Unlocking Brisbane’s Labs: A Journey into the Heart of Science
World Science Festival Brisbane 2024 saw the launch of the new Labs Unlocked initiative, co-presented with Advance Queensland. This free ticketed program offered the public a unique opportunity to go behind-the-scenes of a diverse array of Brisbane’s scientific laboratories, research facilities and manufacturing plants, raising the curtain on the versatile and fascinating real-world applications of science in Brisbane.
Queensland Museum was fortunate to secure a co-investment from Advance Queensland, a government body engaged in ‘positioning Queensland as a leader in the knowledge economy’ to support the delivery of Labs Unlocked. This funding resulted in the inaugural year presenting 10 laboratories to 838 visitors across 38 sessions throughout the 10 days of the Festival.
Advance Queensland’s Craig Tichon, Principal Project Officer described Labs Unlocked as “providing an opportunity for the private sector and broader community [to] gain a better understanding of the research and work undertaken in various labs and research institutes that participated in the program. Through this experience participants are better informed on how to become part of the well connected, inclusive and thriving innovation ecosystem and will have a better understanding of how innovation supports the Queensland economy.”
Participating labs included the Queensland Herbarium, where visitors were able to hold one of the largest seeds in the world, UQ’s BASE Facility at the Australian Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, where groundbreaking vaccine and drug research is conducted, and seqwater’s Mt. Crosby water treatment facility, where attendees were treated to a unique insight into the complex chemical testing protocols required to make our drinking water safe. Overall, 10 labs participated, covering industries from sport science and food tech to extended reality and coding and robotics for kids.
It was the diversity of the labs on offer that cemented the program’s value and appeal. Across Australia, corporations and governmental organisations alike are desperate to secure the pipeline for a skilled future workforce, literate in STEM and motivated by an intrinsic engagement with solving the intractable issues of tomorrow, whether those are climate change, biodiversity loss, decarbonisation of energy, epidemiology, sustainability or beyond.
Initiatives like Labs Unlocked offer the opportunity for citizen scientists and science-curious individuals young and old to discover different careers and STEM streams that are fundamental to resolving the challenges of tomorrow, right on their doorstep. As Labs Unlocked attendee and Biochemistry Graduate Clare said, after attending the The BASE Facility at UQ, which leads Australia in mRNA manufacturing having created over 300 different types of mRNA, “a lot of what you learn is theoretical when you’re in the undergrad world. It’s really cool, but you don’t see a real-life application. So, for me, taking the knowledge I have and seeing how it’s being used to actually deliver outcomes for people; that was excellent.”
