Grants & Opportunities

Gender-Lens Investing: Harnessing Social Innovation for Impact. This project aims to investigate how the field of gender-lens investing can be harnessed to address gender inequality and generate social impact. It will generate novel scholarly knowledge that addresses how social innovations like GLI can emerge, grow and be sustained. The expected outcomes include improved theoretical understanding of the organisational and institutional infrastructure required to sustain social innovations by identifying obstacles and best-practice approaches for growth, organisation and governance. This should provide significant benefits in terms of national and international policies and systems supporting impact investing and addressing Sustainable Development Goals. . Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 1503 - Business and Management. Lead: Prof Danielle Logue

Harmonic analysis of Laplacians in curved spaces. Harmonic Analysis is a branch of mathematics which is interrelated to other fields of mathematics like complex analysis, number theory and partial differential equations (pdes) with many applications in engineering and technology. This project aims to solve a number of difficult fundamental problems at the frontier of harmonic analysis in understanding Laplacians in curved spaces. Such Laplacians control the propagation of heat and waves on manifolds and Lie groups, arising in mathematical physics and quantum mechanics. Expected outcomes are the solutions of dispersive equations and the framework of singular integrals in curved spaces; new ideas and techniques in harmonic analysis developed; and training of Australian future mathematicians.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 0101 - Pure Mathematics. Lead: A/Prof Ji Li

Microfluidics with core-shell beads: handling liquids like solids. Reducing waste of consumables in chemical reactions promises to solve environmental problems as well as enable novel applications in space. This project aims to establish a revolutionary fluid handling technology that lowers waste in the labs and in satellites. The project deciphers the fundamental physics behind our recent discovery of encapsulating a tiny liquid content in a solid shell, allowing for handling liquid samples like solid particles. Examples of the benefit of this project are more precise detection of bacteria on earth and compact reactors in space. The research outcomes are instrumental for promoting a clean environment, good health, and creating new business opportunities, particularly in space industry, for Australians.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 0913 - Mechanical Engineering. Lead: Prof Nam-Trung Nguyen

Governing during an ocean climate crisis: Building integrative capacity . This project aims to investigate how strengthening institutional integrative capacity will lead to more effective integrated oceans management (IOM). Integration across sectors and jurisdictions will enhance cooperation, coordination and policy coherence. This project expects to identify new and innovative approaches to implement IOM by identifying which components of integrative capacity can be improved. Expected outcomes of this project include practical new directions for IOM in Australia and Canada that will increase collaboration between governments, industry, Indigenous groups and communities. This study will improve oceans governance and benefit countries' efforts to mitigate climate change impacts on the marine environment. . Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 1605 - Policy and Administration. Lead: A/Prof Joanna Vince

Understanding visual working memory: a cognitive strategy framework. This project will assess the role cognitive strategies play in visual working memory with the aim of unifying theories in the field. Specifically, this work will investigate whether variations in cognitive memory strategies result in the use of different sensory stores and neural regions to hold visual information in mind. This work aspires to use innovative perceptual psychophysics and modelling techniques along with brain imaging and non-invasive brain stimulation to elucidate the exact neural regions responsible for different memory strategies. This work has the potential to solve many of the current debates in the field and lead to a unified theory and model of visual working memory, opening the door to optimise human memory.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 1701 - Psychology. Lead: Prof Joel Pearson

Toward a Female Stoic Tradition: Women's Writings in England, 1600-1800. This project aims to investigate the neglected history of women’s engagement with Stoic ideas in early modern England. It expects to generate new knowledge of a distinctive strand of women’s Stoic thought by taking a novel interdisciplinary approach to different genres of early modern writing. The intended outcomes include a new understanding of women’s valuable contributions to philosophy, literature, and politics in the period, as well as a greater appreciation of the gender-inclusivity of Stoic philosophy. This should provide significant benefits, such as the development of Stoic therapeutic techniques informed by women’s experiences, and the promotion of gender equality through the recognition of women’s intellectual history.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 2202 - History and Philosophy of Specific Fields. Lead: Prof Jacqueline Broad

