Our mission
Organisations are currently operating in a world where the cost of strategic surprise is rising faster than the cost of strategic preparation.
Swinburne Futures Catalyst transforms Ad Astra_2030’s ambition into decision advantage by building futures literacy and applied foresight capability across the university.
We help leaders anticipate change, reduce strategic surprise, and navigate uncertainty so we can act with greater clarity on the choices that shape Swinburne’s teaching, research, innovation and impact Our purpose is to prepare for possible futures and identify emerging opportunities.
Our programs
Building on the world-class leadership and capabilities of Swinburne University of Technology, the Futures Catalyst is empowered through three strategic programs.
Futures Literacy
Executive and practitioner uplift
Internal Foresight Practice
Applied engagements in service of real institutional decisions
External Foresight Consultancy
Services that inform future-fit strategy co-created with companies and communities alike
Our team
The Futures Catalyst is facilitated through the Office of the Pro Vice-Chancellor, Flagship Initiatives, and operates as a collaborative, multidisciplinary team working across a wide range of schools and portfolios.
Two decades of experience in cutting-edge science from dark matter to supercomputing modelling, has created a multi-million dollar spinout mDetect using particles from space to scan mine sites, leads major international applied multi-disciplinary research projects as a Pro Vice-Chancellor at Swinburne.
Lead on applied foresight, futures literacy and anticipatory capability; pracademic and professional futurist with approximately three decades of industry experience in strategy and innovation. Holds a Master's in Strategic Foresight from Swinburne. Past Board Member of the Association of Professional Futurists; named one of the World's Top 150 Female Futurists.
Lead on persistent AI-assisted world-building activity and responsible use and integration of AI technologies. Doctoral work on design cognition; current research programme on how generative AI changes the way designers and design teams think, act, and learn. Active publication record on Midjourney, ChatGPT, and image-generation tools for speculative architectural futures.
Lead on AI-assisted narrative design activity; Bioethicist and public health scientist specialising in the ethics of emerging technologies, anticipatory ethics and governance, and scenario-based ethics. Research spans reproductive biotechnologies, public health ethics, space ethics, and bio/necropolitics.
Link between the Catalyst and Swinburne's analytical operations through her role as the Director, Market Insights, Analytics and Performance. Experienced management consultant supporting ASX listed companies with futures-based scenario planning. Government experience leading M2050 Vision for Melbourne.
Lead on the analogue and sensitive-context activity; pop-culture and media academic with published research and commentary on captioning, subtitling (including Netflix accessibility), fan studies, and accessibility in screen culture. Practical expertise in graphic facilitation and analogue capture of group discussions — a capability deliberately preserved by the Catalyst for sensitive contexts where digital recording is inappropriate.
Transdisciplinary academic, artist, and physiotherapist; recent research outputs in biophilic design in extended reality (XR) nature experiences to Posthuman storytelling practice (environments, animals, technology).
Translating regulatory obligation, organisational risk, and staff experience into operational practice.
Clinical experience across forensic, inpatient, and community mental health settings; research interests include narrative psychiatry, medical and health humanities, simulation, and creative writing as clinical practice.
Collaborate with us
Be part of strategic preparedness and contribute to real-world positive change. Send your enquiries to futurescatalyst@swinburne.edu.au.