Grants & Opportunities

Human models for accelerated robot learning and human-robot interaction. This project aims to develop novel approaches to teach robots to proficiently interact with humans in a safe and low-cost manner. To achieve this aim, this project will develop novel models from which various human behaviours can be generated and used to train human-robot interaction policies in simulation. Expected outcomes of this project include new computational models of human behaviour built using cognitive science theories and limited data and new training schemes for robot learning in simulation. By training robots in simulation with accurate human models, this research will enable fast and safe robot training to support the deployment and adoption of robots in human contexts such as healthcare facilities, homes, and workplaces.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4602 - Artificial Intelligence. Lead: Prof Dana Kulic

High-throughput single-molecule directed evolution. DNA polymerases are essential enzymes in many biotechnological tools, including DNA sequencing and PCR tests. However, existing DNA polymerases have limitations, resulting in inaccuracies and inefficiencies. Existing methods to improve polymerases lack sensitivity to screen for subtle, yet pivotal traits. This project aims to overcome this limitation by developing a new single-molecule directed-evolution system to evolve better polymerases. With this new technology we aim to identify DNA polymerases with improved performance that benefit biotechnological applications. Additionally, these single-molecule directed-evolution methods will benefit the wider scientific community and lay the foundation for further advances in directed evolution.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3101 - Biochemistry and Cell Biology. Lead: Dr Lisanne Spenkelink

Australian Legacies of British Slavery: Capital, Land and Labour. This project aims to bring Australia into the global history of slavery by exploring the legacies of British slavery in South Australia and Victoria. Through developing methods for biographical research and digital mapping, it will trace the movement of capital, people and culture from slave-owning Britain to the new settler colonies, and produce a new history of the continuing impact of slavery wealth in shaping colonial immigration, investment, and law. Expected outcomes of this project include enhanced capacity to build international disciplinary collaborations, new research methods, and research capacity building. Benefits include a radically new perspective on Australian history and abolition in the present, with major public outcomes.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4303 - Historical Studies. Lead: Prof Jane Lydon

Structure of the essential Commander protein trafficking complex. This project aims to provide a fundamental understanding of the structure and function of Commander, a large protein complex that controls export and recycling of internalised receptors. Commander is highly conserved throughout evolution and is essential for maintaining the homeostasis of hundreds of transmembrane receptors required for cell function and survival, regulating processes as diverse as lipid metabolism and cell adhesion. Despite advances in the understanding of Commander function, little is known about how Commander is assembled and interacts with other essential proteins. This project will use multidisciplinary cellular and structural biology approaches to reveal the architecture of Commander at an atomic level.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3101 - Biochemistry and Cell Biology. Lead: Prof Brett Collins

Mid-infrared quantum dots for room temperature photodetectors and emitters. This project aims to develop new technologies for mid-wave infrared (MWIR) cameras based on quantum dots (QDs). These will include MWIR photodetectors based on QD-sensitised photodetectors and MWIR emitters based on QD electroluminescence devices. This project expects to generate new knowledge in MWIR QDs and in devices that sense and emit infrared light. Expected outcomes of the project include MWIR cameras that are smaller, lighter, lower in power consumption and cheaper than existing technologies. This project is expected to provide significant benefits, such as dramatic reductions in the cost of infrared cameras and sensors. The high cost of infrared cameras currently limits their use in Australia largely to defence. . Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4018 - Nanotechnology. Lead: Prof Kenneth Crozier

Australian Journalism, Trauma and Community. This project aims to investigate the professional and personal costs of reporting on trauma for Australian journalists and the communities they engage with, by undertaking a groundbreaking historical study of journalists’ exposure to trauma over the past century. It seeks to generate new knowledge by transforming our understanding of the relationship between journalism and trauma and the wider implications for the profession and the public. Expected outcomes of this project include scholarly, education and public resources which will inform and broaden ongoing debates about Australian journalism. This will provide significant benefits for journalists and the public, creating urgent awareness and better support and training initiatives. . Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4303 - Historical Studies. Lead: A/Prof Fay Anderson

