Vice-Chancellor and President,
Charles Darwin University
I am delighted to welcome you to the 2025 Charles Darwin University (CDU) Higher Degree by Research Conference. As research students, you are at the heart of our vision to become Australia’s most connected university.
Your courage, determination, and commitment to innovation are driving transformative change across the Northern Territory, Australia, and beyond. At CDU, we are proud to support and empower you—our emerging scholars—as the next generation of thinkers, leaders, and creators.
Each year, this conference brings together more than fifty research students from across CDU to share groundbreaking methodologies, transformative ideas, and pioneering research outcomes. This vibrant showcase is a testament to how your work is shaping a brighter, more sustainable future.
With campuses spanning hundreds of kilometres—from Darwin to Katherine, Nhulunbuy to Alice Springs, Sydney, and beyond – we unite a diverse community of scholars from within and outside the Northern Territory in a bold pursuit of innovation and progress.
This year’s conference theme, “Higher Degree by Research for Sustainable Futures,” challenges us to design our impact from the very start. At CDU, we pursue ambitious, purpose-driven goals that are deeply embedded in our unique context.
We believe that transformative training, education, and research can revolutionise lives and catalyse societal progress. That is why our commitment is unwavering. We ensure that every learning experience is delivered by visionary educators and innovative researchers and that each initiative is accessible, meaningful, and of the highest quality.
What we do isn’t just important; it matters deeply to our communities, powering sustainable futures and creating lasting change.
Your innovative insights, bold ideas, and unwavering passion have propelled this program to new heights. You are the catalyst for transformative change, consistently raising the bar of excellence and inspiring progress every day.
You make CDU.
Professor Scott Bowman AO
Vice-Chancellor and President
Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Community Connection,
Charles Darwin University
At CDU, we don’t just conduct research—we tackle the complex challenges facing our communities and remote regions.
As the university for northern Australia, our mission is clear: we drive progress in the fields crucial to regional prosperity, cohesion, wellbeing, and sustainability.
Across our Faculties, Institutes and Centres, our researchers are breaking new ground on the global stage.
From advancing Indigenous and tropical health to exploring environmental science, enhancing AI and cybersecurity, and shaping forward-thinking public policy, our research isn’t just breaking barriers—it’s crafting sustainable futures.
Our Higher Degree by Research Conference has rapidly become a cornerstone of our annual program, a compelling showcase of research excellence dedicated to nurturing resilience and sustainability.
Here, HDR students are more than mere participants; they are the trailblazing innovators harnessing transformative fieldwork, sharp inquiry, and groundbreaking projects that illuminate the path toward a resilient, thriving future for our communities and the world.
Each year, our conference offers invaluable exposure to student work, creating a vibrant forum for peer feedback and the cross-pollination of ideas.
These events are more than just presentations—they are essential practice grounds where our students refine the presentation skills that will serve them throughout their careers.
Thank you to everyone whose passion and dedication made this year’s program an outstanding success.
Professor Steve Rogers
Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Community Connection
Dean of Graduate Studies,
Charles Darwin University
Purposeful Research – Making a Change in Real Life
Welcome to Charles Darwin University’s 2024 Higher Degree by Research conference. This year’s conference comprises a mix of research presentations and candidature milestone presentations. Both presentation types provide an opportunity our HDR students to showcase the importance of their research and the progress being made.
The conference theme – Purposeful Research – Making a Change in Real Life – encapsulates the significance of CDU HDR research and its real-world impact.
The conference help can help all researchers to reflect on their own research contributions, which often involve expanding knowledge, advancing methods, as well as imparting practical benefits via positive environmental, economic, social, organisational, policy and regulatory outcomes.
The CDU HDR conference presentations frequently serve as practice runs for students attending national and international conferences and are often the starting point in dissemination process.
Effective dissemination also includes publishing papers and articles, along with promoting research outputs via media. Media exposure is great for promoting research more widely, and often kick starts citation as well as leading onto other research opportunities.
The CDU media team can assist in this regard, especially if you can clearly relate your research to topical real-life themes – the focus of this year’s conference. To support our HDR students in this endeavour our Research Communications Officer (raphaella.saroukos@cdu.edu.au) will be using the conference to help identify HDR research and researchers to feature in CDU press releases.
Well done to everyone presenting at the conference, it is great to see our HDR students taking advantage of this opportunity to share your research with others.
Professor Steven Greenland
Dean of Graduate Studies