Grants & Opportunities

From data to fast insights: a database system for seamless data exploration. This project aims to develop a next-generation database platform for seamless data exploration, where users can interactively search for insights buried in the data, without a clear outcome in mind. Unlike today's database management systems, this platform does not require costly experts to tune the database for fast responses, and guides users towards finding insights. Using the latest advancements in machine learning to facilitate data exploration and reduce the time and effort to discover insights, this open-source database platform should provide significant benefits to Australian businesses and boost scientific discovery, increasing Australia’s competitiveness in the global data-driven market. . Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4605 - Data Management and Data Science. Lead: A/Prof Renata Borovica-Gajic

Bacterial membrane remodelling and the interaction with peptides. This project aims to elucidate the fundamental mechanism of lipid remodelling in Gram-negative outer membrane, which is critical both in preventing noxious compounds and evading host immune defence. For the first time, the complex interplays between bacterial cellular metabolism and membrane remodelling will be defined through systems pharmacology, and the precise membrane-peptide interaction will be examined by computational and biophysical approaches. Novel knowledge will be generated to improve our understanding on how bacteria remodel their outer membrane in response to environmental stress. This will benefit the future design of much-needed antimicrobial strategies including products and technologies to target bacterial membrane. . Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 3214 - Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences. Lead: Dr Meiling Han

How will Pacific climate variability impact Australia in a warming world? Temperature variability in the Pacific Ocean is characterised by El Niño and La Niña (year-to-year variations) and the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (decadal variations). These phenomena are primary drivers of Australian temperature and rainfall. Leveraging new tools and methods, including Single Model Initial-Condition Large Ensembles, this project will investigate drivers of these phenomena, and their impacts on Australia in a warming world. Outcomes include the quantification of how these climate phenomena modulate extreme weather events, and an understanding of how Indian and Atlantic Ocean warming affects the Pacific region. This will improve the prediction of extreme events, which is critical for preparation for their impacts.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 3702 - Climate Change Science. Lead: Dr Nicola Maher

New Foundations for Algebraic Geometry. Differential calculus is one of the most important and widely applied areas of mathematics. Differential categories are a modern foundational theory of differential calculus with applications throughout mathematics and computing. This project aims to use differential categories to create new foundations for algebraic geometry, and to generate new knowledge on the connection between algebraic and differential geometry. The generality of these foundations will allow for novel applications of algebraic geometry with significant benefits to computer science, such as in machine learning and differentiable programming. We expect this to build Australia's profile in these important fields and help train the next generation of mathematicians.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4904 - Pure Mathematics. Lead: Dr Jean-Simon Lemay

In one zeptosecond: quantifying energy dissipation in heavy element fusion. This project aims to understand the process of energy dissipation in superheavy element fusion reactions. Using state-of-the art facilities unique to Australia, the first detailed measurements of the crucial early stages of these reactions will be made. This is expected to generate significant fundamental knowledge on why some superheavy element fusion reactions succeed, and why others fail. The outcomes are expected to significantly advance the fundamental understanding of nuclear reactions, and provide key guidance to international opportunities to create new superheavy elements and isotopes. Expected benefits include improving cancer treatments, understanding element abundance in the universe and improved safety in nuclear technologies.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 5106 - Nuclear and Plasma Physics. Lead: Dr Kaitlin Cook

Strain-stabilised perovskite optoelectronics: from fundamentals to devices. This project aims to develop deep structure-property relationships and strain engineering protocols to generate stable forms of the emerging inorganic halide perovskite semiconductors, which are promising for next-generation solar cells and light emitting diodes. This project expects to arrive at working light emitter and detector prototypes via a three-dimensional, multi-length scale strain engineering approach that utilises materials processing techniques already used in the semiconductor industry. The expected outcomes include the development of new stabilisation methods which are compatible with facile and scalable device processing, which will directly impact the success of future perovskite optoelectronic devices and technologies.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 5104 - Condensed Matter Physics. Lead: Dr Julian Steele