An in-built depolymerisation solution for polyethylene waste. This project aims to design enzymes that can be embedded into polyethylene, and later activated by the elevated temperatures of a compost heap, to depolymerise the plastic to small molecules. There are no good options available for the controlled decomposition of polyethylene waste at present, and instead researchers have focussed on solutions that rely on modifications to the underlying chemistry of the backbone and or collection to a central facility. Our approach would result in an in-built decomposition that does not require collection and recycling in a central facility. Since it is based on a depolymerisation mechanism it does not result in the production of harmful, partially disintegrated microplastics.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3403 - Macromolecular and Materials Chemistry. Lead: Dr Robert Chapman

Molecular mechanism of the PRC-dependent RNA degradation by the rixosome. Polycomb repressive complexes (PRCs) and the rixosome are evolutionarily conserved enzymes that are required for silencing the developmental genes of multicellular organisms. This project aims to investigate how these key regulators maintain gene repression using cutting-edge approaches ranging from biochemistry, structural biology, cell biology to genomics. The expected outcomes include generating new knowledge in gene regulation, strengthening the research capabilities of Australia in fundamental biology, and training the next generation of scientists. . Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3101 - Biochemistry and Cell Biology. Lead: Dr Qi Zhang

Open(ing up) goals in physical activity: What works, when, and for whom? This project aims to advance knowledge of open goals as a new goal-setting approach to optimise the adoption and maintenance of physical activity among insufficiently active individuals. This project expects to generate substantive insights into the mechanisms that explain why, when, and for whom open goals are particularly beneficial in this population. Expected outcomes include a theory of open goals that will inform physical activity promotion efforts, with the potential for broad population-level dissemination and scale-up. Significant benefits include the ability to set physical activity goals that are enjoyable and intrinsically motivating to pursue, while also avoiding detrimental effects of current practice (eg high failure rates).. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 5201 - Applied and Developmental Psychology. Lead: Prof Christian Swann

Counter-COVID public policies and the impacts on Australian children. This project aims to identify the causal effects of counter-COVID school closures, stay-at-home mandates and government support payments on the educational and developmental outcomes of Australian children. It will establish, for the first time, a comprehensive causal evidence base on the average and distributional impacts of these policies on children across the spectrum of schooling years from preschool to secondary school completion. This project expects to advance our understanding of child skill accumulation and the relative importance of schools, parents, peers and government intervention. Anticipated benefits include providing policy recommendations to restore student learning outcomes and reduce educational inequality in Australia.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3801 - Applied Economics. Lead: Dr Jinhu Li

Stability conditions: their topology and applications. This project aims to answer questions about the topology of the space of stability conditions, which has emerged as a central object in a number of different mathematical areas in the past two decades. The proposed work will have important consequences in representation theory, group theory, and algebraic geometry. The project shows that tools from previously unrelated areas, including discontinous differential equations and discrete dynamical systems, are crucial in the theory of stability conditions. Potential benefits include the resolution of outstanding conjectures in mathematics, the initiation of new connections between different areas of mathematics, and the introduction of machine learning techniques into mathematical research.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4904 - Pure Mathematics. Lead: Prof Anthony Licata

Resilient Remote Environment Emulation for Human-to-Machine Communication. Human-to-machine haptic communication allow humans to immersively interact with remotely-located robots/machines. Current networks cannot support its technical demands, thereby limiting the achievable human-machine distance. This project aims to develop cloudlet intelligence together with a programmable resilient network to realise reliable remote environment emulation, a concept where the physical environment at the remote machine is emulated close to the human. A key outcome will be the first reliable remote environment emulation platform that achieves vast human-machine distances on current networks. Enabling immersive human-machine experience will significantly benefit many sectors, from education through to industrial manufacturing.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4006 - Communications Engineering. Lead: Prof Elaine Wong

The mobilome of the anaerobic methanotrophic archaea Methanoperedenaceae. Microorganisms play a critical role in regulating Earth’s climate, but how they are affected by our rapidly changing environment is not well understood. This Discovery project will study a group of microorganisms found in freshwater sediment that can consume the potent greenhouse gas methane before it is released into the atmosphere. We have developed new methods to investigate how genetic material is exchanged between microorganisms, and how this helps them adapt to environmental changes. Together, this will ultimately help us develop better climate change prediction models and contribute to our understanding of microbial communities that are crucial for environmental health.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3107 - Microbiology. Lead: A/Prof Simon McIlroy

