Grants & Opportunities

Wearable thermoelectric textiles for portable microelectronics. Wearable thermoelectrics enable the power generation from the temperature difference between human body and ambient temperature by using thermoelectric effect. This project aims to design eco-friendly wearable thermoelectric textiles to realize high-efficiency solid-state power generation and meet individual needs with human comfort and health. The target is to achieve a power density in the as-designed thermoelectric textiles by the optimization of materials and device design. The outcome will open up a new platform for the green and sustainable charge for portable microelectronics, which will lead to an innovative technology for energy management, which will place Australia at the forefront of wearable electronics and textile industry.. Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 0912 - Materials Engineering. Lead: Prof Zhi-Gang Chen

The Australian Emulation Network: Born Digital Cultural Collections Access. This project aims to conserve and render born digital artefacts widely accessible by establishing an Australian Emulation Network. High value cultural collections from university archives and the GLAM sector requiring legacy computer environments will be targeted. The project expects to generate new knowledge across media arts, design, and architecture. Expected outcomes include stabilising and providing researchers with emulated access to born digital cultural artefacts, sharing legacy computer environments across the network, and establishing an Australian software preservation community of practice, building skills in preserving and emulating digital cultural artefacts with substantial future applications also in scientific preservation.. Scheme: Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities. Field: 1902 - Film, Television and Digital Media. Lead: Prof Melanie Swalwell

Understanding the neural dynamics of integrated perceptual decisions. This project aims to characterise the brain processes involved in perceptual decision-making. While scientists have a good understanding of how people make decisions about the properties of individual sensory inputs, much less is known about how the brain integrates information across multiple sensory sources that differ in their salience and fidelity. The project expects to elucidate the neural mechanisms responsible for these integrative perceptual decisions, using a combination of brain imaging and behavioural measures, computational modelling and real-time neurofeedback. This should provide significant benefits for developing more effective approaches to training individuals in professions that rely on optimal decision-making skills.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 1701 - Psychology. Lead: Prof Jason Mattingley

Passive biofiltration processes for nitrogen removal from polluted waters. Traditional urban wastewater treatment is energy and resource demanding. By combining principles of Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) with advanced pollutant removal processes, we will create necessary knowledge to underpin development of novel sustainable urban water treatment systems. This project aims to understand and utilise Simultaneous Nitrification, Anammox and Denitrification (SNAD) processes within passive plant-soil-based biofilters for cost-effective removal of nitrogen from a range of polluted urban water sources. The project will open a potential for a new technological advancements in urban water management, while simultaneously providing benefits to the environment and community through greening and waterway protection.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 0905 - Civil Engineering. Lead: Prof Ana Deletic

Metal Halide Perovskite Spin-Orbit Torque Devices. This project aims to demonstrate a new, highly efficient spin-based electronic device by developing a fundamental understanding into the generation and transport of spin in metal halide perovskite based heterostructures. Using an interdisciplinary approach, this project expects to exploit the beneficial spin properties, low cost and scalable production methods of metal halide perovskites. It is expected that this project will deliver new functionality to these emerging materials to enable their application in highly efficient spintronic devices. These outcomes should provide significant benefits to the Australian advanced manufacturing sector by developing new knowledge, advanced technology and training skilled professionals.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 0204 - Condensed Matter Physics. Lead: Prof Jacek Jasieniak

Anomalous Structural Response in Porous Framework Materials. This project targets a key missing link in understanding the host-guest properties of porous framework materials, namely, the dynamic response of host lattices to their external environment and to the inclusion of molecular guests. By combining advanced chemical, physical and structural measurements the project expects to provide the first concerted picture of materials behaviour across an array of scientific and technological settings, with particular focus given to industrially relevant ‘real world’ conditions. This promises to greatly inform the on-going chemical design, formulation and process engineering of these materials, in turn accelerating their development in gas separation, energy storage and device componentry applications.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 0306 - Physical Chemistry (Incl. Structural). Lead: Prof Stephen Moggach