Overcoming the Intrinsic Instability of Perovskites Materials and Devices. This project aims to improve the intrinsic stability of metal halide perovskite energy materials for advanced optoelectronic applications. The key concept is to suppress the phase-segregation for alloyed perovskite by interstitial management as well as develop low-temperature crystallization for non-alloyed perovskite through rational design of the intermediate phase evolution, which has the potential to generate new knowledge in addressing the key challenge on the operational stability of perovskite devices. The outcomes are expected to deliver valuable intellectual property to accelerate the commercialization of perovskite technology, enabling low-cost utilization of solar energy for a sustainable and low carbon-emission economy.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4016 - Materials Engineering. Lead: Dr Meng Zhang

A geospatial toolkit to assess community risk to environmental change. This project seeks to strengthen our understanding of the role of environmental change in driving patterns of community risk, by building a spatially and temporally explicit model, and a risk index that will be designed with input from decision makers. This project expects to improve the implementation of geospatial tools for risk assessment using an innovative approach based on evidence and practice. Expected outcomes include increased and optimal implementation of geospatial data in Australian systems, and enhanced research capacity to proactively respond to environmental change.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4202 - Epidemiology. Lead: A/Prof Aparna Lal

The past, present and future of Indigenous ethnobotanical knowledge. This project aims to resolve the interrelated and compounding problems that Indigenous Australians face in relation to their ethnobotanical knowledge, such as biopiracy, loss of biodiversity, knowledge, and opportunity. This Indigenous-led project aims to build community-based databases to protect, preserve and facilitate community controlled use of ethnobotanical knowledge. This will support and promote Indigenous economic self-sufficiency and sustainability which will be of direct benefit to the partner communities. In addition to providing direct benefits to the communities involved in the research, the project is designed to be replicated across Australia, bringing benefits to Indigenous communities throughout the country.. Scheme: Discovery Indigenous. Field: 4503 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Environmental Knowledges and Management. Lead: Hon Prof Henrietta Marrie

Plant-mediated arsenic-iron mineral transformations. The project goals are to advance our understanding of molecular-level iron-arsenic transformations induced at plant-mineral-atmosphere interfaces as influenced by remediation actions and future environmental change. The project aims for this to be achieved through an innovative experimental infrastructure combined with isotopic, spectroscopic and advanced synchrotron-based tools. Intended outcomes and benefits are the generation of new knowledge, which will improve current understanding of arsenic and iron fate impacted by remediation actions, plant growth and planetary changes induced via the atmosphere-plant-soil interface.. Scheme: Discovery Indigenous. Field: 4106 - Soil Sciences. Lead: A/Prof Dane Lamb

Digitising the Drafting of the Australian Constitution. This collaborative project aims to simplify the task of understanding the Australian Constitution and its drafting process. It will provide an accessible means to decipher the proposals, drafts and votes by which the Constitution was formed. The expected outcomes of the project are an open access, online archive that consolidates, corrects and enhances the digital record of the Constitutional Conventions and the processes associated with them. This will provide significant benefits not only to constitutional law scholars and historians but also school teachers and students seeking to reconstruct the process by which our Constitution was formed.. Scheme: Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities. Field: 4807 - Public Law. Lead: Dr Murray Wesson

High activity catalysts for CO2 recycling to valuable chemical products. This proposal targets the development of novel porous solid catalysts, containing highly dispersed metal clusters that provide exceptional activity for the conversion (recycling) of carbon dioxide to fuels and other higher value chemical products. These novel materials will improve the productivity and/or reduce the energy required to facilitate the CO2 conversion, thereby reducing costs for industry, whilst also providing environmental benefit by carbon dioxide utilisation.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4004 - Chemical Engineering. Lead: Prof Akshat Tanksale

Human Leukocyte Antigen-A and -B regulation of Natural Killer cell function. The aim of this project is to determine how genetic variation in the genes encoding cell surface receptors expressed by innate lymphocytes and the molecules they recognise diversifies their capacity to sense and respond to infection. This knowledge is critical for understanding why there are intrinsic differences between individuals with respect to their capacity to respond to different types of infection and will ultimately inform our capacity to better deploy personalised medicines.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3204 - Immunology. Lead: Prof Andrew Brooks

