Health is a priority research area at ACU, and the Faculty of Health Sciences plays a key role in delivering research excellence in this field. The University has received top ERA scores (well above world standard) in four areas: human movement and sports science, nursing, public health and health services, and psychology.
The School of Allied Health focuses on research into social work, physiotherapy, speech pathology and occupational therapy with a focus on promoting health, wellbeing and social justice.
Our behavioural science researchers focus on the areas of psychology, sport science and disability, as well as the clinical applications of exercise and cognitive-motor interventions in health, chronic disease and rehabilitation.
The School of Nursing, Midwifery and Paramedicine has extensive research expertise across acute care, cardiovascular disease, neonatal care, acute stroke and palliative care. We have close ties to the Nursing Research Institute, a collaboration between ACU and St Vincent’s Health, Sydney.
The Nursing Research Institute (NRI) conducts multidisciplinary outcomes-focused healthcare research of high clinical relevance. The NRIs vision is to create a world-class centre in nursing health services research with our industry partners to improve the well-being, safety and quality of patient care and health service delivery.
Visit the instituteThe Healthy Brain and Mind Research Centre (HBMRC) aims to advance knowledge critical to improving mental health, participation and well-being. The HBMRC brings together three programs of research excellence in mental health, addiction neuroscience, and disability and development.
Visit the Research CentreThe Sports Performance, Recovery, Injury and New Technologies (SPRINT) Research Centre in the School of Behavioural and Health Sciences will advance knowledge in sports performance, recovery, and injury by developing new, and using established, research techniques.
Visit the Research CentreThis National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) funded project brings together a consortium of universities and industry partners to research integrating senior living with secondary school environments. ACU has two projects contributing to the overarching NHMRC funded research project.
Visit the Research Project
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ACU psychologist Dr Michael Noetel has given a great deal of thought to why we donate, and how our goodwill can have the greatest impact.
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On this year's World Day of the Sick, we are bringing together international experts and thought leaders to discuss some of the emerging impacts of the COVID-19 pandemi...
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ACU neuroscientist Valentina Lorenzetti has been awarded the prestigious 2022 Al & Val Rosenstrauss Fellowship.
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Dr Evelyn Parr from the Mary MacKillop Institute for Health Research has been honoured for her research into chrono-nutrition.
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Australian Catholic University will launch ACU Online, a fully online education portfolio, on 8 December 2021.
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A valid, affordable and portable system capable of analysing running gait is the objective for an Australian Catholic University project that was among 15 recipients aw...
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Students from Queensland's South Burnett have at least two pathways to careers in sport and exercise science after a visit from ACU.
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Concussed athletes should commence moderate intensity exercise within two days of injury according to new Australian Catholic University research that challenges tradit...
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A six-week internship with the Australian men’s rugby union team was a money-can't-buy experience for Curtis Reck who is nearing completion of a Bachelor of High Perfor...
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Leading ACU neuroscientist Valentina Lorenzetti was one of 25 international expert researchers to develop a new global toolkit that can measure cannabis use.
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Statement from Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Zlatko Skrbis on the safe return of international students to Victoria
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Pitching and storytelling masterclass.
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Digital marketing essentials. The five stories of social change and identifying your customer avatar.
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Education experts at Australian Catholic University say teachers should bring back a sense of joy to student learning and extend lunch breaks when schools resume in Oct...
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Business modelling and value proposition design
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A telehealth exercise program for palliative cancer patients with the muscle wasting syndrome cachexia is improving their quality of life, physical function, and streng...
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Children whose parents have mental illness are two to 13 times more likely to develop a mental illness themselves which is why prevention and early intervention is crit...
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A new study from researchers at ACU’s School of Behavioural and Health Sciences will investigate how resistance training and other activities impact vascular function d...
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When all else is equal the difference between Olympic gold and silver may come down to something as seemingly simple as what an athlete eats.
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Standing up and moving for three minutes every half hour may lessen the health impacts of sitting too much, a new study shows.
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The NSW Government’s COVID-19 TechVoucher program is now open for applications.
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New findings from ILSTE research discusses Teaching Performance Assessments as cultural disruptors in Initial Teacher Education.
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For the Australian Catholic University students and alumni elite athletes, indelible memories were carved into their minds as they contemplate what comes next in their ...
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ACU's five Paralympians have returned home from Tokyo having unearthed previously undiscovered strengths.
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Australian Catholic University (ACU) and the Order of Malta have signed a memorandum of understanding that details partnering on a range of life-changing engagement ini...
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Staff and students on ACU's Brisbane campus will be able to borrow a human book in a scheme designed to increase understanding through human contact.
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Meet Australian Catholic University alumnus Rob Howells, the ex-crane operator who is living proof you don't have to be a bookworm to be a scientist.