Advancing Child and Youth-led Climate Change Education with Country. Climate change education is in its infancy. By co-researching with Indigenous and non-Indigenous children, youth, and Elders across Australia and Canada, this project conceptualises and advances climate change education with Country. Climate change education is not adequately understood within Western science. Western perspectives on climate crises are in deep contrast to Indigenous perspectives enmeshed in continuous storying with descendants, ancestors, and Country. Collaborating with Elders, this project will generate child and youth-led transcultural curriculum and pedagogical understandings of climate change education with Country. It delivers on the United Nations Convention on Climate Change through corresponding quality education.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3901 - Curriculum and Pedagogy. Lead: Prof Amy Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles

Bubble clouds in ocean waves. This project aims to predict the behaviour of bubble clouds in ocean waves. Bubble clouds are used in Europe to shield marine mammals from the dangerous noise of offshore wind-turbine construction, but would be dispersed by Australia's ocean swell and turbulence; and unlike in Europe, Australia's offshore-wind sites are frequented by endangered whales. Bubble clouds from breaking waves may also dissolve up to third of humanity's carbon in the ocean. Experiments and coordinated numerical simulations would predict the displacement and dispersion of bubbles in oceanic conditions. Experiments and simulations would then predict the acoustic behaviour of bubble clouds. This outcome would benefit new offshore-wind industries and climate science.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4012 - Fluid Mechanics and Thermal Engineering. Lead: Prof Richard Manasseh

The role of protein glycosylation in erythropoiesis . This project aims to understand how the sugar code of key-signalling proteins influences the development of red blood cells. This project expects to generate new fundamental knowledge in the area of stem cell signalling by innovative integration of biological and computational molecular characterisation techniques. The expected outcomes of this project include the development of novel workflows to study key regulators of cell development and the generation of new knowledge in stem cell signalling that will find applications in transforming stem cell therapies and associated research for future applications such as the laboratory manufacturing of red blood cells to close the availability gap for transfusion purposes.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3101 - Biochemistry and Cell Biology. Lead: Prof Daniel Kolarich

Decoding microtubule remodelling in sperm production. All eukaryotic cells possess a dynamic microtubule (MT) cytoskeleton, which requires constant remodelling to satisfy its many essential cellular roles. Emerging data suggests modifications to the MT surface (the tubulin code) may act as instructional signposts for remodelling. This project aims to define a fundamental component of the tubulin code, glutamylation, and define how this directs MT severing. It also aims to define the cellular functions of MT-severing enzyme FIGNL1 and key MT glutamylation enzymes (CCP1, CCP5 and TTLL1). Insights will be generated using sperm production as a model system and will thus inform the mechanisms by which fertile sperm are built, in addition to being relevant to cell biology across eukaryotic species. . Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3215 - Reproductive Medicine. Lead: Prof Moira O'Bryan

Using Conservation Covenants for Ecosystem Restoration & Climate Adaptation. This project aims to investigate the role of conservation covenants in facilitating ecological restoration and adaptation to climate change. In light of international experience, the project examines Australia's legal experience with conservation covenants, with case studies in NSW, Queensland, Tasmania and Victoria. The project expects to generate new theoretical insights and practical knowledge about the obstacles and opportunities for enabling covenants to play a more ambitious role in meeting biodiversity conservation and recovery goals. This should generate significant benefits to Australia in meeting its international environmental obligations, and improving collaboration between governments and community and landholder stakeholders.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4802 - Environmental and Resources Law. Lead: Prof Benjamin Richardson

Cultivating digital music making in regional Australia. The project aims to examine effective methods of aligning local infrastructure and online resources to support digital music creators and their communities in regional Australia. It will promote digital creative industries and augment existing investments in regional art institutions and digital fabrication infrastructure. The project collaborates with regional digital artists to share their skills and expertise, with the goal of improving coordination of resources and infrastructure for the growth of regional digital creatives and engagement with their communities. Knowledge outcomes will assist governments in optimising the delivery of creative services and resources in regional Australia. . Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4410 - Sociology. Lead: Prof Andrew Bennett

