City North Social Innovation Precinct
A vision for social innovation
RMIT’s vision for City North is to transform the area into a world leading social innovation precinct. The precinct will respond to demand for skills in priority sectors and contribute to Melbourne’s economic development and innovation landscape through its unique combination of vocational and higher education, applied innovation, community engagement and industry collaboration.
The precinct will amplify and accelerate RMIT’s capacity to innovate and train learners in areas critical to Victoria’s prosperity:
Learn more about the City North Social Innovation Precinct (PDF 7.28MB).
As part of RMIT’s ongoing efforts to use key RMIT locations as platforms for common growth and civic partnership, in 2024 the RMIT city north activation program funded and enabled the collaborative delivery of 23 social innovation projects of areas of student and community wellbeing, sustainable built and urban environments, creative practice, placemaking and belonging, applied innovation and prototyping in health and clean technologies, Indigenous voice and responsible practice, and civic data collabs.
Our Street: A collaborative project between Master of Teaching students, VE students in the Diploma of Educational Studies and the STEM Digital Hub working with Carlton Gardens Primary School students to design a sustainable green space for Cardigan Street. Led by Associate Professor Tricia McLaughlin, College of Design and Social Context.
Indigenous engagement for the City North Social Innovation Precinct: A project to ensure meaningful, ongoing engagement and planning with our Indigenous community in shaping and building the shared future of the City North Precinct. Led by Gheran Steele and the OIERE team, Policy, Strategy and Impact portfolio.
Localising the Sustainable Development Goals through tabletop gaming: A creative, interactive and educational gameplay that uses imagery of native, Australian species to engage local communities in sustainable practices. Led by Master of Communication Design graduating student, Vera Wang.
Student Wellbeing Week and public art trail activation: A collaborative project showcasing RMIT Multifaith and Wellbeing Centre supports, experiences and programs, and the development of student co-created public art experiences. Led by Tim Burdue and Lynda Roberts, Education portfolio.
Cardigan Street Future Focused Activation: A two-day program transforming Cardigan Street into a hub of future focused immersive experiences and activities through cinema, food, art, music and literature in line with Melbourne International Games Week and Melbourne Fringe. Led by Ali Barker, International and Engagement portfolio.
PV recycling collaborative workspace and showroom: An innovative solar panel recycling workspace and collaborative hub to facilitate the development and prototyping of new recycling technologies and techniques. Led by Dr Ylias Sabri and Professor Namita Roy Choudhury, STEM College.
Storying City North: Using new technology, traditional publishing practices and archival sources to generate a collaborative history of the precinct. This initiative will launch the inaugural Composite City publication (co-authored by six researchers from across RMIT) and includes a live streamed, generative AI storytelling hackathon research experiment. Led by Dr Rose Michael and Dr Kathryn Day, College of Design and Social Context.
Play the Future: Cardigan Street 2050: A collaborative street-based urban activation on Cardigan Street designed to engage the community through future focused workshops, playable art commissions, and augmented reality experiences, in which players can reimagine City North through the lens of 2050. Led by Dr Troy Innocent, College of Design and Social Context.
Towards healthy habitats: A civic health data + storytelling Initiative: A pilot partnership with Civic Health Innovation Labs (the University of Liverpool UK) to leverage the innovation precinct as a unique test bed and platform for data-driven social innovation. Led by Dr Sarah Barns, College of Design and Social Context.
Social Enterprise Pop-Up Shop and Symposium: This project includes a 10-day pop-up-shop featuring a diverse mix of local social enterprises and culminates in a knowledge sharing and networking conference to foster collaboration among social enterprises, researchers, students, peak bodies, local government, and the broader community. Led by Dr Melissa Wheeler and Phd Candidate Jon Hewitt, College of Business and Law.
International Design for Life Mission: Co-designing civic solutions to address urban heat: An international collaboration led by RMIT Europe in partnership with the Royal Society for the Arts (RSA) London/Oceania and the City of Barcelona, which brings together leaders and changemakers in urban innovation precincts across the world to explore and co-create regenerative solutions to protect urban communities from extreme heat. Led by Professors Wendy Steele and Laurene Vaughan, RMIT Europe.
The next instalment of co-designed projects, as part of the City North Social Innovation Precinct activation, focus on student and community health and wellbeing, and using the City North built and urban environments as a living lab.
The tranche two activation initiatives include:
Student mental health and wellbeing peer support clinic: A peer-supported student mental health and wellbeing clinic in City North, overseen by qualified RMIT mental health teaching professionals from VE Social Care and Health programs, provides a much-needed mental health peer support model and assists with providing placement opportunities for VE students. Led by Caitlin Crowley and Sarah Davidson from the College of Vocational Education.