A Concurrent Multiscale Model for Improved Prediction of Drying Process. This project aims to develop an innovative multiscale model for food drying, which integrates spatial and temporal nonlinear behaviours at different scales. The proposed unifying theory will capture dynamic micro level features and upscale them to macro level features through a concurrent bridging scheme. As cellular elements critically govern the drying process, the fundamental understanding captured through this theory will lead to more accurate prediction of drying kinetics, deformation and quality changes, and hence the development of efficient drying systems. This project will overcome a longstanding research problem and position Australia at the forefront in world drying research to reap substantial economic benefits for Australia.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 0908 - Food Sciences. Lead: Prof Azharul Karim

Tackling the computational bottleneck in precision particle physics. This project aims to deliver a breakthrough technique in theoretical-computational particle physics, with significant potential for high-precision applications. The project targets some of the most advanced and resource-intensive calculations in particle physics, which are widely used but currently limited by extremely high computational resource requirements. This project expects to develop a novel approach that will vastly reduce the computational complexity while at the same time improving their accuracy relative to the current global state of the art. Expected outcomes include the new methodology itself as well as a full-fledged and open-access simulation code based on it, which should be highly efficient.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 0202 - Atomic, Molecular, Nuclear, Particle and Plasma Physics. Lead: Prof Peter Skands

A novel quantitative risk assessment framework for fractured rock slopes. Rock slope instabilities present grave risks to life and to the serviceability of major Australian infrastructure such as mines, roads and railways, and to coastal recreation areas. This project aims at developing tools for the quantitative risk assessment of fractured rock slopes based on rigorous rock mechanics, numerical methods and probabilistic methods. The research outcomes will improve our understanding of natural and engineering rock slopes, reduce the uncertainties in the prediction of the safety of infrastructures, and thus minimize the loss and damage. The research outcomes can also be used to maintain workplace safety in mining environments and avoid disruptions to production. . Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 0905 - Civil Engineering. Lead: Prof Jinsong Huang

New methods for modelling real-world extremes. This project aims to develop new theory and methods for analysing and predicting extreme values observed in real-world processes. Many existing techniques are limited by convenient mathematical assumptions that commonly do not hold in practice: dependence at asymptotic levels, process stationarity, and that the observed data are direct measurements of the process of interest. As a result, using these techniques may produce undesirable results. Expected outcomes of this project include theoretically justified data analysis techniques that can accurately model extreme values seen in the real world. Project benefits include more realistic analyses of nationally important applications in climate, bushfire insurance risk, and anomaly detection.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 0104 - Statistics. Lead: Prof Scott Sisson

Ancestral state reconstruction and the evolution of Australian marsupials. This project aims to investigate the diversification and evolvability of Australian marsupials, by enabling genomes, ecology and 3D skeletal shape to synergistically inform evolutionary inference. This project expects to generate new knowledge of the processes that have promoted and maintained marsupial biodiversity, by tracing their evolution across a fossil gap that spans half of their history. Expected outcomes of this project include improved methods for merging fossils into the tree of life and for reconstructing the ecology and morphology of ancestors on phylogenetic trees. This should provide significant benefits, such as a coherent evolutionary context for informing research on marsupial biology, ecology and conservation.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 0603 - Evolutionary Biology. Lead: Prof Matthew Phillips

Towards predictive 4D computational models for the heart. This project aims to develop novel high-performance numerical algorithms for multiscale and multiphysics PDEs with dynamic interfaces, the development and analysis of a novel PDE system modelling the electromechanics of heart and torso, and the combination of these numerical techniques and models to deliver predictive tools for patient-specific simulations of the cardiac function. It involves the design and mathematical analysis of space-time variational discretisations on embedded meshes, 4D computational geometry algorithms for numerical integration and multilevel solvers. By combining scientific computing and machine learning, one anticipated outcome of this research is a new generation of nonlinear PDE approximations and solvers.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 0103 - Numerical and Computational Mathematics. Lead: Prof Santiago Badia

Multiscale modelling of systems with complex microscale detail. In modern science and engineering many complex systems are described by distinctly different microscale physical models within different regions of space. This project is to develop systematic mathematical and computational methods for the compact and accurate macroscale modelling and computation of such systems for application in industrial research and development. Our sparse simulations, justified with mathematical analysis, use small bursts of particle/agent simulations, PDEs, or difference equations, to efficiently evaluate macroscale system-level behaviour. The objective is to accurately interface between disparate microscale models and establish provable predictions on how the microscale parameter spaces resolve at the macroscale.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 0102 - Applied Mathematics. Lead: Dr Judith Bunder

