Season’s Greetings and 2025 End-of-Year Research Highlights | FOBJBS

This post is authored by Professor Zahid Islam with contribution from Dr Arif Khan

Strong Performance Across Key Research Indicators

As we reach the end of 2025, it is a pleasure to reflect on another year of strong research performance in the Faculty of Business, Justice and Behavioural Sciences (FOBJBS). According to the latest CSU Annual Research Report 2024 (prepared in 2025 by Professor Michael Friend, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Research), FOBJBS performed at the top among the Faculties at CSU on several key indicators in 2024. These include the highest HERDC income per FTE (based on staff with a research work function), the highest research outputs per FTE, the highest percentage of Q1/Q2 publications, the highest percentage of staff with Principal Supervisor eligibility (and the largest year-on-year gain in eligibility), the highest percentage of staff meeting Minimum Research Performance Expectations, the highest HDR enrolments per FTE, and the highest number of HDR candidates with scholarships per FTE. Although HERDC income decreased slightly in 2024 compared to 2023, FOBJBS academics submitted 32.6% more external grant applications (increasing from 43 in 2023 to 57 in 2024), demonstrating a strong and sustained commitment to securing external research funding which is very important for us. We can all be proud of these collective achievements.

Research Quality and Opportunities for Growth

Across our priority and emerging research areas, the quality of outputs has remained very strong in 2025, with seven out of 11 priority/emerging/supporting FOR codes achieving Q1/Q2 publication rates above 80% and six of them were above 90%. This reflects the ongoing commitment of colleagues to producing high-quality research outputs. At the same time, the data show that there is still room to strengthen our field-weighted citation impact (FWCI), and let us make it an important focus for 2026.

Building Capability Through Seminar Programs

In 2025, we delivered two streams of seminars: 1) FOBJBS Executive Dean’s Research PD Series and 2) FOBJBS Executive Dean’s Research Seminar Series. Through the 2025 FOBJBS Executive Dean’s Research PD Series, we delivered more than 10 professional development sessions with an average of around 20 participants per session. Thank you to all colleagues who attended these events. These sessions covered topics such as ethics application processes, budgeting and skill building for externally funded projects, and tips for making the most of conference attendance. The 2025 FOBJBS Executive Dean’s Research Seminar Series showcased the work of key researchers through 11 seminars. All sessions were recorded and made available to colleagues here.

Celebrating Outstanding Academic Achievements

We celebrated major research successes, including ARC Discovery and Linkage Project wins by Dr Jamie Ferrill and Professor Branka Krivokapic-Skoko and their teams, as well as the co-development of the Australian Wine Industry Gender Equity Toolkit, led by Associate Professor Larissa Bamberry and colleagues, in partnership with UNSW and industry bodies. These achievements exemplify the depth and breadth of expertise across our Faculty.

Colleagues across our Schools continued to take their research into real-world impact. Dr Kristy Campion provided national commentary through a live interview on ABC News; researchers in cybersecurity and agriculture advanced industry readiness through a major Cyber Security CRC project; community resilience research led by Associate Professor Val Ingham and Dr Lucia Wuersch resulted in the Resilient Villages report; and Dr Bede Harris’s book was nominated for the International Book of the Year Award in Constitutional Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.

Many other colleagues have achieved outstanding results like these accomplishments throughout the year. You can view these on the Research section of BJBS News and the monthly research digest, Research Bites.

Celebrating Our Vibrant Research Culture

Our internal research culture also thrived through vibrant School Research Days in the School of Business and School of Computing, Mathematics and Engineering. These workshops created opportunities for interdisciplinary collaborations and strong engagement with Gulbali Institute and other CSU institutes, One Basin CRC, and many valued industry partners. These examples highlight the extraordinary energy, creativity, and commitment of our academic community throughout 2025.

Colleagues across the Faculty also contributed meaningfully throughout 2025, demonstrating leadership and impact across a wide range of disciplines. Charles Sturt proudly hosted the ABEN 2025 Conference and Workshop in Bathurst, bringing national and international scholars together to discuss ethics, leadership, and responsibility in business and society. Congratulations to Dr Felicity Small, A/Prof Alain Neher, Dr Lucia Wuersch and their team for their outstanding leadership in organising the conference.

A Successful Year for Our HDR Community

Our Higher Degree Research (HDR) community has also enjoyed a highly successful year. As highlighted by our Sub-Dean (Graduate Studies), Dr Arif Khan, the Faculty secured four of the five AGRTP International Scholarships awarded across the University for 2026 – an outstanding result for our applicants and supervisory teams. In 2025 we welcomed 38 new HDR students across our Schools and centres and celebrated 17 completions so far, each contributing valuable scholarship within their fields. Our HDR students have also been recognised on national and international stages, receiving Best Paper Awards at conferences including WISE 2025 and IWCMC 2025, as well as the Vice-Chancellor’s Research Excellence Award for the HDR Thesis/Creative Work of the Year.

The 2025 FOBJBS HDR and Honours Conference was another highlight, featuring three keynote speakers (including two distinguished CSU alumni) and 26 student presentations that showcased the depth and breadth of research across the Faculty. We extend our sincere congratulations to all HDR students, supervisors, and professional staff whose dedication has shaped this exceptional year. Their contributions continue to strengthen our research culture and reputation.

Strengthening Our Research Foundations

Alongside these headline achievements, 2025 was also a year of substantial behind-the-scenes work to support long-term research strength. Our schools updated the school research strategies. We undertook a Faculty-wide assessment of FoR performance, staff RPI points and worked closely with Heads of School to support that our academics meet the Minimum Research Performance Expectations (MRPE). We delivered targeted seminars to help colleagues become (or remain) research active, endorsed 60 external funding applications in the RPR tool, and made strategic use of Tri-Faculty funds to support high-quality outputs and HERDC income. In 2025, in FOBJBS we allocated $245,533 to the five major research themes, along with $89,641 to support conference attendance, $14,379 for new staff establishment, $23,242 for researcher development, and $66,584 through various discretionary funds for FOBJBS academics. This is in addition to support provided through schemes such as the Open Access Publication scheme, the ECR scheme, and the HDR Support scheme.

We strengthened engagement with CSU research institutes through regular discussions with them in various forums including the Faculty Research Committee meetings, encouraged RISS applications by our academics and provided partial Faculty funding where possible, contributed to post–Cyber Security CRC planning, supported staff recruitment and probation processes from a research perspective, and progressed a range of HDR-related initiatives, including collaboration with institutes, review of professional doctorate programs, work to grow Honours and PhD enrolments, and clarification of HDR coordinator roles and Confirmation of Candidature (CoC) processes. Thank you Dr Arif Khan for excellent leadership in HDR related initiatives.

Looking Ahead to 2026

Looking ahead to 2026, we plan to build on this momentum by strengthening our social media presence to enhance the visibility of our research outputs and increase our potential for higher FWCI; continuing to lift our proportion of Q1 publications in top-tier journals; exploring stronger collaboration opportunities with CSU’s Institutes and other collaborators to increase HERDC income; reviewing our priority FoR codes; and working with Schools to create or update school research pages to better showcase our people/projects and increase our reputation both nationally and internationally. We also encourage colleagues to pursue collaborative and multidisciplinary projects wherever possible, as these partnerships often lead to higher-quality research and greater impact. These priorities are grounded in the data we have seen this year and in our shared aspiration to excel.