UNOVA projects

Project status: ongoing

The value of enterprise blockchain solutions to business ecosystems and services is significant. Whilst the promise of enterprise blockchain technology to achieve coherent, secure and efficient ways of doing businesses is clear, scholars and practitioners are in agreement that there is still a dearth of studies into how enterprise blockchain technology would be successfully integrated into business and digital ecosystems. However, organizational and industry level issues particularly with convergence persist. The industry recognises that several challenges remain, including the extent of business process change, its integration with legacy systems, its interoperability and scalability, structures of governance, unintended consequences are barriers to its adoption. 

This research project seeks to examine the role of blockchain technologies to establish standards for public-private partnerships. The research seeks to examine how enterprise blockchain technologies and businesses enable mobility, trust, interoperability, and better workflow. 

The project team will consist of fintech researchers from industry and academe across leading organizations in Singapore and Australia in a public private partnership for data collection and analysis. Researchers will adopt a qualitative approach and predominantly an interpretive stance for the research given the exploratory nature of the study. This includes a case study methodology which is particularly appropriate for investigating how business processes change, and what are the role of technology, and the development processes and frameworks that are not well understood.  

This project aims to help the industry better understand the potential benefits of enterprise blockchain technology for business ecosystems. 

Lead researchers:

• Associate Professor Felix Tan
• Dr Eric T.K. Lim
• Dr Ernie Teo

Research theme:

• Digital Services and Fintech

Project status: phase 1 & 2 complete. Phase 3 (TBC)

The global pursuit of the sustainable development goals goes hand in hand with the fourth industrial revolution and digital transformation. In this project, UNOVA partnered with a pioneering innovation business focused on using technology to enhance their delivery of essential services. Despite the urgency and relevance of digital strategies in the context of the global pandemic, many businesses continue to struggle with the transition. 

This project demonstrates UNOVA’s role as a platform for knowledge-sharing and capacity building for digital transformation, and the importance of establishing multi-sector partnerships to address grand challenges. Advocating for the enhanced use of digital technologies in business could fast-track the achievement of goals, by taking an ecosystems approach.

The key activities of this project include skills and capacity building and creating the enabling environment for innovation and digital inclusion. These, combined with key partnerships, target known barriers to digital transformation, including unclear roles of engagement and gaps in innovation and soft infrastructure. 

Lead researchers:

• Associate Professor Chung-Li Tseng

Research theme:

• Digital Retail, Operations, and Supply Chains

Project status: Phase 1 complete. Phase 2 (TBC)

The health impacts of sodium consumption have garnered significant attention from the Australian Government and the World Health Organization. Recent studies indicate that potassium-enriched sodium chloride, while maintaining the taste of salt, can effectively lower blood pressure, resulting in a 14% reduction in stroke risk and a 12% decrease in premature mortality. Given these findings, it was crucial to examine the perspectives of the industry regarding the potential opportunities and challenges associated with increasing the use of potassium chloride in the food chain. 

To assess the feasibility of incorporating potassium chloride for sodium reduction in the food supply chain, a prominent health institution partnered with UNOVA. The study focused on analyzing factors that could either facilitate or hinder the widespread adoption of potassium-enriched salt in Australia. This involved investigating onshore producers of potassium-enriched salt, food-grade potassium chloride, table salt, as well as food producers who may or may not currently utilize potassium-enriched salt. 

The project's outcome comprised a set of recommendations aimed at incentivizing the food industry to reduce sodium content in their products. Additionally, the findings were intended to inform policy makers and stakeholders about potential opportunities that could be explored in collaboration with the industry and consumers. The ultimate goal was to make inroads in reducing the prevalence of cardiovascular diseases by promoting an appropriate intake of sodium. 

Lead researchers:

• Associate Professor Chung-Li Tseng
• Alain Balaguer
• Rod Wong Pan

Research theme:

• Digital Retail, Operations, and Supply Chains

Project status: completed

Globally, climate change and natural disasters have immediate, tangible costs to communities – entrenching poverty for millions of people, destroying livelihoods, and undoing development gains. In Australia, experts projected that climate-driven fire risk would be detectable in the region by 2020. This projection seemed fortuitous as the unprecedented “black summer” bushfire disaster in 2019 stresses the need for urgent action and innovation. The risk to people, property, and the planet is only ever increasing.

The challenge for governments is to develop a sustainable means to prepare Australian communities, health and emergency services for escalating fire danger. Climate Council estimates that “As seasons overlap and fires become more destructive, governments will be increasingly constrained in their ability to share resources and the costs of tackling fires will increase.”

To explore the role of technology in managing the effects of climate change and helping build resilient emergency services, UNOVA worked with a leading innovator in fire safety technologies and solutions with sustainability in mind. In this project, UNOVA co-developed an intelligent fire protection system that collects and displays up-to-date site data, supporting Emergency Services in time-critical risk assessment and decision-making. This project demonstrates that IT can help build resilience to climate change and disaster risks and push the sustainable development agenda forward.

Lead researchers:

• Associate Professor Felix Tan, Founder & Co-director UNOVA
• Devesh Mitra
• Jonathan Loong
• Zayed Abdullah
• Liam Ho
• Yosha Joshi

Research theme:

• Digital Services and Fintech

Project status: completed

Access to employment and decent work, free from discrimination and harassment on any basis, is a fundamental human right because it is a key social determinant of health and wellbeing and effectively, a nation’s overall sustainability. In Australia, policies and legislation have been introduced to help protect and address discrimination and harassment in work environments and address the issue of social exclusion in the workplace. Still, barriers to productive employment and decent work remain pervasive, with negative spill over effects to individuals and their families – and some are more affected than most.

