Grants & Opportunities

Fire-retardant Solid State Electrolytes for Rechargeable Li-ion Batteries. This project aims to develop solid-state composite electrolytes combining exceptional flame retardancy and high ion conductivity for lithium-ion batteries. By leveraging merits of both polymer and ceramic electrolytes, the resultant composite electrolytes are expected to enhance battery safety by replacing existing flammable liquid counterparts. The project will advance the knowledge on the design and optimization of solid-state electrolytes, and the understanding on the fire-retarding and ionic conducting mechanisms of composite electrolytes. The outcomes of this project will contribute to the reduction of battery fires, the skills development in the Australian battery industry, and the advancement of a sustainable carbon-zero economy.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3403 - Macromolecular and Materials Chemistry. Lead: Prof Ziqi Sun

Unravelling Efficient Nucleic Acid Delivery Using Multilayer Nanoparticles. Developing smarter nanoparticles is critical for maximising the potential of biological therapeutics such as nucleic acids. Currently, the efficiency of nanoparticle delivery remains low due to the inability of carriers to migrate different biological regions. The aim of this project is to develop responsive polymer nanoparticles that can more effectively migrate cell barriers by a two-staged release based on the combination of different self-immolative polymers. This project will allow the development of design rules for understanding how nanoparticle structure can be optimised to improve nucleic acid delivery. This work will have important benefits such as developing new nanotechnology industry and skilled graduates for Australia. . Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3403 - Macromolecular and Materials Chemistry. Lead: Prof Georgina Such

Some like it hot: the genetics of rapid adaptation to climate change. This project investigates the genetics of rapid evolutionary adaptation by utilising genomes sampled over unparalleled temporal and spatial scales in a highly invasive and agriculturally significant weed. This project expects to generate new knowledge about the genetic mechanisms that facilitate adaptation to climate change by developing new theory and genomic predictions, and then testing them under realistic field conditions. Expected outcomes include a deeper understanding of the genetic basis of adaptation, and a powerful framework to predict the evolutionary consequences of climate change. This should provide significant benefits, including improved capacity to anticipate the effects of climate change on noxious and threatened species.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3104 - Evolutionary Biology. Lead: A/Prof Kathryn Hodgins

The Ethics of Voluntary Assisted Dying: Promoting Constructive Debate. This project aims to analyze core concepts that play key roles in emerging debates about the ethics of Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD) in Australia. The project expects to make constructive contributions to these debates, promoting respectful dialogue and reducing polarization. Expected outcomes include a new model for managing VAD in Australia which is ethically appropriate and consistent with community values. This model will also benefit other countries where the ethics of VAD is under consideration. The project will promote the dignity and autonomy of all and ensure that issues about the conscientious refusal of healthcare professionals to participate in the provision of VAD are handled in an ethically appropriate and effective manner.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 5001 - Applied Ethics. Lead: Prof Stephen Clarke

Nuclear RNA surveillance and its connection to splicing quality control. Due to the error-prone nature of RNA splicing, elaborate quality control processes ensure that only correctly spliced transcripts can leave the nucleus. It has long been known that incorrectly spliced mRNA transcripts are degraded by the nuclear RNA surveillance machinery, but how the RNA quality control machinery is connected to nuclear RNA surveillance is not known. This proposal aims to uncover the connection between these two important processes and will fill a significant gap in our understanding of how splicing quality control and nuclear RNA surveillance work. The project will also identify sequence features that trigger abortive splicing reactions and will thus help to improve the design of synthetic mRNAs.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3105 - Genetics. Lead: A/Prof Tamas Fischer

Towards a cognitive process model of how attention and choice interact. Before making any decision, we must gather information on what options are available. This process may influence the choices we make: if we do not notice an option, we will not choose it even if it would have been valuable. This project aims to examine how prior experience can produce attentional biases that influence decisions, and will develop a new computational model of this interaction of attention and choice as an outcome. This new knowledge will enhance the world-class status of Australian cognitive psychology. Moreover, it should provide significant benefits through improving our ability to predict and shape behaviour, and shedding light on the role of biases in healthy cognition and in the context of compulsive behaviours.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 5204 - Cognitive and Computational Psychology. Lead: Prof Mike Le Pelley

Networks: New links between spectrum, dynamics, rewirings and applications. Modern network science has transformed the study of complex systems and led to innovations in many disciplines. This project intends to develop breakthrough theories for control of complex networked system behaviour via interventions of the link-rewiring type. New approaches will be developed for non-random, assortative and/or structured networks, which are poorly understood and difficult to deal with, despite being the real-world norm and despite their impact. The results will give new insights into epidemic outbreaks and their impact on vulnerable groups (e.g., elderly and indigenous), and provides methods to enforce resilience of infrastructure networks such as power grids, thereby providing significant economic and societal benefits. . Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4901 - Applied Mathematics. Lead: Prof Lewi Stone