Synthetic biology tools for just-in-time control of biosynthetic pathways. Synthetic biology enables sustainable synthesis of precious chemicals, ranging from drugs to biomaterials. Using microbes, high production levels are usually attained by overexpressing the genes that make the desired product, but this simple approach often fails for antibiotics and other compounds that are toxic to microbes. Using synthetic biology this project builds genetic circuits enabling smart, just-in-time activation of target genes, which is pervasive in natural pathways. Using these circuits we will boost 1) the production of a valuable antibiotic and 2) calcite precipitation in self-healing concrete. This approach enables the biosynthesis of many other chemicals, leading to cleaner and greener bio-factories.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3101 - Biochemistry and Cell Biology. Lead: A/Prof Georg Fritz

Ageing in and through Data: What data can tell us about ageing. As the first generation to age in a data-rich world, this project asks: What insights can data (i.e. computational information) give us about ageing, ageing well and ageing in place (i.e. at home)? And what escapes data and why? By taking up the UN Healthy Ageing challenge, this project combines ethnography, data sensing and creative practice to provide insights—opportunities and limitations—into how we might age well and in place. Expected outcomes include data visualisation, ethnographic mobile storytelling, art exhibition, codesign workshops and symposium. These outcomes will activate public debate and provide alternative futures for ageing well in a data-saturated world.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4701 - Communication and Media Studies. Lead: Prof Larissa Hjorth

Beautiful strings. This project aims to carry out several key experimental measurements, in tandem with substantial theoretical work, to improve the understanding and physical modelling of processes involving b quarks, also called beauty quarks, which are of intense current interest for experiments across the globe. Key theoretical innovations include novel treatments of electromagnetic corrections, novel theoretical formulations of the dominant physical paradigm of string fragmentation, and optimisations of key associated algorithms to enable new applications of broad relevance. Experimental measurements will be carried out to validate the new theoretical developments and use them to minimise theoretical uncertainties.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 5107 - Particle and High Energy Physics. Lead: Prof Peter Skands

Improving the Governance of Species Lists. The aim of this project is to develop a system of governance for the creation of taxonomic lists. This project expects to apply knowledge of how other science organizations govern themselves to the governance of taxonomic lists, estimate the costs of current inefficiencies and identify impediments to improvement. Expected outcomes of this project include a process for validating global lists of species. This should provide significant benefits, such as single lists of species that can be adopted at any scale and are readily comparable across countries and applications. A single list will ensure threatened species and those of quarantine or health concern don’t fall through the cracks and cause problems.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4610 - Library and Information Studies. Lead: Prof Stephen Garnett

Accessing Liquid Noble Metals for Low Temperature Chemical Reactions. We will explore noble metals in liquid form at low temperatures. We will show that while noble metals melting points are above 1000°C, a gallium matrix will allow their existence in liquid form at low temperatures (<75°C). A variety of noble metal gallium alloy combinations will be investigated for their catalytic activities which are expected to show very high kinetics. We will study both bulk and low dimensional analogues to understand the atomic dispersion of noble metals on interface and in the core of the alloys, for discoveries regarding the liquid state catalytic properties of the mixes. Subsequently, model chemical reactions will reveal the enhancement of the kinetics and what the project can offer to industrial innovations. . Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4016 - Materials Engineering. Lead: Prof Kourosh Kalantar-zadeh

New Silent Anchors for Floating Offshore Wind Turbines in Calcareous Sand . Reliable wind energy sites are in deeper waters and require offshore floating structures to harness the wind energy. Such floating structures require a reliable anchoring system that is secure and environmentally friendly. Calcareous sands, rich in carbonate content, pose unique challenges with their behaviour difficult to predict. In this project, a novel silent anchoring system is investigated that can be installed with minimum noise and vibration compared to more traditional counterparts. Through the state of the art development in numerical modelling and centrifuge modelling, this project will advance Australian Science and Practice in designing floating wind turbines in carbonate rich soils offshore and help energy transition.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4005 - Civil Engineering. Lead: Prof Yuxia Hu

