Research excellence celebrated at annual competition
Professor Deborah Sweeney with 2024 Research Impact Competition winner Dr Thomas Longden
Dr Thomas Longden from the Institute for Culture and Society and the Urban Transformations Research Centre has won the 2024 Research Impact Competition, presenting his insightful research project, ‘Temperature-related Energy Insecurity in Remote Indigenous Communities’.
An annual highlight of Western Sydney University’s Research Week, this year’s Competition saw 16 researchers compete in the high-speed event, where they shared their work and highlighted the impact and contributions to the community stemming from their research, in just five minutes.
In Australia, prepayment for electricity primarily operates in remote Indigenous communities – and when pre-paid credit runs out electricity is disconnected.
These disconnections are not due to grid stability or outages and Dr Longden’s research found that disconnections are frequent, with de-energisation occurring almost as soon as credit runs out.
In his presentation, Dr Longden shared research findings that demonstrate the extent of energy insecurity in remote Indigenous communities.
“91 per cent of households experienced a disconnection from electricity in a given year, 74 per cent were disconnected more than ten times and we found that households with high electricity use had a one in three chance of a disconnection during heatwaves or coldwaves,” said Dr Longden.
“Prepayment for energy is a blind spot for Australia and many energy experts we have spoken to hadn’t even heard of this issue. They may know that most of these communities rely on diesel generators but haven’t heard of prepayment or a power card.”
The runner up prize was awarded to dual winners, Dr Diana Karamacoska from NICM Health Research Institute with her presentation ‘Community Education Regarding Dementia is Essential’, and Dr Rebecca Smith from the School of Health Sciences, with her presentation of ‘“It looks better than a bowl of mush”: 3D Food Printing for Safe and Enjoyable Mealtimes for People with Dysphagia’.
2024 Research Impact Competition finalists
The Western Ventures innovation prizes, an initiative to support projects with excellent commercialisation, potential were awarded to Mrs Gladis Kabil from the School of Nursing and Midwifery with ‘On the Road to Improving Sepsis Care’, and Dr Michael Radzieta from the School of Medicine for ‘Biofilm Chronicles: The Silent Architects Driving Chronic Wounds’.
The audience also selected two People’s Choice winners, Dr Sophie Smit from The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development with ‘How Understanding the Neuroscience of Empathy Addresses Today’s Challenges’, and Dr Diana Karamacoska for her presentation.
Participants were judged by the expert panel consisting of former Interim Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Clare Pollock, Western Sydney University Board of Trustees member, Mr James Christian and a member of the External Advisory Board for the Institute for Culture and Society, Ms Indu Balachandran.
Honoured to win the Competition, Dr Longden is looking forward to assisting in enacting change for the impacted communities.
“It was great to represent a whole group of people working towards a better understanding of the impacts of extreme temperatures on energy disconnections in remote communities and pushing for change via different submissions and reports,” said Dr Longden.
“Original Power recently won a grant from Energy Consumers Australia to conduct a national study on the lived experience of prepayment for electricity, and we are one of the partners. This project will lead to further advocacy by Original Power, First Nations Clean Energy Network, and our advocacy allies.”
ENDS
26 July 2024
Photo credit: Sally Tsoutas
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