Grants & Opportunities

Heat transfer and fluid flow in geomaterials: Physics-inspired AI framework. Processes involving fluid flow or heat transfer are of critical importance in engineering applications (e.g., in dams, geothermal systems, oil & gas production). Though largely overlooked, microstructural features control these processes in geomaterials. This project aims to exploit advances in high-resolution 4D imaging to extract essential microstructural information to: 1) identify new parameters that better capture pore and particle properties, connectivities and pathways, and 2) develop advanced predictive analytics tools. This will improve fundamental understanding of the link between microstructure and fluid and heat flows at the engineering scale, and provide predictive tools to reduce risk and costs to industry.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 0905 - Civil Engineering. Lead: Prof Guillermo Narsilio

Secure and Energy Efficient mmWave Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Communications. Future wireless networks comprising unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in millimeter wave bands will provide ubiquitous connectivity to a massive number of devices, even in unexpected situations such as disaster relief. Common wireless security solutions are developed only for terrestrial infrastructures but are unsuitable for mmWave UAVs due to the high mobility and limited energy supply. This project aims to develop novel energy efficient physical layer security techniques to prevent system attacks and malfunctions. The expected outcomes will deliver innovative solutions to safeguard future wireless networks. The project should benefit Australia in advancing knowledge base in wireless security and supporting future critical infrastructures.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 0804 - Data Format. Lead: A/Prof Yi Hong

Modern mathematics to unravel the birth of coherence in dynamical systems. This project aims to reveal the precise mathematical mechanisms underlying the emergence and disappearance of long-lived coherent features in dynamical systems. This project expects to generate new fundamental mathematics in the area of dynamical systems, using innovative operator-theoretic approaches to carefully tease apart the lifecycles of coherent structures. The expected outcomes of this project include new mathematical theory and computational algorithms to anticipate the genesis and destruction of coherent objects, which are key organisers of complex geophysical flows. This breakthrough mathematics should provide significant benefits, such as improved prediction of eddy transport and persistence of weather and climate patterns.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 0102 - Applied Mathematics. Lead: Prof Gary Froyland

Chlorine Evolution Catalysts for Efferent Seawater Electrolysis. Seawater is the most abundant aqueous resource on earth that is readily accessible at very low costs, but yet to be directly utilised for production of hydrogen fuel and commodity chemicals. This project aims to develop cheap and plentiful carbon-based high performance chlorine evolution electrocatalysts for seawater electrolysis powered by renewable electricity to realise the production of hydrogen, chlorine and sodium hydroxide directly from seawater. The electrolyser can also be used to treat desalination brine while produce hydrogen and chemicals. The success of the project will set a firm technological foundation for seawater utilisation, which will add to Australian capability to meet future energy and environment challenges.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 0306 - Physical Chemistry (Incl. Structural). Lead: Prof Yun Wang

To map and enhance Australian musical improvisation as a creative industry. The project maps transforming improviser networks in Australian music since 1970, to inform how cultural innovation develops and disseminates. Application of new statistical techniques (temporal network analysis) will combine with in-depth focus groups to show how improvisation excellence depends on a mix of artistic craft, networked collaboration and institutional support. This knowledge will assist music venues and industry in nurturing improvisation as a cultural force and commercial opportunity for export and tourism attraction post Covid-19. The novel method, integrating computational network analysis with qualitative research, will also inform and build capacity for future understandings of cultural fields and industries.. Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 1904 - Performing Arts and Creative Writing. Lead: Prof Roger Dean

Sustainable Hydrogen Production from Used Water. The project aims to address the pressing challenge of water scarcity in hydrogen production by developing an innovative approach of using used water as the feed for water electrolysis. The project will result in an in-depth understanding of the impacts of water impurities in used water on the performance and durability of water electrolysers, and develop guidelines for the design of highly durable water electrolysers and the operation and upgrade of existing wastewater treatment plants. The project will advance the practical applications of water electrolysis for scalable and sustainable hydrogen production and help Australia secure a leading position in the global emerging hydrogen economy.. Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 0912 - Materials Engineering. Lead: Prof Xiwang Zhang

