Melbourne takes research impact to the streets

One of Australia’s top universities has held a street exhibition to show the impact of its world-leading research.

As part of the Made Possible by Melbourne exhibition, interactive installations were placed throughout the Victorian capital to demonstrate how the University of Melbourne had helped to change the lives of people across the world.

One installation outside Flinders Street station showcases 14 separate research stories, including the university’s work on water efficiency and how its iron-enriched rice could help to solve the problem of “hidden hunger”.

Other displays gave Melbourne residents the chance to experience what it's like to lose sight from blinding eye diseases, such as trachoma, which are areas of the university’s research, and how much water goes into producing one sweetcorn cob.

“Melbourne is widely regarded as Australia’s cultural capital, so in offering up a public exhibition of the artefacts that tell the story of the university’s research outcomes, we believe that Melburnians and visitors from around the world will be truly moved by the scale of what we continue to achieve,” said Glyn Davis, the university’s vice-chancellor.

The exhibition series, which ran throughout November, was advertised in cinemas, posters and online throughout its run.

“We…understand that Melburnians lead busy lives and university research is not on their radar, so we need to be creative in how we attract attention to our research output and how it can benefit them or those they care about,” said Lara McKay, Melbourne’s executive director of marketing and communications.

jack.grove@tesglobal.com