The effect of unconventional advocates on public support for climate policy. This project aims to discover whether the presence of unconventional climate advocates in public debate can foster broad-based support for climate policy in Australia. Unconventional advocates include political conservatives, farmers, resource industry workers, and businesspeople. The project expects to generate new knowledge about the role of intersectional social identities in contentious policy debates. Expected outcomes of this project include evidence-based insights on how to reduce social division about climate policy. This should provide significant benefits such as guidance for policy actors for how to overcome social cleavages to implement climate policy, with relevance to other contentious policy domains.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 1606 - Political Science. Lead: A/Prof Rebecca Colvin

Garnet speed dating: Innovation for fast tectonic problem solving. This project aims to develop and apply a novel way to rapidly date the mineral garnet within rocks using the analytical technique of laser ablation mass spectrometry to calculate Lutetium-Hafnium ages. Garnet is the most important mineral we have to determine the depths of burial and the temperatures rocks experienced during the tectonic processes that shaped the continents. Our novel in situ laser ablation method will allow garnet to be rapidly and easily dated, permitting routine collection of large age datasets for tectonic problem solving. It will also offer a rapid means to determine ages of garnet-bearing rocks across prospective mineral exploration regions, providing explorers with key exploration data.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 0403 - Geology. Lead: Prof Martin Hand

Creative Antarctica: Australian Artists and Writers in the Far South. The project aims to make the rich history of Australian artists' and writers' engagement with Antarctica visible through an innovative combination of critical, curatorial, and qualitative research. It expects to generate new interdisciplinary knowledge of creative responses to the South Polar region. Anticipated outcomes include the first comprehensive history and analysis of the Antarctic stories, sounds, and images produced by Australian artists and writers and recommendations for maximising Antarctic residency outcomes. At a time when Antarctica's future is threatened by warming temperatures and geopolitical tensions, the project provides significant benefits in the form of broader and deeper public engagement with the ice continent.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 2005 - Literary Studies. Lead: Prof Elizabeth Leane

Artificial Intelligence, Robots, and Agriculture: Social and ethical issues. This project aims to investigate the social and ethical issues raised by the use of artificial intelligence and robotics in agriculture. By combining social science research methods and philosophical analysis, the project aims to generate new knowledge in bioethics and applied ethics. Expected outcomes of this project include an account of the social and ethical issues farmers, rural communities, and consumers anticipate arising from these technologies, improved understanding of these issues, and an account of how these groups would like to see these issues addressed. This should help Australia benefit from the responsible use of artificial intelligence and robotics in agriculture.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 2201 - Applied Ethics. Lead: Prof Robert Sparrow

Pursuing Public Health in The Preindustrial World, 1100-1800. This project aims to recover community-health practices in three world regions before the takeoff of European industrialization. It challenges a common chronology and geography in public health history by examining how especially non-urban societies in Europe, the Middle East and India adjusted their behaviors and environments to manage health risks, often relying on the principles of humoral (or Galenic) medicine. A multidisciplinary team will conduct spatial, material, pictorial and text-based analyses, which will collectively extricate public health from Eurocentric narratives of modernization and illuminate preventative-medical cultures often ignored or studied in isolation.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 2202 - History and Philosophy of Specific Fields. Lead: Prof Dr Guy Geltner

Micro-electrofluidic platforms for monitoring 3D human biological models. The ability to study living cells and human biological models (cell cultures) delivers greater understanding of basic biological function and response to applied (bio)chemical stimuli. Creating the physical environments to sustain biological models, and mimic natural conditions and fluidic pathways, is immensely challenging, yet essential to deliver meaningful observational data. This project will deliver this capability through the convergence of expertise and innovation in analytical chemistry, materials science and cellular biology, ultilising the latest technology and understanding of 3D micro/electrofluidics, to enable the study and stimulation of advanced biological models, sustained within precisely controlled 3D micro-environments.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 0903 - Biomedical Engineering. Lead: Prof Brett Paull