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Sleep-deprived athletes risk poor performances, with almost three-quarters falling short of desired slumber targets by at least an hour, a new study has found.
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ACU and Nudgee College have partnered on a research project aimed at better understanding and releasing the pressures on elite student athletes.
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The ketogenic diet may turn elite Olympic athletes into fat-burning machines but new ACU research has found it does not improve endurance.
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The Hon Justice Martin Daubney AM and Ms Virginia Bourke have been appointed to the positions of Chancellor and Pro-Chancellor of Australian Catholic University (ACU).
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Leading ACU hamstring expert David Opar will be involved in a $4 million National Football League (NFL) funded study that will investigate the prevention and treatment...
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The research team behind an innovative program tackling cardiovascular disease risk in children has been recognised with one of the Council of Academic Public Health In...
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Four-time Paralympic swimmer Brenden Hall and Rio sevens rugby gold medallist Emma Tonegato are among 11 current and former students who will represent ACU in Japan at ...
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Australian Catholic University’s Dr Grant Duthie, from the Sports Performance, Recovery, Injury and new Technologies Research Centre (SPRINT), is part of a team helping...
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Eating isn’t cheating, according to an Australian Catholic University study that found inadequately fuelled cyclists could be sabotaging their most important rides.
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Valentina Lorenzetti's work has led the top US federal health agency to announce a new standard dose of THC in cannabis research.
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Green space around primary schools may improve students’ academic performance.
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Head of the School of Philosophy Dr Richard Colledge writes on the importance of providing general education through systems such as ACU’s Core Curriculum.
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The long, hard path to a paramedicine degree from ACU is worth all the sacrifices for rower Rowena Meredith who has qualified for the Tokyo Olympic Games.
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ACU has awarded its highest honour, an honorary doctorate, to Marionne MacRitchie and a posthumous award to the Hon John Fahey AC, GCSG during graduation ceremonies in ...
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Time-restricted eating could be a game changer for more than one million Australians with type 2 diabetes.
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A former soldier is helping other veterans find peace through university study.
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Coaches may be rummaging through their Spotify playlists after Australian Catholic University research found - for the first time in team sport - that high-tempo music ...
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Australian research, proven to improve children’s heart health and fitness, has been published by JAMA Pediatrics, the top-ranked paediatrics journal in the world.
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Professor Suzanne Chambers AO has been appointed to the role of Executive Dean Health Sciences at Australian Catholic University (ACU).
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A country as innovative as the USA doesn't expect to receive cutting-edge advice in slashing soft tissue injuries in its NFL from halfway across the world yet leading A...
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A six-week exercise program of either high-intensity interval training (HIIT) or resistance training can build and maintain muscle mass and strength in middle-aged men,...
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Australian Catholic University Professor Jim Sallis, has called for a heightened focus on exercise as a pandemic control after his research revealed physically inactive...
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ACU collaborated with Catholic Health Australia to to review the lessons learned from the pandemic for health and aged care operators.
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ACU aged care experts say the final report of the Royal Commission into Aged Care and Safety needs to be the tipping point required to ensure the needs of vulnerable ol...
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ACU's Sports Performance Recovery Injury and New Technologies (SPRINT) Research Centre is helping elite footballers stay on the field.
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An exciting partnership between Australian Catholic University and the Sacramento Kings will expose the NBA club to world leading researchers and timely advances in per...
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The Melbourne Storm are more likely to win away from home than any of their opponents, according to a new study.
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New world-leading physical benchmarks have been set for Australia’s men’s and women’s rugby union players who will be tested as part of an alliance with ACU’s Sports Pe...
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Mental health nurses report staff shortages, unsustainable high workloads, acutely unwell patients, and verbal and physical aggression as top causes of work stress impa...
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A new program launched by Australian Catholic University (ACU) and Metro North Hospital and Health Service is helping Australian seniors with lung disease get back to d...
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ACU’s Institute of Child Protection Studies is part of a new Global Safeguarding Alliance (GSA) that will promote knowledge and worldwide exchange on safeguarding and t...
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When it comes to metabolic health, it's not just what you eat, it's when you eat it. New ACU research has added to the growing body of evidence showing how time-restric...
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Physiotherapists can play a central role in helping their patients quit smoking with a simple three-step intervention model, according to new ACU research from cardiore...
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Carb loading in the week before a marathon is an old school approach and not the ideal way to prepare for an endurance event according to exercise physiologist Andy Kin...
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There’s good news for more than one million Australians who have type 2 diabetes with new ACU research starting to tease apart how changing the time you eat might benef...
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ACU clinical exercise physiologist Dr Phil Chapman supervised a simulation demonstrating how heat affects classroom learning for ABC series Big Weather (and how to surv...
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Living within the strict confines of Queensland's biosecurity hub has not prevented NSW Swifts midcourter Tayla Fraser from meeting her Bachelor of Exercise and Sports ...
