{"id":27787,"date":"2025-04-01T09:09:13","date_gmt":"2025-04-01T01:09:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/?p=27787"},"modified":"2025-04-01T09:09:17","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T01:09:17","slug":"researcher-connect-dr-francesca-perugia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/researcher-connect-dr-francesca-perugia\/","title":{"rendered":"Researcher Connect: Dr Francesca Perugia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Meet Dr Francesca Perugia \u2013 housing researcher on a mission to turn data into action, ensuring communities and policymakers are ready for the challenges of a changing world. Whether she\u2019s diving into disaster-responsive housing or into the ocean as a marathon swimmer, she\u2019s all about pushing boundaries and making real impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Dr Francesca Perugia: Combating Climate-Related Housing Challenges\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nm0DKhUtJNI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Describe your research in 3 words<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>People, housing, climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Tell me briefly about your field of research?<br><\/strong><br>My research looks at how risks brought on by climate change impact housing, including how communities understand risk and how this impacts their decisions. But it\u2019s not just about identifying the risks, it\u2019s about making sure that policymakers get the insights they need to create policies that reflect what people really need, rather than just one-size-fits-all solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Research highlight<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I enjoyed working closely with policymakers on our Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) funded national enquiry on disaster risk and housing to get a deeper understanding of how they make decisions. We always see the final outcomes of policies, but we don\u2019t often get the chance to unpack the \u201cwhy\u201d behind those decisions. One of the most fulfilling aspects of this project was hearing from people who told us how our research has directly influenced their work. It\u2019s such a rewarding feeling knowing our work didn\u2019t just sit on a shelf somewhere but makes a real difference to the sector. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>If you could sit-in with any Faculty for a day, which would you pick?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Faculty of Business and Law. There\u2019s always conversation in my field about costs, value, and money. I\u2019d love to sit down with economists and find some kind of middle ground where we\u2019re not just thinking about financial profits but also considering the broader social and environmental values that matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What are your passions\/hobbies outside of work?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m an ocean swimmer. I swam solo in the Rottnest Channel Swim three years ago, which I\u2019m really proud of. Swimming is my way of getting out of my own head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019ve got a great swim group. We go for long swims which is followed by an even longer coffee session. It\u2019s my favourite weekend ritual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What\u2019s a fun fact about you that your colleagues would probably not know?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019ve actually worked at Curtin for 14 years but most people think I\u2019ve only been here for about four or five. I started off developing online learning materials through OUA, so I wasn\u2019t physically on campus at first. It wasn\u2019t until 2021 that I became full-time staff. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What\u2019s the most valuable thing you\u2019ve learnt in your career so far?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Listen to people. Some of the most interesting and unexpected opportunities have come from conversations I never thought much of at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What\u2019s a piece of advice you would give your fellow colleagues, and students alike?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Know that resilience is everything. There are so many brilliant people in research, but what really sets people apart isn\u2019t just being smart, it\u2019s the ability to keep going, even when things don\u2019t work out the first time. The thing about academia is you don\u2019t always get the answers you want right away, and it\u2019s frustrating, but if you stick with it, you\u2019ll get there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/staffportal.curtin.edu.au\/staff\/profile\/view\/francesca-perugia-2b0995aa\/\"><strong>Connect with Francesca!<\/strong><\/a><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8211; &#8211; &#8211;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This piece was featured in&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/research.curtin.edu.au\/impact-focus\"><em>Impact Focus<\/em><\/a>&nbsp;\u2013 a quarterly newsletter bringing you the latest in Curtin research.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/mailchi.mp\/78fa5356695c\/signup-to-the-roc-enewsletter\">Sign up here<\/a>&nbsp;to get it delivered straight to your inbox!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Meet Dr Francesca Perugia \u2013 housing researcher on a mission to turn data into action, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4451,"featured_media":27788,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"7366,7903,7713,7604,7806,5501","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":4,"wds_primary_research-areas":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[88,4],"tags":[],"research-areas":[],"class_list":["post-27787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-policy-public-affairs","category-research"],"acf":{"post_components":false,"post_options":{"":null,"additional_content":{"title":"","content":"","image":false},"related_courses":[{"title":"","qualification":"","link":"","description":"","faculty":""}],"credits":{"author":"","photographer":"","media":false},"display_author":true,"banner":{"image":false}}},"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/FP-1000x500.png","author_meta":{"first_name":"Curtin","last_name":"University","display_name":"Â鶹ֱ²¥"},"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-04 07:30:02","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4451"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27787"},{"taxonomy":"research-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-areas?post=27787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}