pain.
UQ researchers and start-ups received 4 of the 6 awards on offer at the Life Sciences Queensland 2023 GENE Awards held last Friday. Congratulations to Associate Professor Mark Smythe and Dr Sonia Shah, as well as UniQuest startups Vaxxas and Vicebio on this well-deserved recognition of your great work.
Earlier this week, Patina at Alumni Court (UQ St Lucia) received the Gold Award for Best Restaurant Caterer at the National Restaurant and Catering Awards for Excellence 2023. Congratulations to Brian Roberts and the wonderful team at both Customs House and Patina.
Congratulations also to Professor Bronwyn Fredericks and Professor Ilana Mushin, who have been elected as Fellows of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. Bronwyn and Ilana were among 40 new Fellows announced by the Academy yesterday.
In addition, UQ’s Heron Island Alumni Experience (held in March this year as part of our Regional Roadshow) was recognised with a Highly Recommended award at the Engagement Australia 2023 Excellence Awards. Congratulations to all involved in organising this outstanding travel experience for our alumni community.
Molecular Clamp succeeds in safety trial
I am also delighted to report that UQ’s re-engineered molecular clamp vaccine platform has been proven to be safe and effective at neutralising viruses in a clinical safety trial.
This pivotal proof-of-concept testing clears the ways to progress the promising Clamp2 technology in a range of research programs. My congratulations to the project leader Associate Professor Keith Chappell and the team on these very encouraging results.
Don’t forget to vote in the EA Ballot
I would like to remind all eligible staff that voting is currently open in the employee ballot on the proposed UQ Enterprise Agreement 2021–2026 and the ballot will remain open until Monday 27 November 2023 at 4pm AEST.
If you are eligible to vote (Professional HEW Levels 1-9, and Academic Levels A-E), I encourage you to do so. You can find your unique link to cast your ballot in the email sent to your work email on Tuesday morning. A reminder email will also be sent today to those who haven’t already voted.
UQ Thanks You
Finally, given it’s been a pretty damp week across South-East Queensland, we were really pleased to be able to host the UQ Thanks You events at Herston last Friday and Gatton on Tuesday. I look forward to seeing many more of you at the third of these events this Friday afternoon at St Lucia.
With best wishes
Debbie
