2025 has been a big year for MACSYS.

We could measure our success in the cool papers that have been published (yes, we hit that KPI). But I would add to that metric the fact that a suite of new, future publications are now being grown through the very many cross-node, cross-disciplinary projects that only just started this year. From where I sit, I see several things that we can all be proud of: these new projects are often conceived by, and always run by, our talented Research Fellows. This is a measure of excellent mentorship by senior members of MACSYS, a very clear measure of the talent, capability and tenacity of MACSYS research fellows, and an echo of the positive spirit of collaboration being fostered by all of us in MACSYS. While 2025 has been a big year, 2026 is where we will see some research-based home runs hit.

We could measure our success by the establishment of a professional staff team who are now in a position to fully support our research, outreach and culture initiatives. They are making sure that we convert great ideas into enduring actions. Watching these talented people evolve into a talented team over the course of 2025 has been extremely cool to see. There are several things that MACSYS had wanted to do that are now happening and will continue to grow. Engagement of our Partner Organisations with our research program particularly through person-to-person engagement with our Partner Investigators; Partner Investigators being brought into conversation with our International Scientific Advisory Board (ISAB) to refine our Strategic Research Plan to identify areas where MACSYS needs to recruit or develop new talent; Our partnership with the Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Mathematics Alliance is flourishing through our Maths-meets-Biology agenda, and working group composed of AI-CI professional staff and external partners in the education sector has been established to enact pathways that would help to redress the real and perceived inequities that currently stand in the way of having open access for talented students to enter our universities.

We could measure our success by the awards of grants, fellowships, scholarships and prizes to our Chief Investigators, Research fellows and PhD students both in terms of kudos and esteem, but also because of the additional resourcing that these awards bring to our research efforts. One of the KPIs that the ARC cares deeply about is for us to leverage further funding to our research mission. These grants, fellowships and scholarships are the means by which we succeed in that. The more we succeed, and the various ways that we show ourselves to be a team of people that are doing great things – differently – the more attractive we will be to talented people who want to join us. Sometimes we win and sometimes we don’t in the applications for further funding, but we can all be proud of the fact that overall, together, we are winning.

While our brilliance in ongoing projects, published papers, other impacts that matter, and the esteem that we are generating by being a Centre of Excellence is clearly on display, it struck me when reviewing the photos from our Annual Retreat at Cape Schanck (above) that a very real hallmark of our success now is that - even in the midst of critical, important and far-reaching discussions on what MACSYS needs to do, what we haven’t done yet, what we will need to do next year and the next - our Centre of Excellence is a place where people have fun, and can share their humour while talking about their science. Whatever their discipline, whichever their Node, no matter the nature of the conversation.

I hope that you all have plans for an excellent break over summer, that you spend some time on the things that you love to do, and that you leap into 2026 refreshed and ready for an excellent year.

Cheers,

Trevor

Thank you for your continued contributions to the Centre. As we prepare our 2025 annual report and KPI submission to the ARC, we need to collect data on your activities for the 2025 calendar year. We have set up webforms on the MACSYS SharePoint to capture the following information:

Please log into the MACSYS SharePoint and report your activities as soon as possible. Our goal is to have all data collected by Tuesday, 23 December 2025, so we can process and summarise it for the annual report and ARC KPI reporting.

Our Node Admins are available to assist with adding your reporting data and answering any questions. They will also follow up to address any gaps in reporting and membership records. As a general rule: if in doubt, report it. The Operations team will review and consolidate all responses received.

A discussion at the MACSYS retreat ends just weeks later with three MACSYS researchers taking part in a global hackathon – and finishing on a top-three team in the world in their category. The three researchers, Dr Sophie Wharrie (University of Melbourne) and Dr Ke Ding and Jingsen Yang (ANU), joined an international team to take part in the Evolved 25 AI x Bio Global Sprint Hackathon, an intensive 10-day event attracting more than 100 teams worldwide. Read full story

The Australian Society for Biophysics (ASB) has awarded MACSYS Chief Investigator Adelle Coster its top honour – the Bob Robertson Medal. The medal recognises outstanding contributions and service to the field of biophysics in Australia and New Zealand. For Adelle, the honour carries deep personal significance. Read full story

It’s a busy time of year for conferences, travel and other programs. Thank you to everyone who’s taken a few moments to grab a picture or two and send it in. These events and pictures make for very strong engagement on the MACSYS LinkedIn page.

Don’t forget to “Tell Tim” when you’re travelling or taking part in an event: [email protected] (MACSYS Communications)