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World-class science requires inspiration, so how can we spark creativity in the modern university environment? Creativity does not come automatically: in the modern age, factors from electronic devices to time pressure can stifle creative thought. Yet, to solve the major problems of the future, it will be essential to stimulate creativity in scientific research and teaching. Here, we bring together insights from the literature to offer ways to cultivate creativity in universities. We advocate for creativity at all levels of university culture within which students are embedded, from the students themselves, to teachers, to researchers, and to administrators. We found that, for students, creativity can involve accepting creative coursework and understanding failure; for teachers, it can involve being active mentors and designing creative courses; for researchers, it can involve conscious effort to make room for creative thought within pressured workloads, and researching across disciplines; and for administrators, it can involve relaxing restraints, allowing autonomy over courses, and encouraging cross-disciplinary learning and research.

Dioecious-plant life-history characteristics and reproduction vary greatly among species, and have been linked to certain climate and habitat types, particularly tropical and island habitats. Australia is a large, predominantly arid continent, although it also contains mediterranean, temperate and tropical climates. Dioecious plants occupy each of these climate types, with their respective habitats and evolutionary pressures. As a result, dioecious species demonstrate great variation in key reproductive characteristics (pollination mechanism, sex ratio, and seed dispersal), which require understanding so as to conserve dioecious species effectively among climate types. Therefore, to understand dioecious-plant ecology across Australia, research must include all climate types, and investigate reproductive traits in each to better focus conservation strategies. An external factor which could prevent equal study effort across climate types would be geoclimatic preference of study location or biases in researcher interest, causing gaps in practical understanding and less effective dioecious-plant conservation management in understudied systems. To assess the prevalence and nature of dioecious plant research in Australia, we conducted a systematic mapping and scoping review to answer the following questions: (1) what climate zones have been captured by dioecious-plant research in Australia, focusing on pollination, sex ratio and seed dispersal; and (2) what is the distribution of dioecious-plant pollination, sex ratio and seed dispersal research by climate type; of the 43 studies that met the inclusion criteria, 27 (62.8%) studies were conducted in temperate climates, 8 (18.6%) in dry climates, 6 (13.9%) in tropical climates, and 5 (11.6%) in continental climates. Of the three focal areas, pollination studies (n = 24, 75% studies of entomophily) were most common, whereas sex ratio (n = 17, 41% studies of sex ratio over more than one population) and seed dispersal studies (n = 13, 54% of studies investigated abiotic dispersal) were less frequently researched. Considering the climate classification distribution in Australia, studies of dioecious species in dry climates are less prevalent than those in temperate climates. Of the focal areas of research, particularly under-investigated areas were anemophily, biotic seed dispersal, and study of female-biased species. Further studies addressing these gaps would be beneficial to inform conservation initiatives for Australian dioecious plant species. Additionally, it would be informative to investigate whether similar patterns are found in dioecious plant research in other countries with diverse climate types.