The ARC Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space (P4S) is developing technologies to enable humans to survive and thrive in space, reducing the dependence on constant resupply, and using this lens to transform the sustainability of food and bioresource production on Earth.
We are a transdisciplinary endeavour involving multiple skillsets from systems and process engineering, plant biology, food chemistry, psychology, education and space law. Our international and national consortium has representation across a wide range of industries. This includes space, controlled environment agriculture, and food manufacturing. We will have a standing load of 200 Australian based researchers by 2026 located in our foundational universities of the Universities of Adelaide, Flinders, Melbourne, La Trobe and Western Australia, and aim to train over 400 researchers by 2031.
We will encourage entrepreneurship, and a spin in and spin out culture, to support growth in the Australian space industry. We also have a large outreach program to schools and the general public, with all of our researchers spending at least 10 days per annum on engagement activities.