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New name for a leading water research centre

One of Australia’s leading water research centres, based within The University of Queensland, is undergoing a rebrand.

As of July 2021, the Advanced Water Management Centre (AWMC) will become the Australian Centre for Water and Environmental Biotechnology (ACWEB).

Centre Director, Professor Zhiguo Yuan AM, has said that this change is part of the natural evolution of the centre.

The AWMC today

“The AWMC, are global leaders in urban water, but we are challenging ourselves to stretch even further.

“Our success in the field of water is underpinned by scientific and technical excellence including innovation in environmental engineering and biotechnology.

“The major capacity in biotechnology that we have built through our partnerships with water utilities and the agri-industry sector enables us to contribute to a sustainable future beyond the water sector.”

This is not the first time the Centre has undergone a transformation.

The CRC for Waste Management and Pollution Control in 1993

Beginning in 1993 as the CRC for Waste Management and Pollution Control’s Queensland node, the Centre soon became a concrete addition to The University.

Then in 1996 it was formally established as the Advanced Wastewater Management Centre. The Centre’s research program initially focused on the challenges of the protection of waterways and the reduction of nutrients in the environment.

The impact of this early work is still being applied today by water authorities both nationally and international, and local agricultural industries.

In 2006 the Centre expanded its research portfolio and changed names once again, this time becoming the Advanced Water Management Centre.

Over the past 25 years the centre has become an internationally recognised centre of excellence in innovative water technology and management, with an award-winning multidisciplinary team and research portfolio that covers the breadth of the urban industrial water cycle.

“Renaming the Centre gives greater scope in its research portfolio, and broadens public knowledge of the Centre’s research from water management and into circular economy including carbon energy neutrality,” said Director Yuan.

“We are looking forward to the new research opportunities this change will bring us.”

If you’d like to know more about the Centre, the research partnerships, or education opportunities, please contact acweb@uq.edu.au