The Australian National University (ANU) will lead three research projects to progress Australia's hydrogen energy industry.

The projects have received $3.4 million in funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA). 

Three projects will be led by researchers from the ANU College of Engineering and Computer Science and the ANU College of Science, while another project involving ANU researchers will be led by a partner university.

ANU Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation) Professor Margaret Harding said the success of ANU projects was a testament to the University's wealth of expertise and strong commitment to developing renewable energy technologies.

"We welcome the ARENA announcement of this important funding, and congratulate the researchers and their teams on achieving this great outcome," Professor Harding said.

"I'm delighted to see these three projects awarded across different disciplines - engineering, physics and chemistry,"

ANU will also provide nearly $1 million in matching funds as a demonstration of the importance of these projects in developing a potential new renewable energy supply chain for Australia.

The successful ANU-led projects are:

• Low-cost perovskite/silicon semi-conductors integrated with earth abundant catalysts for efficient solar hydrogen generation: led by Professor Kylie Catchpole from the ANU College of Engineering and Computer Science
• Improving efficiency, durability and cost-effectiveness of III-V semiconductors for direct water electrolysis: led by Professor Chennupati Jagadish from the College of Science
• Bio-inspired hydrogen generation by novel bubble free electro catalytic systems: led by Professor Emeritus Ronald Pace from the College of Science

ANU researchers Associate Professor Antonio Tricoli and Professor Yun Liu will also partner with Monash University on the design of low-cost, robust, high-activity water splitting electrodes for hydrogen production from renewable energy.