Co-designing a community-university clinic for social care and community wellbeing: An RMIT community-university clinic focused on social care and community wellbeing. Providing an opportunity for student placements and low-cost access to supervised social support from trainee students completing their studies. Led by Professor Katherine Johnson from the College of Design and Social Context.
Cultural-driven cyber clusters: Enhancing cyber resilience through South Asian student and community engagement: The project will engage South Asian students, linking them with local cultural associations, business networks, and alums to form culture-driven, student-led cyber clusters. These clusters will focus on exploring culturally specific cybersecurity issues, such as the perception and susceptibility to romance fraud within South Asian communities. Led by Dr Akanksha Saini, Dr Malka Halgamuge, and Dr Prem Chhetri from the College of Business and Law.
Student community food security program: This project will explore and co-design a student and community food relief program for piloting in 2025, addressing access and belonging through a range of sustainable, cost-effective, practical solutions. Led by Tim Burdeu, Anna Macleod, Lynda Roberts, and Helen Addison-Smith from the Education Portfolio.
Voice-based detection system to predict the risk of type 2 diabetes: This project aims to pioneer an AI-driven disease prediction software focusing on detecting prediabetes and type 2 diabetes, through advanced voice data analysis to be able to deploy interventions to prevent diabetes before it develops. Led by Dr Chelsea Lim and Distinguished Professor Barbora de Courten OAM from the STEM College.
Rediscovering consultation – A conversation convened by Fair Work Ombudsman and Safe Work Australia: This initiative is a collaborative government, industry, and academic Workshop on “the contribution of consultation to fair, safe work”, led in person by the Fair Work Ombudsman, Anna Booth, and the CEO of Safe Work Australia, Marie Boland. The workshop will share perspectives and evidence on the relationship between consultation, safety, and fairness. Led by Professor Johanna Macneill from the College of Business and Law.
Environmental management in the City North Social Innovation Precinct: This project supports the development of a comprehensive framework for continuous environmental management; integrating considerations around air quality, urban heat island effect, sound pollution and pedestrian comfort at every stage of the City North Social Innovation Precinct development. Led by Dr Shilpi Tewari, Professor Andrew Butt, and Professor Priya Rajagopalan from the College of Design and Social Context.
Future Prototypes: Demonstrating RMIT's innovation in the urban fabric: This project aims to use the built environment of the City North Social Innovation Precinct to prototype and demonstrate cutting-edge research in real-world conditions. The project will focus on how architectural elements can respond to environmental conditions, work with existing building skins, and provide relief from extreme weather. Led by Professor Roland Snooks and Professor Leanne Zilka from the College of Design and Social Context.
Revitalising Cardigan Street through tactical urbanism for a greener and more socially inspiring public space: This project proposes a two-day “tactical urbanism” intervention to transform Cardigan Street into a greener, more socially inspiring public space. The project will be involved in a partial closure of Cardigan Street and install temporary shelters and potted tree-like plants to create a cooler, more inviting atmosphere. Led by Dr Mittul Vahanvati from the College of Design and Social Context.
Place-based tactical transformations for a clean economy: This project uses empirical data on stakeholder perspectives of the City North Social Innovation Precinct to develop place-based tactical transformations of three selected areas to showcase clean economy solutions. The team will create optimal strategies for these three areas based on social simulations integrating the findings of stakeholder behaviour surveys, renewable energy modelling, GIS mapping, and physical characteristics of the precinct. Led by Dr Akvan Gajanayake from the College of Design and Social Context.
Digital Sustainability Index (DSI) for CNSIP: This project will develop a sustainable decision-making approach for the renewal of the City North Precinct, integrating a DSI with a building information model (BIM) and the Central Asset Management System (CAMS) developed through RMIT research and implemented by the Property Services Group. Led by Dr Nilmini Weerasinghe and Professor Sujeeva Setunge from the STEM College.
Innovative frontiers: AI & AR integration: This project aims to transform the City North Social Innovation Precinct through a three-part integration of Augmented Reality (AR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). ‘ARchitect’ will leverage AR technology to bring locations within the precinct to life, enabling users to interact with the precinct's technology and explore ideas for its design. ‘ConversAI’ will develop an AI-powered chatbot designed that is capable of text and voice interactions. Led by Professor James Harland from the STEM College.
Acknowledgement of Country
RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Sentient' by Hollie Johnson, Gunaikurnai and Monero Ngarigo.
Acknowledgement of Country
RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business.
