Flinders University

Australia

Flinders University is a comprehensive, research-intensive university that embraces both the technological and the social challenges inherent in many problems.

Over recent years, the issue of models of care, such as caring for the elderly, for those with disabilities or those with mental health and wellbeing challenges, have increasingly taken centre stage in our communities.

Flinders has been proactive in combining technological and social research to tackle these issues head-on, with focused research initiatives led by the recently established Caring Futures Institute, the Órama Institute for Mental Health and Wellbeing, the Social Work Innovation Research Living Space and the Flinders Digital Health Research Centre.

Other areas of focus for Flinders’ research are the technological and social challenges we are seeing in industrial production as the world transitions to advanced forms of manufacturing, commonly referred to as Industry 4.0.

The depth and breadth of the direct connections between our researchers and industry are a vital component of our research activities. We work in close partnership with businesses, not-for-profit enterprises and government to ensure that our research results in the types of innovation and transformation that benefit society.

There is no question that the challenges facing the world are great, but our capacity to rise to the challenge is what defines research excellence at Flinders University.

In 1966 when Flinders University was established, founding Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Karmel stated his ambitions for the university "we want to experiment, and experiment bravely". In the spirit of this tradition, we recognise the "brave minds" of our researchers in BRAVE Minds (Edition 2).

1 August 2019 - 31 July 2020

Region: Global
Subject/journal group: All

The table to the right includes counts of all research outputs for Flinders University published between 1 August 2019 - 31 July 2020 which are tracked by the Nature Index.

Hover over the donut graph to view the FC output for each subject. Below, the same research outputs are grouped by subject. Click on the subject to drill-down into a list of articles organized by journal, and then by title.

Note: Articles may be assigned to more than one subject area.

Count	Share
48	8.60

Outputs by subject (Share)

Subject	Count	Share
Life Sciences	31	5.30
Earth & Environmental Sciences	12	1.51
Chemistry	5	2.12
Physical Sciences	4	0.26

Highlight of the month

Fossilized fin sheds light on evolution of the hand

The complete fossil of a four-limbed fish, which existed around 374 million years ago, has provided a key piece of the evolutionary puzzle of how fins evolved into hands.

A team that included researchers from Flinders University in Australia used computed tomography imaging to reveal the bone structure in the pectoral fins of the 1.57-metre-long fossil of Elpistostege watsoni.

They found the species has both carpal wrist bones and parallel-aligned bones that resemble the start of fingers in the human hand, but these come together in the bony spines characteristic of the end of a fish fin.

The structure may have enabled the animal to support some of its weight while moving in shallow water or on land. It is the closest a fin has come in structure to the separate digits seen in four-limbed animals.

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