Putting death in its place. The project aims to link 890,000 population records to place of residence from 1838 to 1930, to examine the relationships between where people live, mortality, life expectancy and health. Where people live impacts their life-course outcomes. Using novel matching techniques, the project expects to identify intergenerational changes and the spatial dynamics of inequality and social mobility. Expected outcomes include the creation of a public resource of linked data and a better understanding of long-run health and inequality. These should provide economic and social benefits by informing policy aimed at contemporary social and health challenges, enhancing our understanding of Australian history, and developing public resources.. Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 1402 - Applied Economics. Lead: A/Prof Rebecca Kippen

Redesigning apartment policy standards for health and wellbeing. This project aims to examine the impact of apartment design standards on residents’ health and wellbeing. It seeks to (1) identify a refined set of evidence-informed quantifiable policy standards that protect residents’ health and wellbeing; and (2) evaluate their uptake by industry and barriers to implementation. Many design standards are based on intuition and experience rather than empirical evidence, and little is known about whether the standards and thresholds stipulated are sufficient to support health. Expected outcomes include tailored policy-specific recommendations for design policy and the planning of apartment precincts. Benefits include the delivery of convivial, equitable, healthy and sustainable apartment housing.. Scheme: ARC Future Fellowships. Field: 1205 - Urban and Regional Planning. Lead: Dr Sarah Foster

Iron-based high-temperature topological superconductors. Because of topological non-trivial nature and zero resistance, topological superconductors are very promising in the application of future electronic devices. This project aims to achieve intrinsic and robust topological superconductors at high-temperature by engineering iron-based superconductors via precisely controlling the defects, chemical doping, interface and substrates. Expected outcomes of this project will include high-temperature iron-based topological superconductors as new material platforms for the study of exotic properties of topological superconductivity and future application in high-temperature fault-tolerant quantum computing. . Scheme: ARC Future Fellowships. Field: 0912 - Materials Engineering. Lead: Dr Zhi Li

Smart Wireless Radio Environments for the 6G Era. This project aims to revolutionise radio signal propagation and information transfer by developing “smart” wireless radio environments. Using Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface (RIS), the smart wireless network can transmit information without generating new signals but recycling the incoming signal. However, as an emerging technology, fundamental analysis – in terms of rate, reliability, and efficiency – is needed to understand the performance of RIS-empowered wireless networks. Expected outcomes include new communication-theoretic models and the enabling technologies to realise them in practice. These smart environments have the potential to offer “greener” and more "seamless wireless connectivity" for the future wireless network.. Scheme: ARC Future Fellowships. Field: 1005 - Communications Technologies. Lead: Dr Saman Atapattu

Automatic Authorities: Charting a Course for Legitimate AI. Public and private actors are increasingly using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to exercise power over citizens, who are increasingly unsure whether to accept that power. AI faces a crisis of legitimacy. This project aims to use technically- and empirically-grounded philosophy to make Australia a global leader in the study and design of legitimate AI. The project expects to launch and make fundamental progress in a new field: the Political Philosophy of AI. Expected outcomes include new strategies shared with industry and government partners for designing and deploying legitimate AI systems. Expected benefits include the opportunity to enjoy the public and private efficiencies enabled by AI, without compromising our freedom and equality.. Scheme: ARC Future Fellowships. Field: 1606 - Political Science. Lead: Prof Seth Lazar

Constitutional Design & Democratic Resilience . Democracy is under stress worldwide. Both new and longstanding are seeing waves of democratic erosion. In many cases, this erosion is also taking new and more subtle forms, which are harder to detect than outright coups or suspensions of democracy – that is, they involve a form of “abusive constitutional change” that uses existing legal democratic norms and processes to subvert democracy from within. This Project will investigate the nature and scope of this problem of abusive constitutional change, as well as potential solutions through constitutional design. It will offer new theoretical insights for the field of comparative constitutional studies, and practical insights for policymakers in Australia and globally.. Scheme: ARC Future Fellowships. Field: 1801 - Law. Lead: Prof Rosalind Dixon

Solving the solvent problem in chemical modelling. This project aims to produce highly accurate, user-friendly chemical solvent models using interdisciplinary theoretical chemistry techniques. The benefits of these novel models are extremely broad since chemical modelling is more impactful than traditional laboratory based techniques in solving multi-faceted modern chemical problems. The proposed outcomes of the project are significant, as they will transform how applied research solves difficult and expensive real world chemical problems by allowing researchers to reliably include solvents in their models. It will have economic benefits for the chemical, mining and materials sectors in Australia, which represent billion-dollar industries.. Scheme: ARC Future Fellowships. Field: 0307 - Theoretical and Computational Chemistry. Lead: A/Prof Timothy Gould

