Research

The School of Life and Environmental Sciences harbours a wide-ranging research portfolio, covering areas as diverse as plant biotechnology, biochemistry, ecology, synthetic chemistry, evolutionary biology, cancer, trace metal biology, toxicology, bioinformatics and forensic science. This is conducted by over 20 academic staff working individually or as part of various groupings, many of which sit under the umbrella of one of Deakin University’s Priority Research Areas called “BioDeakin”.

In the five year period 1999-2003, the School’s research effort brought in over $8.5 million in external funding and lead to 270 journal article publications and the successful completion of 41 higher degrees by research. Importantly, this research was characterised by its broad quality, as judged by the proportion of funding from National Competitive Grants and the number of citations of its research publications. Furthermore, the research is highly relevant to the School’s Teaching and Learning program and enriches it in many ways.

The School has an outstanding reputation for high quality research. This is evidenced by its research productivity, as measured by successful grant applications from a variety of sources, academic publications in scholarly journals and its number of higher degree by research students. We have built an international reputation for its strong trans-disciplinary approach and characteristically “hands on” applied research. The School is able to adopt this approach because it has staff with a broad range of specialist expertise across the areas of earth science, fisheries, aquaculture, marine and freshwater ecology, marine biology, terrestrial ecology, conservation ecology of flora and fauna and management of terrestrial and aquatic environments.

We recognise that the success of our research operations depends on the quality, motivation and skill of our staff. The School's approach to research management is therefore enabling rather than directive. Staff also recognise that greater productivity is likely if there are teams working together in an encouraging environment that supports a research culture.