In service of a flourishing humanity

A message from Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise) Professor Abid Khan:

As we finalise a long-term, differentiated Research and Enterprise Roadmap aligned to Vision 2033, ACU is already taking tangible steps to integrate our research excellence within a comprehensive framework focused on human flourishing.

One of the key steps in realising our research and enterprise ambitions is ACU’s role as a founding partner in the Aikenhead Centre for Medical Discovery (ACMD). While anchored in MedTech research and development, ACMD is designed to bring together diverse disciplines, uniting researchers, HDR students, clinicians and industry in new ways to advance patient focused healthcare solutions and solve complex challenges. Through this partnership, we’re strengthening our connections with other universities and healthcare partners across Victoria and driving innovation that is deeply collaborative and focused on outcomes that matter to communities.

By later 2025, ACU cohorts of staff and HDR students will have the opportunity to work from the new, purpose-built building on the St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne Campus. This facility will include biomedical labs, MedTech workshops, shared workspaces, and co-location opportunities designed not just for STEMM, but for researchers across HASS, nursing and allied health disciplines to collaborate. It’s a place where MedTech-focused, multidisciplinary research will sit alongside ethics, education, social policy, implementation science and design—opening space for interdisciplinary collaboration from day one.

Ahead of the official opening of the new ACMD building later this year, we are working internally to communicate the shared ACMD vision and to actively identify the right people, disciplines, and capabilities to engage with the collaborative opportunities within the new building. The goal is to ensure ACU is well-positioned from the outset, bringing distinctive, cross-disciplinary strengths to a shared commitment to improving lives through innovation, collaboration and patient focused solutions.

More broadly, this work is part of a wider effort to support the emergence of a new innovation district in Melbourne that connects public, private, research, and education sectors. It reflects ACU’s commitment to mission-led research and community-focused innovation.