About Us

The Autism Centre of Excellence (ACE) is a multi-disciplinary centre which aims to produce world-leading research and teaching on autism, all in collaboration with our community partners.

Our Highlights

ACE’s work is underpinned by community research priority setting exercises, initially undertaken in 2019 and recently updated as part of our work informing the National Autism Strategy. This enabled us to identify the most important research questions or areas which the autism community wanted us to focus on. As a result of this, ACE’s research outcomes are meaningful and translate into impactful outcomes. Moreover, this joint focus consolidates the coherence of ACE’s research path as each team member works towards the shared goal of enhancing the quality of life of individuals on the autism spectrum through one of three areas of research and teaching:

(1) Enhancing community and professional understanding of autism.

Understanding autism and neurodiversity is critical to creating environments that are welcoming and inclusive for autistic people. Supported by philanthropy, ACE has provided free-to-access professional development on autism to over 200 parents, teachers and professionals across Australia every year since 2015. We have also been awarded competitive tenders to develop, deliver and evaluate profession-specific training on autism for government organisations (e.g. Queensland Police) and for international service providers (MINDS). For those who wish to extend their autism knowledge, we also deliver a fully-online Graduate Certificate and Masters in Autism Studies program, which is studied by over 100 students each trimester.

(2) Identifying and supporting anxiety, mental health and well-being in autistic people.

The autistic community have highlighted the importance of research to understand and reduce mental health challenges in autistic people. ACE is an international leader in understanding the presentation and impact of anxiety for autistic individuals. We have recently finished an ARC Linkage grant which evaluated an autism-specific intervention to prevent and/or reduce anxiety in autistic preschoolers, with results indicating reductions in anxiety as well as improvements in academic performance once children enter scool. We have also been awarded an MRFF grant to co-develop an intervention to improve the quality of life of autistic young children which is a collaboration between academics (autistic and non-autistic) as well as four community organisations.

(3) Supporting children on the autism spectrum to achieve their best academic and social outcomes

We have parallel research streams investigating the many factors that can influence academic outcomes, including participation and sensory responses (Simpson), early developing skills, (Malone) and understanding of nonverbal communication (Dargue). We also have a cohort of HDR students (supported by competitive scholarships) who are focusing supports for the transition from school to employment as well as what works to support autistic students who need to leave or move schools outside of planned transitions (e.g. school nonattendance, school mobility).