Polarons in flatland. This project aims to generate new theories of excitons (the solid-state analogue of hydrogen atoms) in charge-doped atomically thin semiconductors. Such theories are urgently needed to describe the response to external probes, such as electric fields, of a range of novel materials that have emerged in recent years. The novelty is to treat the behaviour of semiconductors as a quantum impurity problem, where the excitons become modified by the surrounding electrons to form new types of particles. A greater understanding of the impurity problem in 2D materials would ultimately facilitate their use in emerging technologies that combine electronics with photonics, for use in ultra-low-power devices such as photodectectors, LEDs, and lasers.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 5108 - Quantum Physics. Lead: A/Prof Jesper Levinsen

Do root microbiomes control seagrass response to environmental stress? The project aims to determine the role root microbes play in controlling seagrass responses to environmental stress. By integrating marine and microbial ecology, environmental genomics and ecosystem function (e.g., biogeochemical cycling), this project is significant as it will create new knowledge of the processes that confer seagrass resilience to global environmental issues. An expected outcome is an increased understanding of how microbes control seagrass health and an enhanced capacity to develop effective restoration strategies for Australia's valuable seagrass ecosystems. Benefits include improving the extensive environmental, economic, social/cultural services Australian communities derive from seagrass ecosystems.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3103 - Ecology. Lead: Prof Paul Gribben

Increasing confidence in Australian carbon disclosures. This project aims to investigate whether carbon disclosures made by Australian resource firms are less than actual emissions (i.e., carbonwashing) using satellite imagery technology. New knowledge will be generated by triangulating carbonwashing information against firm data, such as valuation, other disclosures, and hiring practices, to understand if and how carbonwashing impacts firm values and organisational controls. Expected outcomes include improved ways to detect carbonwashing and its relationship to management control weaknesses, benefiting all stakeholders (including investors and regulators) in supporting government-proposed reforms to the Australian Safeguard Mechanism in instilling confidence in Australian carbon disclosures.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3502 - Banking, Finance and Investment. Lead: Prof Ralf Zurbruegg

Southern Ocean aerosols: sources, sinks and impact on cloud properties. This project aims to provide fundamental process-level understanding of atmospheric aerosol processes over the Southern Ocean, a region that has a profound influence on the Australian and global climate and where climate models perform poorly. Comprehensive observations during 3 Southern Ocean voyages and land-based measurements will enhance our knowledge of aerosols and cloud formation in that region and provide much-needed data for improving global climate models. Expected outcomes include more accurate seasonal and latitudinal representations of Southern Ocean aerosol populations, properties and sources. The main benefit includes improvements in weather forecasting and future climate projection for Australia and the Southern Hemisphere.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3701 - Atmospheric Sciences. Lead: A/Prof Branka Miljevic

Making Strongly Interacting Photons. This theoretical project aims to investigate strongly correlated polaritons in quantum physics. Known as quantum fluids of light, polaritons are half-light, half-matter particles exhibiting frictionless, zero-energy-cost flows, an astonishing quantum behaviour known as superfluidity. This project expects to make a breakthrough in our understanding of polaritons in the strongly interacting regime far from equilibrium and fill in the knowledge gap towards the realisation of a superfluid of light at room temperature. This should open a new era of quantum polaritonics that forms the basis for energy-efficient laser and all-optical transistor, establishing Australia as a world leader in commercialising novel photonic technologies.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 5108 - Quantum Physics. Lead: Prof Xia-Ji Liu

The Global Structure of Sparse Networks. Graph theory (the mathematics of networks) models many real-world problems and is a major area of modern mathematics. This project aims to investigate the global structure of graphs using product structure theory, which is a recent breakthrough method that has been the key to solving several open problems. The goal is to extend the reach of product structure theory and to discover new fields of application, especially in theoretical computer science. It is expected that the tools developed will be widely applicable, for example, in network optimisation. The project aims to build collaborations between Australian researchers and world-leading international mathematicians, and provide advanced training for talented young researchers.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4904 - Pure Mathematics. Lead: Prof David Wood