The Future Arts, Science and Technology Laboratory - FASTlab - is home to great ideas inspired by bringing together the brightest people to figure out how to make things better. We know that imagination is the foundation of creativity and innovation. We celebrate the unique quality of our humanity through our creative ability to imagine things that don’t exist yet and our capabilities to turn what we’ve imagined into something real. Something better.

FASTlab was created to explore the potential of human emotion, happiness and play, open doors for non-traditional collaborators, and commercialise lateral thinking. Unique in Australia, we are a translational research hub, specialising in providing opportunities for community and industry partners to participate in research projects that provide tangible outcomes and solutions to real-world problems quickly.

We do this from our home in ‘Q’ building on the quayside of Newcastle’s Honeysuckle Drive. Built using sustainably sourced timber and encased in the encased in 344 thermal glass panels we are proud to be in a building that’s made of the most highly technical and environmentally friendly material in the southern hemisphere. It’s a space that embodies our vision of how to do ‘R&D’ without the usual physical boundaries and with brilliant facilities to workshop, invent, create and make.

We are always keen to build capacity and capability and we know there are already plenty of small businesses or sole traders who have a depth and breadth of practical knowledge to share with us.

We’re always on the look-out for coders, developers, UX and XR specialists, but if you review our reent projects you’ll see a whole spectrum of work that needs Newcastle’s Makers!

If that’s you, please get in touch and tell us about yourselves. We’re not making any promises but we may be able to connect you to opportunities that help build your business. We may have projects of our own that need your services.