Paul Bonnington

NIF Governing Board Member

Professor Paul Bonnington is the Interim Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Innovation (DVCRI) at the University of Queensland (UQ).

Since joining UQ in 2022 as PVCRI, Paul has built strong connections with researchers and industry, enabling them to access UQ’s world-class infrastructure and facilities. He has shepherded the successful renewal of nearly two dozen National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) facilities at UQ, hosted within Institutes, Faculties, and Collaborative Research Platforms, helping secure for UQ over $75 million in federal and state government co-investments through to 2027. Additionally, he serves on multiple national NCRIS Project boards and has been a strong advocate for enhancing career pathways for Research Infrastructure Specialists across NCRIS and within UQ. Paul also guided UQ to become one of the few universities nationally accredited under the Commonwealth’s Data Availability and Transparency Act (DATA) Scheme.  

Paul has decades of experience in the research sector, including establishing New Zealand’s first eResearch program at the University of Auckland, and facilitating numerous state and national research infrastructure initiatives while at Monash, providing researchers with access to major computing, software, and analytics capability. 

Paul’s major research interests lie in graph-theory, medical AI, and developing advanced computational solutions to combinatorial problems. 

Paul serves on numerous state and national boards in the research and research infrastructure areas, including the National Imaging Facility board, the Microscopy Australia board, and the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network advisory board.