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New ACU research is showing how busting a move via silent disco technology can boost the wellbeing of residential aged care residents with dementia.
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It's been a tough year on the field for Alex Twal and Oliver Clark but the Wests Tigers duo have succeeded off it by completing degree at ACU.
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Like so many Victorian teenagers, a young Tom Crameri just wanted to work for an AFL club.
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Both elite and amateur athletes would get better performance bang for their buck using traditional carbohydrate drinks/sports foods rather than costly hydrogel drinks, ...
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ACU students Shannon Chilman and Sam Parker have embarked on a unique prac assignment - an internship at V8 Supercars powerhouse the Red Bull Holden Racing Team.
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Prac placement at a hospital in western Sydney has provided thrower Alex Hulley with a timely distraction to her disrupted mission to compete at the Tokyo Olympics.
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A life-changing new program is giving young people of all abilities the confidence to develop an everlasting love of physical activity.
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Ester Cerin, program leader of the Behaviour, Environment and Cognition Research Program at the Mary MacKillop Institute for Health Research (MMIHR) at ACU, has been aw...
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A three-day turnaround is sufficient for soccer players to rebound as football administrators around the globe race to compress fixtures to complete seasons disrupted b...
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Staff in ACU's School of Nursing, Midwifery and Paramedicine celebrate International Nurses Day on Tuesday May 12th by giving a shout out for the profession of Nursing ...
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ACU researcher Imre Kouw has received the British Nutrition Foundation's prestigious 2020 BNF Drummond Early Career Scientist Award which recognises early career excell...
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Bigger, better and stronger is the silver lining by-product of COVID-19 isolation for Sydney Roosters winger Brydie Parker.
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Separated or divorced parents normally grapple with countless issues, but the COVID-19 crisis means they face new difficulties negotiating shared care of children with ...
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Seven new research centres will enhance ACU’s reputation in the arts, education, health, and theology and philosophy.
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Potential Olympians will hit and field virtual balls as part of an innovative partnership between Australian Catholic University and Baseball Queensland.
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It's no secret that being in nature is good for your health. Something as simple as a walk in the park can boost well-being and deliver benefits ranging from better sle...
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ACU researcher Evelyn Parr will explore if delaying breakfast and consuming an early dinner – known as time-restricted eating – can improve the symptoms of lifestyle-re...
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Older Australians who sneak exercise into the day with a regular morning workout significantly improve decision-making for the next eight hours of the day.
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Research excellence at ACU has been further recognised by the Australian Research Council (ARC) for its significant impact in advancing health, education and social out...
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Exercise is being teamed up with drug therapy to see if it can become a potent weapon against prostate cancer.
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Michael Baker has been awarded a prestigious ESSA Fellowship recognising his contribution to the exercise and sport science industry, support and dedication to the asso...
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ACU’s Jack Hickey has been awarded the prestigious 2018 Exercise & Sports Science Australia (ESSA) medal for his ground-breaking work in hamstring injury.
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Performance recovery expert Dr Shona Halson hopes her recognition as one of Exercise and Sports Science Australia’s top female leaders in 2019 will inspire a new genera...
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The size of the brain’s pleasure and reward processing sensors could be behind increased body fat in adolescents and obesity later in life, new research has found.
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Inspired by maestros like Ballon d’Or winners Luka Modric and Lionel Messi, sport scientists are investigating whether they can measure and teach one of football’s grea...
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Australian Catholic University’s Doseena Fergie and Bruce Kemp have received some of the nation’s highest honours in this year’s Australia Day awards.
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Time-poor parents are creating a “backseat generation” of children who don’t walk to school even when they live close by.
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Women who eat a diet filled with unhealthy junk food have higher rates of the hallmark Alzheimer’s protein beta-amyloid in their brains - putting them at greater risk o...
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As tennis demands more from its players, an Australian Catholic University study has revealed it is women who pay a greater physical toll at the Australian Open.
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ACU Senate has further renewed the contract for Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Greg Craven until December 2022, University Chancellor the Honourable John Fahey...
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Quantifying belief, wrangling data and rapid rehabilitation were among the burning issues for improving athlete performance and wellbeing as leading minds in Olympic an...
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Professor Sandy Middleton, Director of ACU’s Nursing Research Institute, was recently inducted as a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing...
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Imagine what it would be like to not have to worry about the financial side of university.
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ACU researchers are trialling a program to address thoughts and behaviours about eating and weight before they develop into an eating disorder.
Learn about our range of research institutes, academies and collaborative centres specialising in areas other than health.
Learn moreThe Institute for Positive Psychology and Education addresses critical educational and psychosocial issues through positive psychology.
Visit the instituteThe Mary MacKillop Institute for Health Research collaborates with local and international partners to address critical public health issues.
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