The Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra was established by an Act of Federal Parliament on 1 August 1946. Its Annual Report 2025 records 23,673 enrolled students. Professor Rebekah Brown has been Interim Vice-Chancellor and President since September 2025.
ANU’s list of academic colleges includes no school named for agriculture. Forestry and agricultural research sit mainly in the Fenner School of Environment & Society, which was founded in 2007 from units including the former Departments of Forestry and Geography. Its research areas include forests and fire, and food, soil, water and agriculture, and it houses the university’s Wood Library (Xylarium), first assembled after the Australian Forestry School was set up in Canberra in 1927. Plant science research is carried out in the Research School of Biology. The university says its Agrifood Innovation Institute works with industry and government, and that in 2025 it launched the ANU node of Plant SynBio, a plant synthetic biology facility funded by Bioplatforms Australia under the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy.