The academic purposes of the Hub include the following activities:

Integration of research activities – long term and large scale conservation planning requires input from many disciplines. There is a need to ensure integration between existing and proposed research projects being undertaken to address different elements of what is a complex research agenda;
Research Facilitation – new research grant proposals and research partnerships will be developed to address key elements currently not funded;
Network Coordination - there is growing need to service and facilitate an existing network of collaborators, cognate researchers, and organisations interested in applications;
Management of education activities - there will be four educational activities associated with the Hub: (a) Annual Honours research scholarship; (b) PhD top-up scholarships; (c) Technology transfer workshops for industry partners and other potential users of R&D; and (d) Annual, high profile public discussion forum; and

ANU linkages -a vital function of the Hub will be to catalyse and facilitate research collaborations between cognate areas of ANU.