UNSW has settled on a structure for its $200m Futures “innovative inter-disciplinary and cross-faculty research” Programme, “a bold new framework for addressing humanity’s major challenges. It follows consultation on an original proposal baroque in its simplicity, which required Futures programmes to work with the university’s grand challenges scheme as well as “dovetailing with faculty efforts,” (CMM   May 22).

The Futures Programme now has “a more efficient model with a single layer of administration, although while it gets people out of silos there still seem to be landmines, what with the way Future Institute directors will; “oversee researchers who are based in schools and faculties aligned to their interdisciplinary initiative.”

The university wants no fewer than six and no more than 12 institutes, with the first of them starting next year. While no areas are prescribed UNSW offers examples of possible priorities, including medical technology, energy, materials, and future biology.