The Role of Energy Absorbing Rubber Grid on Ballast Track Performance. Breakage and excessive displacement of ballast lead to instability and regular maintenance of railways. The project aims to study the fundamental mechanics of ballast aggregates interacting with the apertures of recycled-Rubber Energy Absorbing Grids (REAG). The role of REAG on enhanced track performance by damping the cyclic wheel loading and impact will be quantified via rigorous mathematical methods complementing a computer-based numerical model and validated by laboratory & field data. When placed within the rail substructure REAG will enable reduced ballast movement and breakage while attenuating noise/vibration. The research outputs will facilitate improved rail track design enabling enhanced longevity and reduced cost of maintenance.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 0905 - Civil Engineering. Lead: Prof Buddhima Indraratna

The Holocaust as an Australian Story, 1933-1954: An Intimate History. This project intends to explore the connections between Australian and the Holocaust between 1933 and 1954. In doing so, the project will generate new ways of understanding how Jewish families and the community responded to, and actively resisted, Nazi genocide in Europe. Through detailed and micro-historical archival analysis, it will argue that the Holocaust was an event that both touched and changed Australia during a period of immense local transformation. The expected outcomes include a deeper understanding of the personal connections that have existed between parts of Australia's society and victims of genocides worldwide, and a new migrant and family-centred Australian history of the Holocaust.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 2103 - Historical Studies. Lead: A/Prof Jan Lanicek

Circadian photoreceptor sensitivity and impacts of modern lighting on sleep. Light has powerful non-visual effects, including effects on sleep. These non-visual effects are mediated by cells in the eye that are most sensitive to blue light. There are large individual differences in sensitivity to non-visual effects of light that are not understood and that would give great insight into suboptimal sleep, which has become widespread in modern society. This study will be the first systematic examination of individual differences in the effect of blue light on sleep and will uncover how alterations in the gene responsible for the effects of blue light on sleep (OPN4) contribute to these differences. This will lead to scalable individualised solutions to the unmet problem of how modern light environments impact sleep.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 1701 - Psychology. Lead: A/Prof Andrew Phillips

MemberGuard: Protecting Machine Learning Privacy from Membership Inference. Machine Learning has become a core part of many real-world applications. However, machine learning models are vulnerable to membership inference attacks. In these attacks, an adversary can infer if a given data record has been part of the model's training data. In this project, the team aims to develop new techniques that can be used to counter these attacks, such as 1) new analytical models for membership leakage, 2) new methods for susceptibility diagnosis, 3) new defences that leverage privacy and utility. Data-oriented services are estimated to be valuable assets in the future. These techniques can help Australia gain cutting edge advantage in machine learning security and privacy and protect its intellectual property on these services.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 0803 - Computer Software. Lead: Prof Sheng Wen

Optimisation of piezoelectric metamaterials: Towards robotic stress sensors. This project aims to design new piezoelectric material microstructures that can enhance the measurement of complex local stress states within robotic limbs. The project expects to generate new knowledge of the achievable properties of multi-poled piezoelectric materials and develop computational tools for the analysis and structural optimisation of such materials. The designed microstructures may revolutionise piezoelectric sensor technology. Expected outcomes include manufactured proof-of-concept sensors that enable measurement of local stress fields. This should provide significant benefits, such as improved future robot capability and reliability, and research training for next-generation Australian computational mathematicians. . Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 0102 - Applied Mathematics. Lead: A/Prof Vivien Challis

Reducing Cyberbullying: Turning Bystanders into Constructive Defenders. This project aims to develop a theoretically driven internet-based training program to reduce cyberbullying among adolescents. It expects to discover how to turn passive bystanders (onlookers) into active constructive defenders who help to stop cyberbullying and assist those being cyberbullied. Expected outcomes include developing the first theoretical model of bystanders in the cyberbullying context and practical evidenced-based methods to increase constructive bystanding. The provision of an accessible training program for use in schools will produce significant benefits for the well-being of Australian youth by reducing cyberbullying and increasing the civility of Australian youth. . Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 1701 - Psychology. Lead: Prof Kay Bussey