UniSA is the largest university in South Australia and a significant contributor to the State’s economic growth and prosperity. The university is part of the influential Australian Technology Network, an alliance of five prominent universities, which aims is to enhance the nation’s social and economic wealth by creating, disseminating and applying new knowledge.

The university has strong links with industry and in 2008 was awarded the Ashley Goldsworthy Award for sustained collaboration between business and higher education. UniSA's work with industry and the professions is central to its mission and values, and has helped drive the university’s expansion and reinforce its international reputation.

UniSA’s schools, institutes and specialist centres are grouped in four Divisions: Education, Arts and Social Science; Health Sciences; Business; and IT, Engineering and the Environment. The university has over 35,000 students studying at its campuses in Adelaide and Whyalla, and through distance-learning programs.

UniSA’s approach to resilience spans a number of disciplinary and multidisciplinary areas ranging from sustainable environments to defence and security systems, for example:

(1) The South Australian Water Centre for Water Management and Re-use is a joint venture between SA Water and UniSA. The Centre has programs in water and waste water treatment, water reuse, total water cycle management, water sensitive urban design, environmental biotechnology, water utilisation from the River Murray, and the provision of water services for rural and desert communities.

(2) UniSA’s Centre for Environmental Risk Assessment and Remediation is the only research centre in Australia focusing specifically on environmental risk assessments and remediation. The Centre provides innovative solutions and technologies for environmental contamination problems.

(3) UniSA’s Defence and Systems Institute is the largest provider of research and education in systems engineering and information assurance for Australia’s defence and security sectors, industry and government agencies. The Institute includes a resilient systems laboratory which conducts research on critical infrastructure protection, wireless network security, network modelling, and engineering processes and methods to support the development of innovative engineering solutions to problems posed by terrorism.

Research performance at UniSA continues to grow year by year with more than 75 per cent of research income provided by industry.