The University of New South Wales has received funding from the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) for their City Futures Research Centre, Design & Architecture and UNSW Canberra researchers.

AHURI is a national independent research network exclusively dedicated to housing, homelessness, cities and related urban research. It funds overarching inquiries, which include inquiry (sub) projects, and stand-alone projects. Eight UNSW researchers are collaborating across seven projects funded by AHURI, with four being led by UNSW.

The projects include a ‘Housing in a circular economy’ inquiry, that will establish a framework for delivering better housing outcomes for environmental sustainability. ‘Financing home ownership: opportunities and challenges’ is another AHURI-funded inquiry. The research will consider how financing home ownership has evolved and the implications of alternative policy options. 

UNSW Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research, Professor Nicholas Fisk says he is proud of the efforts of the researchers to have gained funding.

“UNSW has performed really well in the highly competitive 2021 AHURI funding round, which further strengthens our urban planning and housing research capacity across the University,” he says.

“Eight UNSW researchers are collaborating across seven funded projects and leading four of those seven. This year, the majority of the UNSW researchers are at City Futures Research Centre while it's pleasing to see our first project out of UNSW Canberra, led by Dr Milad Ghasri at the School of Engineering & Information Technology.”

UNSW AHURI Research Centre Director Hazel Easthope – who is currently leading a project on delivering sustainable apartment housing – says the projects the network fund are of importance and interest to wider society.

“They are practical and policy-relevant projects, based on rigorous analysis and research, and they're on important, timely topics,” she says. 

“It's about how we can support a transition to the development and redevelopment of more sustainable housing. In the current context, when people are concerned about housing delivery, housing affordability, but also environmental impacts, we are asking pretty significant questions.”

A requirement of AHURI projects states that collaborations must take place between researchers at two or more universities. As a result, UNSW researchers will work in partnership with other researchers based at Sydney University, RMIT, Swinburne University of Technology, University of South Australia, University of Adelaide, University of Tasmania, University of the Sunshine Coast and Curtin University. Easthope says researchers come from various generations and backgrounds that result in a more well-rounded research approach. 

“AHURI supports projects with a mix of early career and mid-career and more senior academics. The projects help new researchers build a research profile and develop networks across the participating universities,” she says.

To read more about the research being undertaken, head to cityfutures.be.unsw.edu.au.