Assessment of Dynamic Pile Driving Using Machine Learning. This project aims at developing new technology to determine ground properties and foundation capacity in real-time during pile installation by adopting rigorous numerical simulation, laboratory experiments and artificial intelligence-based computational model. Although impact driving is used commonly to install piles on site, there is no technology currently available to interpret collected data accurately and in real-time to provide live feedback and optimise construction processes. This research will provide new machine learning model to assess the ground and foundation characteristics during construction, and will increase certainty in infrastructure investment in Australia particularly for costly transport assets and infrastructure.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4005 - Civil Engineering. Lead: Prof Hadi Khabbaz

Data-led bioengineering to uncover hidden chemical wealth in bacteria. The soil bacteria Nocardia are an untapped source of industrially prized chemical compounds called natural products. This project aims to develop innovative bioprospecting genomics technologies built from the disciplines of microbiology, biochemistry and computational statistics to discover hundreds of new natural products in Nocardia. This project will unlock the diversity of potent new enzymes and molecules with high economic value that could include insecticides to protect crops, bioactives to fight diseases, or new enzymes for food and biofuel production. This research unlocks enormous hidden chemical potential in soil bacteria, to build sustainable national economic growth through innovative, high-value industrial chemical development.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3107 - Microbiology. Lead: Prof Timothy Stinear

Community Self-determination in the Era of Automated Home Delivery Systems. Urban environments in Australia and internationally are on the cusp of major disruption resulting from impending proliferation of home delivery services using autonomous vehicles in the form of trucks, shuttles, bots, and drones. As witnessed in the case of ride-share services, socio-technical changes can permeate society before effective regulation is introduced unless swift anticipatory action is taken. The aim of this project is to deliver the critical information inputs required to empower and protect communities in a future characterised by the widespread use of automated product deliveries. Outputs will include modelled scenarios and negotiated policy recommendations that reflect meaningful community consultation.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3304 - Urban and Regional Planning. Lead: Prof Simone Pettigrew

Photoacoustic cellular manipulation: building from the bottom up. In this project we propose an approach for creating complex 3D prints. Whereas current approaches are limited to defining the external geometry, this technology will permit the organization of the internal structure as well, with the potential to do so at the scale of individual cells. Achieving this has important applications in bioprinting human tissues and additive manufacturing. This is based on the manipulation of particles and cells using holographic acoustic fields controlled by patterned light. This is compared to current acoustic patterning approaches are mostly limited to static simple geometric arrangements and lack the flexibility to produce arbitrary, rapidly changing fields that enable the fabrication of complex structures. . Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4003 - Biomedical Engineering. Lead: A/Prof David Collins

Seeing the Bio-Nano "Talk" in the brain via real-time multiplex tracking. This project aims to develop new knowledge and smart tools that have the potential to greatly improve brain research. The blood-brain-barrier is the major physiological barrier that protects the brain from environmental toxins, bacteria and viruses, but limits the effectiveness of nanoparticle-based brain imaging agents. Expected outcomes of this project include a better understanding of the mechanisms that allow nanoparticles to penetrate the blood-brain-barrier, as well as improving brain imaging. Benefits of the project include the commercialisation of technologies and smarl tools developed in this projetct, and establishment of a new Australian biotechnology company that exports brain-imaging technologies to the world.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4003 - Biomedical Engineering. Lead: Prof Bingyang SHI

Fast Precision Robust Control of Resonant Flexible Systems. The project aims to produce new control system design tools to enable fast precision control of advanced engineering systems encorporating flexible structures. This should enable improved speed and accuracy in control systems for precision instruments such as atomic force microscopes along with improving control system performance in areas of precision engineering such as semiconductor manufacturing, robotics and microelectromechanical systems. The outcomes are expected to be new control system synthesis and modelling tools enabling fast and highly accurate control of industrial systems using nonlinear and switching elements and achieving high levels of robustness. This will benefit Australian precision manufacturing industries.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4007 - Control Engineering, Mechatronics and Robotics. Lead: Prof Ian Petersen