Model studies of Australian lump ore applied to blast furnace ironmaking. Ore lump use in ironmaking blast furnaces (BFs) requires no preprocessing and has a lower carbon footprint. However, it suffers various technical problems. This project aims to understand and optimize the conditions for such operations. This will be achieved by means of a combined theoretical and experimental program, involving the use of state-of-the-art multiscale computer modelling and simulation techniques. The research outcomes will be tested in the design and control of lump charging operations in practice through collaboration with the industrial partner. This will ultimately increase Australian ore lump usage in BFs, leading to significant financial and environmental benefits to Australia and the entire steel industry worldwide.. Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 0904 - Chemical Engineering. Lead: A/Prof Shibo Kuang

Community Music Radio: Building the Music-Media Ecosystem. This project aims to investigate the economic and sociocultural impact of community music radio. It seeks to generate new knowledge about the detailed relationships between community music radio stations and the Australian music industry, documenting for the first time national activities and infrastructures. Anticipated outcomes include the identification of policies and strategies to improve the audibility and visibility of Australian music domestically and on global digital platforms; providing a new model for evaluating both economic and sociocultural outputs of creative industries; and building the music-media ecosystem as a vital component of the Australian creative industries. . Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 2001 - Communication and Media Studies. Lead: A/Prof Shane Homan

Paving the way to greener roads and healthier waterways. Waste tyre permeable pavement is emerging as an effective stormwater surge mitigation solution. Yet, its behaviour under traffic loads and varied environmental conditions are not fully understood which undermines industry confidence in this technology. This project aims to advance the engineering of waste tyre permeable pavements by creating new knowledge on their mechanical and hydrological performance. The project will develop design guidelines, identify the governing mechanisms and develop a performance prediction framework based on laboratory and field tests, and advanced numerical modelling. The mechanisms of performance from micro to macro level will be identified, generating knowledge for industry to support widespread uptake.. Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 0905 - Civil Engineering. Lead: Prof Mahdi Disfani

Novel isotope techniques to explore the Centralian Superbasin, Australia. This project will leverage new advances in analytical instrumentation and isotope techniques to generate improved geochronological and stratigraphic framework for the Centralian Superbasin, a vast ancient depositional system covering much of central Australia. The project aims to apply novel laser-based dating of sedimentary rocks, coupled with metal isotope proxy reconstructions of the basin’s palaeogeography, hydrological connectivity and past redox conditions, which are all critical parameters to guide and de-risk future exploration of sediment-hosted resources in this frontier basin. Anticipated outcomes will benefit Australia's resources economy, while providing insights into the evolution of Earth’s surface environment in deep time.. Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 0403 - Geology. Lead: A/Prof Juraj Farkas

A novel physical-digital approach for the assessing a large critical asset. This project aims to deliver an artificial intelligence-enabled decision-making tool to maintain and manage the floating covers of vast lagoons that treat raw sewage. The cover harvests the biogas released from the anaerobic digestion of sewage for electric power generation that exceeds the plant’s requirement. The approach involves an innovative thermographic technique and exploits transfer learning to adapt neural networks trained on lab-scale and synthetic data to field implementation. The outcome is a machine learning framework to optimise biogas harvesting and renewable energy generation, and to avoid structural failure, that is capable of continuous improvement to take into account improved data and/or modelling capabilities.. Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 0905 - Civil Engineering. Lead: Prof Wing Chiu

High-value functional ingredients from bean processing waste. Legumes are considered highly nutritious and sustainable food. Accordingly, there is a steady growth in the consumption of legumes worldwide, including in Australia. Due to lengthy soaking and cooking times, consumers prefer ready-to-eat canned legumes. The current processing technologies are energy and water-intensive and generate considerable waste. This project investigates the application of non-thermal technologies to reduce processing time, water and energy use and enable the recovery of valuable polyphenols and soluble dietary fibres normally lost in the wastewater. This knowledge will lead to sustainable beans processing, delivering improved productivity to Australian manufacturers and quality food to Australian consumers.. Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 0908 - Food Sciences. Lead: A/Prof Sushil Dhital

The worlds next door: terrestrial exoplanets with the TOLIMAN space mission. This project aims to to explore our nearest neighbour star system, Alpha Centauri, for the first time probing for exoplanets with physical characteristics that resemble those of Earth. The finding of any such world, with the potential to support a biosphere like our own and lying only 4 light-years away, would profoundly alter our view of our place in the universe. The primary outcome of this project will be the design, construction, launch and operation of a novel and innovative space telescope: the TOLIMAN mission. This profoundly benefits the Australian space and university sectors, partnering them with international agencies to deliver marquee science with global impact: the search for our first stepping stone to interstellar space.. Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 0201 - Astronomical and Space Sciences. Lead: Prof Peter Tuthill

