The Earth Building Research Forum was set up by Dr Kevan Heathcote and Mr Gregory Moor in the Faculty of Design Architecture and Building of UTS in December 1999. It was originally envisaged as a forum for disseminating ideas and research into the performance of earth buildings but has since been widened to include a database of earth building projects, information on forthcoming conferences, linkages to other earth building sites and to include more general articles on the subject. The Forum hosted an international earth building conference at UTS in January 2005 (EarthBuild 2005) and this is planned to be a biennial event. The Conference brought together engineers, environmentalists, builders and architects from around the world.

Dr Heathcote and Mr Moor have been mainly conducting research into the durability of earth buildings but are also investigating thermal performance, and earthquake performance in conjunction with staff from the Faculty of Engineering. The Faculty of Design Architecture and Building has a fully equipped laboratory with all the necessary equipment to analyse soils and to test earth building samples for strength and durability and the Faculty of Engineering has a large shake table for earthquake testing. Enquiries regarding such testing can be directed to Mr Moor at EBRF@uts.edu.au.