Our top 10 projects for 2025

10. Charging requirements for Melbourne’s electric bus fleet

This project has been designed to analyse the public transport bus network of metropolitan Melbourne, and build a spatio-temporal charging map of electric buses (EB) under different charging mechanisms, e.g. depot-based charging, and a combination of depot-based and en-route charging.

Partners on this project are the Centre for New Energy Technologies and RMIT University.

9. Supply chain traceability of live Southern Rock Lobster exports

This project will develop an innovative traceability system for the Australian Southern Rock Lobster (SRL) industry, leveraging cutting-edge computer vision and machine learning to uniquely identify lobsters.

Enabling individual tracking from ocean to plate, the system will enhance supply chain transparency, protects against seafood fraud, and fosters consumer trust in key export markets. It allows for individual-level quality assessments and checks, offering valuable insights to improve handling and logistics while ensuring premium product standards.

Participants on this project are Fiordland Lobster Company Limited and the University of Tasmania.

8. Utrecht to Australia: Unlocking scalable, low-cost V2G

Utrecht to Australia is a pioneering research and development project, focused on adapting the proven, internationally leading Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) model from Dutch city Utrecht to the Australian context. The project will analyse the features that enabled Utrecht’s success and reframe them to suit Australia’s distinct energy and mobility landscape.

This is one of our Impact Extension Program projects, and on this we partner with Net Zero Engineering Solutions.

7. Trialling drones for medical use in NT remote communities

This piece is a project outcome article stemming from the completed Integrating drones into NT health project.

This work looked to develop local capacity to integrate autonomous drone aircraft into the health care supply chain to remote Northern Territory (NT) communities. This initiative marked the first application of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) for healthcare delivery in Australia. It is the first ever trial of freight delivery via RPAS outside of an Australian urban centre and the first attempt to operate RPAS in and around Aboriginal land and communities.

Participants on the project were NT Health and Charles Darwin University..

6. Large Australian animals and cars: Safety for all

Another project outcome article, this one from the completed Large Animal Activated Roadside Monitoring and Alert System project. The issue of animal-vehicle collisions (AVC) looms large in Australia, resulting in injuries and fatalities to both. As roads increasingly encroach on habitat areas, there are regular instances of animals moving across road corridors. Fencing corridors incurs negative impacts on animal population distributions and are expensive to maintain. This project developed and tested a system to help lessen the danger.

Participants on this project were the Department of Transport and Main Roads (Queensland), University of Sydney‘s Australian Centre for Field Robotics, and Queensland University of Technology‘s CARRS-Q.

5. Working near traffic: Work zone end of queue study

This project aimed to reduce the frequency and/or occurrence/severity of injuries to people involved in end of queue crashes at road worksites and increase overall safety for staff and public within these worksites through the testing of different traffic control measures.

Specifically, the project will develop an evidence base to understand which traffic control measures are most effective in reducing the frequency/occurrence/severity of injuries at end of queue road worksites. Findings of this project will provide valuable insights for making roadwork sites safer for motorists and road workers.

The project has been completed, and a wrap-up and downloadable final report is available at Roadworks zones: Increasing safety for roadworkers and drivers.

Participants on the project were Transport for NSW and Deakin University.

4. National Variable Pricing Matrix: Sustainable community transport

Addressing the need to make community transport (CT) sustainable and maintain quality, Australian Community Transport Association (ACTA) started working with its members and the Commonwealth government to devise a new way to determine the cost of CT, along with new policy settings, while also looking to identify innovation that would support sustainable CT.

The result was the National Variable Pricing Matrix (NVPM). It was pleasing to see that this has been achieved, but it has only tested with a small cohort of CT providers, in limited situations.

The aim of this project is to test and improve the cost and policy settings of the NVPM for community transport providers to ensure sustainability and quality post 2025. If this shows promise, develop a national implementation strategy.

This project has now been completed, and a wrap-up of it can be found at National Community Transport Pricing model.

Participants on this project were Australian Community Transport Association (ACTA) and the University of South Australia.

3. Road worksites safety: Evidence-based traffic control measures

The one and only appearance of one our webinars in the Top 10. The webinar discussed outcomes from the Working near traffic: Work zone end of queue study (which you can see made it to #5 in this Top 10 list). This project investigated how to reduce the frequency and/or occurrence/severity of injuries to people involved in end of queue crashes at road worksites and increase overall safety for staff and public within these worksites through the testing of different traffic control measures.

Specifically, the project developed an evidence base to understand which traffic control measures are most effective in reducing the frequency/occurrence/severity of injuries at end of queue road worksites. Findings of this project will provide valuable insights for making roadwork sites safer for motorists and road workers.

Project outcomes from this work, plus downloadable final reports, are available at Roadworks zones: Increasing safety for roadworkers and drivers. Participants on the project were Transport for NSW and Deakin University.

2. Being a V2G trailblazer: Lessons for mass market adoption

This is an article about the progress on the Leading the charge in bi-directional charging project. In Australia right now there is the beginning of a quiet revolution. One that has the potential to bring about a shift in the balance of power supply and demand. That revolution is the advent of bidirectional charging, or Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G).

This is the second appearance in this Top 10 list on the new and emerging mix of technologies that is V2G.

Participants on this project are NRMA, University of Technology Sydney‘s Institute for Sustainable Futures, and Amber Electric.

1. Motorcyclist safety: Connected motorcycle pilot

And, drum roll please, the number one, most-read project article for 2025 is this important piece of work. Motorcycle riders are over-represented in fatal and serious injury crashes compared to other transport modes – too many riders’ lives are lost to preventable crashes. This project will leverage emerging C-ITS technologies to connect riders with infrastructure, cloud and vehicle data providing alerts to improve rider awareness to relevant real-time safety issues.

This project has recently been completed, and a wrap-up of the project and final report is available at Using C-ITS to make motorcyclists safer.

Participants on this project were Department of Transport and Main Roads (Queensland), Transport Accident Commission, and La Trobe University.