The University of Queensland is launching a coal seam gas (CSG) centre to help fill in the social, environmental, technical and policy gaps surrounding the booming industry.
Professor Chris Moran said the centre aims to be the pre-eminent global authority on CSG, focusing on the treatment and utilisation of coal seam water, social and community performance, geoscience and petroleum engineering.
"The new centre ... will undertake critical research that will drive sustainable practice in this emerging industry, and bring the scientific rigour and data that have been lacking to date to the social, environmental and technical challenges the industry faces," he said in a statement.
"We want to create new knowledge and capability for the growing Australian CSG sector to ensure it operates in a way that benefits all parties - the community, government and industry."
Professor Moran added there is public anxiety around the industry.
Federal independent MP Tony Windsor has highlighted those concerns.
He wants hundreds of millions of dollars spent on studies into the effects the industry is having on sensitive farmland.
He is also pushing for the federal government to clamp down on CSG exploration and demanding the commonwealth have greater powers to override project approvals.
And he won't support the government's minerals resource rent tax (MRRT), currently before parliament, unless he gets his way.
The university will partly fund the new centre and seek funding from industry and the commonwealth and state governments.
It is offering five new professional chairs to develop research programs and run the centre.
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