Navigating the landscape of local government–university relations

University campuses’ contributions to their local communities in terms of sustainability are often ambiguous. In developing a research-based partnership with City of Ryde Council, Macquarie University has aimed to contribute to the city’s community strategic plan which prioritises liveability, connections and environmental sensitivity amongst others. The partnership is also aiming to harness research capacity to key sustainability issues in the local area (including transport, energy and waste), develop the campus as a living laboratory for community engagement with sustainability research, and contribute to institutional goals for sustainability and social inclusion. Drawing on an approach that links local scale social and environmental justice to sustainability, this paper discusses progress in the partnership and identifies key challenges, including differences in understanding of the nature of research, the local politics of environment and planning in a rapidly growing hi-tech precinct, the competing demands and tensions on research capacity from a business sense, and the ever-present scarcity of resources and the opportunity to build robust foundations for long-term change in short-term performance settings in both councils and universities.