Evaluating the Quality of Scientific Research in Psychology. Buttressing public trust in science has never been more important, yet many sciences are experiencing a crisis of confidence. The current system of relying on journal prestige to calibrate our confidence in individual research findings has created corrupt incentives for scientists, and risks undermining public trust in science. Thousands of scientists and institutions around the world have indicated that research evaluation needs an overhaul by signing the Declaration on Research Assessment. One solution is to create a public, transparent, and valid process for producing and sharing expert evaluations of individual papers. This project aims to launch this reform in psychology, and partner with PREreview to help it spread to other fields.. Scheme: ARC Future Fellowships. Field: 1701 - Psychology. Lead: Prof Simine Vazire

Decentralised Collaborative Predictive Analytics on Personal Smart Devices. This project tackles the challenging problem of personalised predictive analytics with resource-constrained personal devices and massive-scale data. The knowledge to be generated concerns privacy, fairness, and resource efficiency in the era of Internet of Things. The expected outcomes include a collaborative learning paradigm for building personalised models on personal smart devices in open and fully decentralised settings. Privacy and model fairness are core tenets of the paradigm. Personalised predictive analytics is frontier research that will position Australia at the forefront of AI and give business the tools needed to deploy innovative business systems for market exploitation with a secure, equitable and competitive advantage.. Scheme: ARC Future Fellowships. Field: 0806 - Information Systems. Lead: Prof Hongzhi Yin

Domestic and Family violence and border-related harm. This project aims to explore how Australia's migration system intersects with the experience of domestic and family violence for temporary visa holders. By drawing on the accounts of former temporary visa holders via interviews in Australia, Thailand, Vietnam and India, and examining the migration system and processes evident in formal accounts including coronial findings and sentencing judgements, the project expects to generate new knowledge about connections between migration systems and domestic and family violence. This should provide significant benefits by laying the ground for reform and recommendations to support policy makers and stakeholders more broadly to create better conditions for women’s safety.. Scheme: ARC Future Fellowships. Field: 1602 - Criminology. Lead: Prof Marie Segrave

A Bayesian Approach to Distributed Estimation for Multi-Object Systems. This project aims to develop new signal processing techniques that facilitate autonomous technologies for environmental perception, with the ability to efficiently process large data volumes from multiple sensing modalities. Rapid advances in sensors and networks have led to a digital data deluge, from which extracting useful information presents new technological challenges and opportunities. To address this development, this project seeks to develop new distributed solutions for statistical estimation, which are specifically designed for dynamic systems with multiple object states, and are inherently scalable and robust. The potential benefits include new technologies for smart cities, autonomous infrastructure, and digital productivity.. Scheme: ARC Future Fellowships. Field: 0906 - Electrical and Electronic Engineering. Lead: Prof Ba Tuong Vo

Strategic Friendship: Anglo-German Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific Region. This project aims to investigate the untold history of Anglo-German cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region through hitherto neglected German archival materials. These materials point to thriving and thick webs of mutual assistance in cultural, scientific, economic, military and political affairs that successfully weakened local sovereignty but ended abruptly with World War One. The project expects to produce a new history challenging century-long Anglophone understandings of Anglo-German antagonism in the Asia-Pacific region. Its benefits include providing new knowledge of the history of great power relations in the Asia-Pacific region and establishing an improved historical framework for understanding strategic cooperation in our region.. Scheme: ARC Future Fellowships. Field: 2103 - Historical Studies. Lead: Prof Matthew Fitzpatrick

AUSLearn: AUtomated Sample Learning for Object Recognition. This project aims to enable computers to learn how to effectively use training samples for object recognition. Training sample is the only source used by computers to learn recognising objects. This project creates a new research direction that will enable the first full exploration of the power of samples. The aims will be enabled by leveraging the recent advances in reinforcement learning, fast training algorithms, and by developing novel deep learning algorithms. The new algorithms will benefit a wide range of applications, e.g. to effectively use car crash training samples for accurately identifying potential road crashes in transport and to effectively use rare medical imaging training data for robustly diagnosing diseases in health.. Scheme: ARC Future Fellowships. Field: 0801 - Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing. Lead: Prof Wanli Ouyang