These trends drive the urgent need for solutions that both meet the long-term sustainability criteria and generate immediate benefits for affected populations. So while employers continue to experience this “skills gap”, at the same time, there is an entire pool of talent that is excluded from the equation. The problem is that institutional logics and prevailing hiring practices systematically exclude some populations. This issue is particularly evident in the information technology (IT) sector, where talent shortage is a perennial problem for companies on one hand; and yet, on the other, there exists an untapped pool of talent that can very well fill that gap. And so these trends drive the urgent need for solutions that meet the long-term sustainability criteria and generate immediate benefits for affected populations at the same time. 

In response to the disability inclusion gap in practice, recent research in management and information systems increasingly tackle “impact sourcing” – a recruitment practice focused on developing marginalized individuals’ capabilities to enhance their employment opportunities through outsourcing.

To explore the role of IT in impact sourcing, UNOVA worked with a pioneering impact sourcing organization in Australia. Our research partner is a social enterprise creating social value via the practice of outsourcing, with a focus on redefining the current business practices to make recruitment more inclusive. This project explores how a social enterprise can change the prevailing institutional logics that allow the disability inclusion gap to persist, in order to create a more fit-for-purpose, IT-enabled recruitment model that addresses the needs of both employers and job seekers.

The outcomes of this project include demonstrating the benefits of impact sourcing and diversity in the workplace as well as providing a process framework for IT-enabled inclusive recruitment. This framework can help guide managers in aligning their business practices and information systems with existing institutional challenges in order to gain social and commercial advantages. This is of practical relevance to the formulation and implementation of strategies that dual-value organisations – for instance, social enterprises – employ when seeking to respond to institutional challenges that local contexts pose. 

Lead researchers:

• Associate Professor Felix Tan 
  
• Roxanne Llamzon

Research theme:

• Digital Services and Fintech
• Smart Cities and Innovation

Project status: completed

Women empowerment is critical to the overall development of society, but their opportunities to participate in labour markets, financial markets, and entrepreneurship continue to be limited by systemic inequalities. In a report, McKinsey & Company estimates that advancing women’s equality and participation can add as much as 12 trillion USD to global growth by 2025. Information technology and digitalisation is increasingly enabling communities to pursue gender equality, especially in developing economies. 

There are numerous ways technology can empower women. Digital technologies can allow women to bypass traditional and mobility barriers and enable flexibility and financial autonomy. In this project, UNOVA explores how communities can be built around digital technologies to foster entrepreneurship in developing countries. UNOVA’s research team designed a series of workshops to link key stakeholders that can fuel programs to support women in rural communities, through increasing digital literacy and complementary entrepreneurship skills. The aim of this project is to lay foundations for international partnerships that address universal issues. 

In a study across 141 countries, the World Bank reports that if women can simply earn as much as men, the difference in earnings can double the value of global GDP. While the previous industrial revolutions have largely left women sidelined, Industry 4.0 underscores the immense opportunity and urgent need to bridge the digital gender gap by means of deploying new digital technologies and skills-based capacity building. 

Lead researchers:

• Associate Professor Felix Tan 
  
• Charmaine Batulan
• Edward Hopkins

Research theme:

• Digital Services and Fintech

Project status: completed

Half of the world’s population live in cities today. By 2050, it is estimated that this number will increase to 70 percent. The global COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the challenges that stem from the increasing congestion of urban areas. Pre-pandemic, cities already account for 60 to 80 percent of energy consumption and 75 percent of carbon emissions. 

While governments have struggled with addressing the public health implications, this pandemic has additionally underscored the importance of high-performing urban spaces, given that more and more people are spending time in residential areas; and also, the long-term economic impacts of the COVID-19 crisis. Recently, there has been a call to action to promote “green recovery” as part of countries’ COVID-19 economic recovery strategy – an approach that meets both short-term health and economic issues as well as the longer-term sustainable development goals. 

Green recovery tackles the issues of health and economic recovery, making residential areas more habitable and sustainable. At the core of this approach is a renovation wave, which has the potential to create not only more energy-efficient residences and urban spaces but also a long-lasting effect on local economies. For instance, efficient and equitable housing can facilitate residential mobility, better match workers with jobs and help the labour market recover from the recent crisis. 

In Australia, boosting the building and construction industry has been a core focus of the national recovery strategy. UNOVA aims to support the Australian building and construction industry in this project by helping build a platform for community-focused sourcing, where renovation projects are matched with local trades and suppliers – fast-tracking local economic recovery and global sustainability outcomes. 

Lead researchers:

• Associate Professor Felix Tan 
  
• Charmaine Batulan
• Edward Hopkins

Research theme:

• Smart Cities and Innovation

Project status: completed

Infrastructure health monitoring plays a crucial role in ensuring the safety, reliability, and efficiency of various systems such as transportation networks, utilities, and buildings. It involves the continuous collection and analysis of data to assess the condition and performance of critical infrastructure components. By monitoring key parameters and identifying potential issues in real-time, infrastructure health monitoring enables proactive maintenance and timely interventions to mitigate risks and prevent failures. 

In collaboration with a data company and a rail company in Sydney, we are actively engaged in a research project to explore the feasibility of installing sensors on moving trains. Our primary aim is to gather comprehensive health data of the rail system, with a particular emphasis on monitoring the width of the overhead wire responsible for supplying power to the trains. Leveraging advanced technologies such as AI and machine learning, we analyse the collected data to accurately predict the wear and tear of the wire caused by the friction of the pantograph. This predictive analysis empowers us to develop optimized preventive maintenance schedules, ensuring the long-term safety and operational reliability of the transport infrastructure.

Lead researchers:

• Associate Professor Chung-Li Tseng
• Yuan Zhang

Research theme:

• Digital Retail, Operations, and Supply Chains
• Smart Cities and Innovation