Polymer fibres: A game changer for THz high-capacity interconnects. The transition to a society with consuming enormous amounts of digital data has accentuated the need for high-speed data links. The project aims to create a novel class of polymer terahertz fibres to replace the current lossy wires that are bandwidth limited. This will be achieved through innovative microstructured fibre designs, cost-effective and scalable fibre fabrication, and integration of terahertz fibre in the next generation communication systems. The project outcomes are expected to put Australia at the forefront of the field of polymer terahertz fibre links, which will be a game changer for industries that require reliable and high-speed connections including telecom, automotive, space, datacentres, and image processing. . Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 0906 - Electrical and Electronic Engineering. Lead: A/Prof Shaghik Atakaramians

Precision Pollination: Data-driven enhancements to boost crop yield. The project aims to transform industrial crop pollination from an intuitive domain to one where decisions are based on sound data and best-practice principles. It proposes to achieve this modernisation of global pollination practice by developing novel technologies to operate a three-stage loop: honeybee pollination monitoring, simulation-based forecasting, and management. This is intended to ensure that the capability of honeybees to provide essential ecosystem services is informed by transferable, standardised data acquisition and management techniques that maintain bee health and maximise pollination. The anticipated outcomes are higher fruit yields and quality, and a beneficial step-change in industry productivity and profitability.. Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 0703 - Crop and Pasture Production. Lead: A/Prof Alan Dorin

High-productivity ammonia electrosynthesis. The aim of this project is to develop and demonstrate high-performance devices for ammonia production from renewables by a scalable electrolysis method. This will be achieved by experimental and modelling investigations of the nitrogen reduction reaction to guide the design of tailor-made cathodes. New knowledge in catalysis and materials science is expected to be generated. The target outcome of the project is a sustainable and affordable ammonia synthesis method as an alternative to the current fossil-fuels-based and excessively greenhouse-emitting process. The technology to be developed in this project is anticipated to be of significant benefit to the Australian agriculture sector as a local, on-demand source of low-cost fertilisers.. Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 0306 - Physical Chemistry (Incl. Structural). Lead: A/Prof Alexandr Simonov

Urban Rewilding: Ecologically and Community-informed Futures. Biodiversity is highly threatened in Australian cities. This project aims to prevent further wildlife loss by creating a blueprint for the ecological restoration of urban spaces. Working with seven Councils and three State government agencies in northern Sydney, this project will experimentally assess a new approach to conservation by restoring regionally-present but locally-missing wildlife. Expected outcomes include the restoration of ecosystem services provided by wildlife and increased opportunities for community engagement with nature. Project benefits include initiating rewilding in urban areas, improved public education on the benefits of restoring wildlife and greater potential to conserve our biodiversity and cultural heritage.. Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 0502 - Environmental Science and Management. Lead: A/Prof Thomas Newsome

Three-dimensional Bayesian Modelling of Geological and Geophysical data. The project aims to develop technologies enabling rapid informed decision-making related to the management of natural resources, including critical metals, copper and water. This new technology will support a greener future, securing our energy future, our access to clean water and reduce the mining footprint. Expected outcomes include an enhanced capability in interoperable, integrated three-dimensional geological and geophysical modelling in order to predictively characterise sub-surface geology. The outcome will be an open-source forecasting dashboard enabling decision making while considering underlying risk related to resource extractions and management with significant benefits to the Australian society (lower emissions, clean water).. Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 0403 - Geology. Lead: Dr Laurent Ailleres

Embrittlement-tolerant alloys for safe hydrogen transmission and storage. Hydrogen embrittlement in steels is a major impediment to a safe hydrogen economy. This project will determine how hydrogen affects the deformation behaviour of steel, providing the fundamental information that is required to develop alloys that can be safely used in infrastructure for a future Australian hydrogen industry. We will utilise new technologies that allow us, for the first time, to determine the position of hydrogen atoms around micro-scale features and to compare it to local mechanical behaviour, determined by micro-mechanical tests. The systematic investigation of the effect of hydrogen on different micro-components within steel will allow the development of microstructure-guided alloy design principles.. Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 0912 - Materials Engineering. Lead: Prof Julie Cairney

