Where there's a will, there's a way

Person holding brown glasses with green forest in reflection of glasses.

Image: Bud Helisson/Unsplash

Image: Bud Helisson/Unsplash

The roles science and innovation play in creating a better future

Innovation and science play a critical role in driving a brighter future for humanity, from measuring the health impacts of plastic particles and chemicals, to creating new building materials which lower our carbon footprint.

However, the world's most ‘wicked challenges’, like climate change, often require experimental, risky or creative solutions that traditional investors aren’t always as willing to fund. This is where philanthropic organisations and universities can make an impact as places with the resources and the freedom to explore and be curious.

At the recent UQ ChangeMakers event on 19 September – Necessity is the mother of invention – we discussed the different roles we can play in advancing innovation for the greater good.

Researchers might come up with the ideas, but how can industry implement those ideas to make a difference? And what are some of the challenges we face in translating great ideas into tangible, world-changing solutions?

Keep scrolling to read what our panel of experts had to say.

Portrait headshot of Ms Lauren Stafford.

Ms Lauren Stafford

Bachelor of Applied Science '05, Innovation Manager at Woodside Energy and Director on the Board of Industry Innovation Science Australia

I would say necessity is the mother of innovation.

Innovation is the creation of new value. Ideas, concepts and inventions are necessary, but not sufficient to achieve impact.

"Demand is the most powerful driver of innovation. As we saw through the COVID-19 pandemic, when the needs of users or customers become apparent and in critical mass, the actors of the innovation ecosystem are mobilised to create solutions and fill the gap."

Where demand is strong and a need is unmet, customers will provide the constraints and feedback cycles to expedite development, identify research and technology gaps and increase the velocity of innovation.

In the energy sector, we see incredible innovation every day as our people solve problems to maintain safe and reliable production in remote areas and harsh environmental conditions.

On the larger scale (in terms of investment and technological invention needed), the pursuit for cleaner energy sources is core to the industry's future.

Innovation occurs when solutions are technically, socially and commercially feasible. The science or technology is one part of the problem space.

Increasingly, social adoption of solutions is the greatest risk to value realisation and impact. Innovation happens at the speed of trust, not at the speed of technology.

Image: Appolinary Kalashnikova/Unsplash

Wind turbines surrounded by grass field.
Portrait headshot of Emeritus Professor Sarah Dunlop.

Emeritus Professor Sarah Dunlop

Head, Plastics & Human Health, Minderoo Foundation

Never did humanity and the planet need invention more.

We are moving beyond planetary boundaries, safe operating spaces for life on earth and facing unimaginable environmental threats.

We cannot fail in averting these threats. Greenhouse gases, other chemical pollution (heavy metals, oil spills and radioactivity), industrial chemicals (pesticides, persistent organic pollutants, pharmaceuticals, and plastic) are all driving climate change.

"Chemicals underpin our modern lifestyle. But this chemical revolution is not only unsustainable, it’s threatening our existence."

We know what to do. Invention is as much about behaviour change as it is about technology, research and translation.

For plastic, we already have 5.8 billion metric tonnes of waste on the planet. It is not inert, but contains toxic chemicals that leach out during use and after disposal. And, every piece of plastic is destined to fragment into micro and nano plastics which get into us and all species examined so far, with unknown health impacts.

Business as usual with continued production will mean 25 billion metric tonnes of plastic waste by 2060. We cannot keep making and using more, and recycling little.

We need to re-invent ourselves behaviourally: curb plastic consumption and make things that are repairable, re-usable and recyclable. We need to introduce tough regulation before release to market, not after release.

We need totally disruptive inventions, new plastic materials that are not toxic and do not fragment.

We also need to invent ways of measuring plastic chemicals and micro-nanoplastics in the environment and humans so we can understand health impacts and measure how well we are stopping pollution.

Image: Teslariu Mihai/Unsplash

A bunch of empty plastic water bottles.
Portrait headshot of Professor Daniel Franks.

Professor Daniel Franks

Bachelor of Science (Honours Class 1) '00,
Professor and Deputy Director (Research) at UQ's Sustainable Minerals Institute

I call myself an impact-focused academic – my approach to research and practice has been to invest myself in a set of problems. In my case, these problems are around the role of minerals in sustainable development.

This is not to say that a discovery focus cannot bring real change, but just that sometimes we don’t know what to change or how to change something until we see the problem up close.

This approach started out of curiosity, but over time it has developed into a way of thinking about change and my role within it.

Necessity is a major motivator of human behaviour, but is insufficient as a driver of innovation. There is a need to address global poverty, yet it persists. There is a need to address global biodiversity loss and climate change, yet complacency has been the norm.

"Necessity is necessary, but our role as a university in the innovation landscape is actually more often to find a way through the barriers and constraints that plague existing problems, then to respond to a new need."

Innovation is as much about a way of looking at a problem as new technologies and inventions.

Sand is the most used resource by humans after water. We use in the vicinity of 50 billion tonnes of sand, gravel and crushed stone per year to make buildings, roads, computer chips and glass. Much of this sand is unsustainably extracted from dynamic environments like rivers, lakes, beaches and the ocean.

The metal mining industry crushes billions of tonnes of rock per year, with only a small fraction, sometimes as little as 0.5%, being the target commodity. The remainder ends up as mining waste. For years, researchers have been trying to repurpose this waste, but have run into barriers associated with it not being fit for purpose, and not being that desirable to the public.

At the Sustainable Minerals Institute, we have been working on a circular economy solution called ore-sand. Our innovation was to not view this material as a waste, but to value this sand-material in the same way as we value the commodity itself. This innovation is now being used at major mine sites in Brazil and Australia, where sand is being sold to local markets to build roads and buildings.

Image: Ievgen Skrypko/Adobe Stock

Aerial view of sandy construction site with machinery.

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