About NATSEM

The Centre

The National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling (NATSEM), an affiliated research centre of the University of Canberra, is one of Australia’s leading economic and social policy research institutes, and is regarded as one of the world’s foremost centres of excellence for microsimulation, economic modelling and policy evaluation.

NATSEM undertakes independent and impartial research, and aims to be a key contributor to social and economic policy debate and analysis in Australia and throughout the world through economic modelling of the highest quality, and supplying consultancy services to commercial, government and not-for-profit clients. Through its research NATSEM is an active contributor to social and economic policy debate and its research receives extensive media and public attention. Most publications are freely available and can be downloaded from the NATSEM website.

NATSEM provides a small and friendly research environment, where researchers work in teams on a range of different projects supported by the Business Support Team. NATSEM has residential facilities to accommodate international visitors, and provides opportunities for its staff to collaborate with researchers from other centres and institutions in Australia and overseas. The Centre has outstanding computing resources and provides attractive working conditions.

The Building

From 2010, NATSEM has been housed in the International Microsimulation Centre (IMC), an innovative multi-purpose new building sited on the University of Canberra’s Bruce campus, and financed under the Commonwealth Government’s Education Investment Fund. The design of the $11million building is a completely new concept for the University of Canberra, offering flexible and sustainable multipurpose spaces to house NATSEM as well as a venue with full conferencing facilities and accommodation for local, national and international visitors.

The project was awarded the first ever “5-star Green Star Education Building in the ACT”. It features include a Photo Voltaic System (solar panels) on the roof of the building to collect and generate electricity (resulting in a predicted net reduction of greenhouse gases by 62% compared to a standard practice benchmark) as well as underground rainwater tanks to store collected water for a range of sustainable uses.

View NATSEM IMC building launch on YouTube