Towards Real-world Continual Learning on Unrestricted Task Steams. This project aims to enable machines to continually learn without forgetting and accumulate knowledge from the sequential data streams containing diverse tasks. This project expects to advance the continual learning to unrestricted real-world task steams that are long-term and complex and promote artificial intelligence toward the human-level intelligence that can automatically evolve during interaction with the world. Expected outcomes of this project include the paradigm-shifting continual learning framework and techniques for handling unrestricted task steams in real-world scenarios. They will benefit society and the economy nationally and internationally by enhancing the applicability of artificial intelligence.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4611 - Machine Learning. Lead: Dr Dong Gong

Designing Single-atom catalysts for Renewable Waste Conversion to Urea. This DECRA aims to realise the direct electrochemical conversion of waste resources using renewable energy to generate urea at ambient conditions. By designing impurity-tolerant single atom catalysts and unearthing their structure-activity relationships, the utilisation of flue gas and wastewater will be materialised. This will advance our understanding in the field as current energy conversion reactions require pure feedstocks. Expected outcomes from the program is envisioned to lead to deployment of scalable decentralised modes of green urea production (substituting imports), and the knowledge transferrable to other areas of Australia’s emerging hydrogen economy, extending the scope of renewable Power-to-X to realise a circular economy.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4016 - Materials Engineering. Lead: Dr Rahman Daiyan

Cave microbial metabolism as a missing biogeochemical sink. The aim of this project is to unveil the microbial biodiversity, novel metabolic capabilities and chemosynthetic primary production of subsurface ecosystems, such as those found in caves. Leveraging a powerful blend of geospatial, molecular and biogeochemical approaches this project expects to identify the microbial basis of subsurface biogeochemical processes driving the earth’s major elementary cycles. Expected outcomes include a predictive framework to assess and upscale the impact of these microbial communities on the environment. Benefits include predicting and responding to climate risks, such as the desertification of agricultural soils, by uncovering how microorganisms respond to nutrient and carbon depletion.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 3107 - Microbiology. Lead: Dr Sean Bay

Hierarchical Ta-Ti lattice materials by 3D printing and nanofabrication . This project aims to develop a novel approach to the manufacture of hierarchical Ta-Ti lattice materials with a fine nanoporous Ta surface through capitalizing on the advantages of metal 3D printing and a unique post nanofabrication process. This project expects to generate new fundamental knowledge in the design and manufacture of hierarchical metal lattice materials. Expected outcomes include a new advanced manufacturing method and a new class of highly biocompatible hierarchical Ta-Ti lattice materials. The former should benefit the Australian Manufacturing Industry for the manufacture of a variety of novel metal lattice materials or products while the latter has the potential for applications as implant materials.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4016 - Materials Engineering. Lead: Dr Tingting Song

Climate Change: The Role of Reporting, Auditing and Executive Remuneration . This project addresses the need for corporate disclosures on climate-related risks. It aims to generate new knowledge about reporting and auditing of climate-related information and how these metrics are incorporated into executives’ remuneration. Utilizing the latest global developments, the project will highlight best practices under both voluntary and mandatory reporting regimes and provide cross-jurisdictional evidence on the impact of mandatory reporting schemes. It will also test the effectiveness of reporting, auditing and remuneration in achieving carbon emissions reductions and meeting capital market demands. The project will lead to improved capital market efficiency and informed policy making in Australia and internationally. . Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 3501 - Accounting, Auditing and Accountability. Lead: A/Prof Shan Zhou

New insights into how the brain interprets visceral and somatic sensations. Sensory nerve fibres monitor normal and abnormal stimuli in our body tissues, sending this information to the brain. I study the sensory pathways of the respiratory system which protect the lungs from harmful stimuli, such as inhaled pollutants or smoke. I discovered that respiratory sensory pathways interact with sensory circuits in the brain arising from other body tissues. The goal of this project is to investigate one example of this interaction; the convergence of visceral and somatic sensory pathways onto a brain circuit that regulates the intensity of the sensations that are experienced. This project addresses the fundamental question of how the brain processes two competing noxious sensations.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 3209 - Neurosciences. Lead: Dr Alice McGovern