Research partnership opportunities
High quality and up-to-date scientific research is vital in supporting decision making and regulation at the EPA.
We actively develop and maintain key relationships with research organisations to enhance risk-based management of environmental issues in key areas, with a number of collaborations under development or already in progress.
Collaboration is possible in a variety of ways. Examples include honours or PhD projects, a financial or in-kind contribution by the EPA towards research undertaken, a literature review, and varying degrees of support for grant applications such as providing letters of support, co-supervision of students, in-kind contribution, etc.
Research prospectus
Contact us
If you are a researcher with expertise in any of the EPA areas of priority and projects or would like to join our mailing list, please contact us.
Research collaborations
There are currently opportunities to collaborate with EPA in the following priority areas. This list will be updated regularly.
Add to my listLand–coast interface
| Research opportunities |
| Identification of actual sources of fine sediment in Adelaide coastal waters |
| GIS and spatial mapping – opportunities in air quality and coastal environments |
| In progress |
| Sampling methods for nearshore marine environments |
| Development of chemtax libraries for phytoplankton in gulf waters |
| Assessment of septic and other nutrient impacts on groundwater and marine waters |
| Identifying water quality stressor and toxicant thresholds |
| Yorke Peninsula – assessment of septic impact on groundwater and marine waters |
| Validating water quality stressors for inland waters in SA |
| Valuing marine and coastal environments – an ecosystem services approach |
| Coastal Carbon Opportunities – demonstrating additionality and potential for future offsets in SA |
| Assessing the capacity of seagrass sediments to sequester carbon dioxide and metal pollution – past, present and future scenarios |
| Socio-ecological assessment of the ecosystems, industries and communities of Spencer Gulf |
| Diagnosing river health using invertebrate traits and DNA barcodes |
Add to my listEmerging contaminants
| Research opportunities |
| A national approach to prioritising and assessing emerging contaminants |
| In progress |
| Solving issues associated with emerging contaminants, eg can microbes evolve enzymes/pathways to break the C-F bond in PFAS contaminants |
| Fate and occurrence of trace organic compounds in South Australian rivers and shallow groundwater |
| A national approach to tackling anti-microbial resistance in the water cycle |
| Development of in vitro ecotoxicology methodology to better understand priority pollutants in waters |
Add to my listWaste management
| Research opportunities |
| A risk-based approach to determining the beneficial status of waste residuals ‘products’ |
| Alternatives to manage wastewater in areas of high rainfall where wastewater evaporative lagoons are less effective |
| Effects on soil properties after irrigation of wastewater, considering wastewaters from a range of industrial activities |
| Regulatory/guidance framework for the reuse of soil impacted with low levels of asbestos |
| PFAS in landfill leachates – implications for re-irrigation on landfills |
| Potential of ‘reclamation’ grass species to bioaccumulate and translocate PFAS (in the context of re-irrigation) |
| Application of DNA approaches to identify sources of wastewater in surface and marine waters |
Add to my listAir science
| Research opportunities |
| Nuisance dust impact and understanding of sources of dust |
| What control measures for petrol vapour at fuel dispensing unit are warranted based on human health risk assessment to protect both on and offsite sensitive receptors |
| In progess |
| Small atmospheric PM2.5 particle sensors and networks |
Add to my listOther projects
| Research opportunities |
| Remote sensing – opportunities for analysis including open-source data sets |
