Building community resilience
Several Caring Futures Institute academics were successful in this year’s South Australia Resilient Australia awards.
These prestigious awards honour innovative initiatives that strengthen community resilience to disasters and emergencies across Australia. The winning projects – which will progress into a national award round in December – exemplify outstanding collaboration and creative thinking across sectors, highlighting the vital role of research in building safer, more prepared communities.
The Resilient Australia Business Award prize went to the ‘Future Ready Grape and Wine Business Pilot Study’ team comprising Matthew Flinders Distinguished Professor Paul Arbon, Flinders Adjunct Research Fellow and CEO of Resilient Ready Renae Hanvin, and graduate research assistant Gabriela Mantilla Palomo.
Highly commended for the Community Award were Associate Professor Amanda Muller and Associate Professor Jyoti Khadka for their project ‘Understanding the Difficulty of Disaster Preparation Tasks: A Pilot Activity.’
Emerging leader of palliative care recognised
Congratulations to Dr Priyanka Vandersman, a member of the Research Centre for Palliative Care, Death and Dying (RePaDD), who received of the ‘Palliative Care Australia Emerging Leader Award’ last week at the Oceanic Palliative Care Conference 2025.
This award recognises Dr Vandersman’s continuing leadership and innovation to improving care at the end of life for older Australians. Her award was also recognised in the Australian Ageing Agenda.
“This recognition has made me feel that the work I do matters, and that I want to keep doing it. My focus is to keep building a future where high-quality end-of-life care is embedded throughout aged care, supported by thoughtful and innovative approaches,” Dr Vandersman says.
UNESCO engagements showcase educational innovation and AI integration
Congratulations to Dr Tianchong Wang, Lecturer in STEM in Innovative Education Futures, College of Education, Psychology and Social Work, who was invited to engage in two significant UNESCO initiatives at the highest platform that showcase Flinders University’s growing international recognition and leadership in educational innovation and AI integration.
The first engagement was the UNESCO IESALC & IBM Industry-Led AI Competency Frameworks roundtable/workshop. Dr Wang was invited to serve as the international expert and resource person for the closed Phase II Launch of the Industry-Led AI Competency Frameworks for Higher Education. This global initiative was organized by UNESCO IESALC, the sole specialised institute of the UN system dedicated to improving higher education in member states, in partnership with IBM.
He was also invited to attend UNESCO’s Digital Learning Week 2025: ‘AI and the Future of Education’ at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France. This annual flagship event, launched in 2023, brings together the global community of digital education leaders, policymakers, researchers, and practitioners from UN agencies, governments, NGOs, and the private sector.
Dr Wang says both engagements amplify Flinders University’s growing international profile and our meaningful contributions to global discourse on AI in education.