Electronic-vibrational spectroscopy: A new probe for structure and function. This project aims to solve a major challenge in ultrafast spectroscopy: to identify and quantify competing reaction pathways in complex photochemical systems. Ultrafast Spectroscopy provides information on excited-state processes of photochemical reactions, however, unravelling heterogeneous systems with competing parallel processes remains difficult. Multidimensional electronic-vibrational spectroscopy, sensitive to electronic dynamics and molecular structure, is expected to overcome this barrier. This new level of detail will profoundly enhance our understanding of energy and chemical conversion in complex systems and will reveal design targets for optimising next-generation light-energy harvesting, conducting, and emitting materials.. Scheme: ARC Future Fellowships. Field: 0306 - Physical Chemistry (Incl. Structural). Lead: Dr Christopher Hall

Advances in data integration modelling for infectious disease response. This project aims to develop powerful mathematical frameworks that integrate data from multiple sources to facilitate informed decisions in response to the threat of present, and future, infectious diseases. The project expects to generate new knowledge in mathematics by advancing the tools for incorporating multiple data sources into models of infectious diseases. The expected outcomes include enhanced capacity to predict spatiotemporal changes in transmission of infectious diseases. This project should provide significant benefits in the advancement of modelling techniques broadly applicable to infectious disease settings, which will be demonstrated for antimalarial drug resistance – a major threat to malaria elimination. . Scheme: ARC Future Fellowships. Field: 0102 - Applied Mathematics. Lead: Prof Jennifer Flegg

Kids, bugs and drugs: Human-microbial relations in everyday family life. This project aims to investigate human-microbial relations in everyday family life within the context of escalating Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR). While AMR is widely recognised as a potentially catastrophic global health threat, antimicrobials still feature prominently in families’ daily attempts to care for their health. Using innovative qualitative methods, this project expects to generate better understandings of how human-(anti)microbial relations are understood and negotiated in community settings in daily life. Expected outcomes include new knowledge in the field of health sociology and a crucial evidence base that will yield significant benefit by informing and enabling community-centred responses to the growing AMR threat.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 1608 - Sociology. Lead: A/Prof Katherine Kenny

Protecting prey from predators using sensory tactics. This project aims to develop new approaches to prevent the extinction of threatened native species from invasive predators, such as rats, pigs, cats and foxes. Many native species are hard to see but vulnerable to being found by predators with powerful senses of smell and hearing. By harnessing the sensory cues of prey that predators use when hunting, this project expects to discover olfactory and auditory techniques that prevent predators finding threatened species. In doing so, the project intends to provide new perspectives on how animals find food using multiple senses, and lead the recovery of threatened species in areas where predators remain within Australia and globally. . Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 0502 - Environmental Science and Management. Lead: Dr Catherine Price

Charitable triad: How donors, beneficiaries, & fundraisers influence giving. This project aims to test a new model of charitable giving to examine how donors, beneficiaries, and fundraisers together influence donor decisions. Until now, no holistic model has existed to explain donor behaviour: past research has focused on donors but neglected beneficiaries and fundraisers. This project is expected to provide evidence for a new bedrock theory of philanthropy. Findings can also inform practitioner toolkits, offering advice to nonprofits on how to raise money effectively by understanding how the particular organisation and its beneficiaries can influence donor decisions. By helping ensure the survival of charities, this research will contribute to the delivery of essential social services that benefit many Australians.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 1701 - Psychology. Lead: A/Prof Cassandra Chapman

Applying ecologically valid approaches to social cognitive ageing. Social functioning is a critical predictor of wellbeing, particularly in older age. This project aims to investigate how important social cognitive capacities, that lay the foundation for effective social functioning, are impacted by normal adult ageing. This project will use cutting edge experimental techniques to investigate, for the first time, how ageing alters our capacity to visually attend and understand emotional information in others during real time social interactions, both in and out of the laboratory. Expected outcomes include new knowledge of how older adults navigate social interactions, with potential to lay a foundation for improving social wellbeing in older Australians.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 1701 - Psychology. Lead: Dr Sarah Grainger