Projects
Student projects are a key part of the ANU McCusker Institute’s work. Our projects engage students and cover a wide range of topics related to social impact, community engagement, and research. Students can also propose their own projects, and we encourage students to get involved in projects that create change in their communities.
If you would like to propose a project, please get in touch.
Community and Partner Projects
Find out more about Community and Partner Projects
EoI Open
A Seat at the Table: Adapting Peer Support for Younger Men
This project asks how an evidence-backed model of care could be reimagined for a younger cohort. The Men’s Table works on a simple model —...
EoI Open
Beyond Loneliness: Building Canberra's Third Spaces
The Foundation for Social Health runs the Third Space Network, a Canberra-based project building a network of ordinary community spaces to become extraordinary places for...
EoI Open
Canberra Community Data Hub (Narrative Development & Community Voice)
The Canberra Community Data Hub will be an online platform that brings together data and community insight to better understand Canberra’s strengths and needs. Led...
EoI Open
Dear Prime Minister – Voices from Across the Nation
What happens when thousands of young Australians write directly to the Prime Minister, and those letters are brought together in one physical space?As Australia’s Youth...
EoI Open
Embedding Research in the Health System
Australia is a global leader in health and medical research, but a key challenge remains: embedding and translating research into real-world healthcare practice. Despite...
EoI Open
Environmentally Responsible Use of AI
Investigate the hidden environmental costs of AI and help ANU build practical guidance for sustainable tech choices. AI systems are rapidly embedded across universities—in...
EoI Open
Free the Press: The Media Freedom Bill Campaign
Australia's the only liberal democracy without legal press protection. You'll help change that.The Alliance for Journalists' Freedom (AJF) is partnering with the ANU McCusker...
EoI Open
Gateway to Gungahlin: Forecasting Canberra’s Active Travel Future
Canberra has long recognised the importance of its principal north-south corridor through the City and Gateway Urban Design Framework (2018) and the Southern Gateway Planning...
EoI Open
Implications of Community Sourced Flood Intelligence
Local community knowledge plays a significant role in disaster response — providing on-the-ground situational awareness that can assist agencies like the SES and local councils,...
EoI Open
Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) for Flooding
Nature-based Solutions (NbS) — such as re-vegetating riverbanks, restoring wetlands, and leaky weirs — are increasingly used to reduce flood risk and deliver co-benefits like...
Ongoing Project
Project Foresight
The purpose of this activity is to engage ANU students in the structured design and facilitation of crisis simulation scenarios. Students will apply course concepts...
EoI Open
Reducing Waste Contamination Through Understanding Campus Behaviour
Figure out why campus waste programs lose momentum and design interventions that stick in a constantly changing community. ANU aims to divert 50% of waste...
EoIs Closed
Roadmaps in Action: Supporting Economic Transition in Regional NSW
Through this project, students will develop practical skills in stakeholder consultation, regional analysis, and applied research. They will learn to assess water resource...
EoIs Closed
Sharing Stories, Sharing Joy
Funded by Creative Australia’s International Engagement Fund, Centre for Stories will host a delegation of Singaporean writers and arts workers in April 2026. The project...
EoI Open
Small Organisation, Big Systems — A Capacity-Building Project with Good Omen Goodeze
Through this placement, GOG is working toward a more sustainable, capable organisation. Their goals include better internal communications so the team can stay connected without...
Student Initiatives
Find out more about Student Initiatives
Ongoing Project
ANU Rocketry – Australian Universities Rocket Competition Project
Students will complete at least 80 hours of work on a defined project that contributes to ANU Rocketry’s preparation for the Australian Universities Rocket Competition...
Ongoing Project
ANU Solar Racing Project
The World Solar Challenge is a massive effort for students involved in the initiative. Students in ANU Solar Racing are encouraged to count their project...
Ongoing Project
Entrepreneurship Club Leadership
Students are welcome to develop their own project through EC to support or advance the club, or as their own entrepreneurship idea. Students can check...
Ongoing Project
The Next Generation of National Security Leaders
Participants will develop a strong understanding of Australia’s national security environment and government decision-making processes through immersive crisis simulations and...
Ongoing Project
Leading Change in Clubs and Societies
ANU clubs and societies are real organisations: budgets, events, hundreds of members, and a whole operation handed to a new committee every year. Sitting on...
ANU Living Lab
Turn the ANU campus into a testbed for real-world change. Living Lab projects use our own university as a site to trial, measure, and scale solutions for sustainability, wellbeing, and community life.
A Living Lab project is about 40 hours of team work with a campus partner, on a challenge aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the McCusker Institute's thematic areas — from energy, waste and food systems to accessibility, belonging and everyday wellbeing. Browse the current projects below to see what that looks like in practice.
Find out more about ANU Living Lab
Ongoing Project
ANU Student Urgent Relief Fund (SURF) Workplace Giving
Through the generosity of our ANU community and donors, the Student Urgent Relief Fund (SURF) provides support to ANU students who are experiencing financial hardship...
Ongoing Project
Barriers to Learning
Some of what makes university hard is the subject. Some of it is not: a recording that was never made, feedback that arrives after the...
Ongoing Project
Carbon Smart Events Incentive Program - Recognising Lower-Impact Events in Residential Halls
ANU event organisers already juggle budgets, bookings and promotion, and sustainability can feel like one more thing on the list. An incentive program that recognises...
Ongoing Project
Carbon Smart Events Toolkit - Translating the Guide for Residential Halls
The ANU Carbon Smart Events Guide provides a framework for lower-impact event planning, but it was designed for centrally organised university events rather than the...
Ongoing Project
Ongoing Project
Give It Forward - Circular Giving in Residential Halls
Every year, ANU residences generate a large volume of waste as students move out — much of it usable items simply discarded. The Give It...
Ongoing Project
Menstrual Equity on Campus
This is a project that was started by a student group in Semester 1 2026. You will have access to the resources that they have...
Ongoing Project
The CSS Community Website for Student Experience
The CSS Community Website for Student Experience is a College-wide initiative designed to create a central hub that brings together student resources, opportunities, events,...
Ongoing Project
Improving Your Residential Hall
ANU's residential halls are small institutions: budgets, committees with portfolios, staff, and a few hundred people who live with the results. The community you test...
Team Challenges
Find out more about Team Challenges
EoIs Closed
Pitch, Prototype, Pivot: An Introduction to Startup Building with InnovationACT
InnovationACT is a two-week entrepreneurship competition run by the Canberra Innovation Network (CBRIN), open to students, researchers and staff across ANU, University of...
Global Programs
Find out more about Global Programs
EoI Open
Pollinate India International Fellowship Program
Many Indians, particularly internal migrates, live in informal settlements. Such settlements typically have no essential service delivery for water, energy, or communications,...
Bring Your Own Project
Already involved in something? These routes let you bring the work with you, whether it's a community organisation you volunteer with, an idea for changing something on campus, or research you're doing with a supervisor. You shape the project with the person it serves, and it counts the same as any listed project.
Find out more about Bring Your Own Project
Ongoing Project
Bring Your Own Community Project
If you arrive already connected to a community organisation — through volunteering, work, family, a club, or an earlier placement. this pathway is for you!...
Ongoing Project
Bring Your Own Campus Idea
Some ideas arrive before a project does. You have noticed something on campus that could work better, or you are carrying a half-formed idea you...
Ongoing Project
Bring Your Own Research Project
If you are already working in research, or about to, this pathway lets you look at that work from angles it is not usually examined...