Educator-child interactions and childhood social and emotional learning. This project aims to enhance educator-child interactions to support young children’s social and emotional learning in Early Childhood Education and Care. It expects to generate new knowledge about adult-child interactions for improved child outcomes by examining the effectiveness, theories of change and implementation of an online Social-Emotional Engagement and Development Program to promote educators' engagement with three tiers of social and emotional learning strategies. The intended outcome is a confirmed evidence base supporting the program at scale and aligned professional learning resources. This project has potential to mitigate against the financial and social costs associated with mental ill-health in early childhood.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3903 - Education Systems. Lead: Dr Claire Blewitt

Dissecting bacterial signal transduction. Bacteria have feelings. They sense and respond to changes using proteins called two-component signalling systems (TCSS). These comprise a sensor which activates a DNA binding protein in response to specific cues (signals). Using state-of-the-art genetic techniques and a synthetic biology approach, this research aims to reveal for the first time how these complex bacterial TCSS networks interact. The outcomes will be a fundamental, new understanding of how bacteria sense and respond to environmental signals; a deep dive into how bacteria feel. This knowledge will be the basis for innovative approaches to harness bacteria in biotech such as vaccine production, biofuels, or clever therapeutic interventions to stop bacterial infections.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3107 - Microbiology. Lead: Prof Timothy Stinear

How Large Earthquakes Change Our Dynamically Deforming Planet. The project aims to understand the multiscale dynamics of interacting faults on a global scale using novel computer simulations with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution. The focus of the research is to investigate the two-way coupling that exists between cycles of great earthquakes on plate boundaries, the global stress field, deformation within the crust, and changes to the Earth's dynamic topography. This is an important, foundational question in the emerging field of decadal scale global geodynamics. The tools are intended to improve reference models used to study sea-level changes in response to global ice loss. They support better climate models and improved forward planning tools for at-risk coastal communities.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3706 - Geophysics. Lead: Prof Louis Moresi

Control of crop-microbe symbiosis by new plant hormones. This project aims to discover how plants use hormone-like chemicals, called butenolides, to control symbiotic relationships with soil fungi. It will use multidisciplinary and collaborative techniques to establish how butenolide metabolism affects the diversity of fungal colonisation. Expected outcomes of this project include a deeper understanding of how plants regulate the competency of roots to host symbiotic fungi, and how this affects plant growth. As such, it will generate knowledge of how cereals such as barley could be modified to improve their nutrient use efficiency. Benefits of this project include the potential to reduce fertiliser inputs, thereby improving the competitiveness and environmental impact of Australian agriculture.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3108 - Plant Biology. Lead: A/Prof Mark Waters

Fluid chemistry and critical mineral enrichment in salty metamorphic belts. Several geological regions in Australia are worth billions of dollars to our economy in their contained copper-goldcobalt and uranium-rare earth element mineral deposits. These regions will continue to be important to Australia as the world transitions to a renewable energy economy because they can provide some of the most critical metals needed for that transition: Cu, Co, rare earth elements. This project aims to provide a fundamental quatitative understanding of the geological processes that form these deposits. We will conduct experiments to generate quantitative models of the metamorphic and structural processes that control the liberation and migration of highly saline fluids, which are ideal for transporting a large range of metals.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3705 - Geology. Lead: Prof Andrew Tomkins

Engineering Functional Antimicrobial Polypeptide Surfaces. Antimicrobial coatings are vital in preventing bacterial contamination but a versatile solution does not exist. Structurally nanoengineered antimicrobial peptide polymers (SNAPPs) were recently developed to fight multidrug-resistant bacteria. To expand their application into antimicrobial coatings across a range of surfaces, a simple and universal coating strategy is needed. By developing phenolic-functionalised SNAPPs, this project aims to exploit the adhesive nature of metal–phenolic materials to rapidly coat diverse surfaces, including stainless steel and textiles. The expected outcome is the generation of antimicrobial polypeptide surfaces, which will have benefits in food safety, medical implant technology and advanced textiles.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4016 - Materials Engineering. Lead: Prof Frank Caruso

Understanding specificity and flexibility in coral symbioses. This project aims to understand why some corals can switch algal partners while others remain faithful to a single strain. This is important because corals depend on their symbiotic algal partners for survival and because some algae provide greater resilience to environmental stress than others. This project will greatly enhance our understanding of the molecular and physiological factors governing flexibility and specificity in coral-algal symbioses. It will provide much-needed knowledge required to identify associations most appropriate for specific conditions, prioritise populations for conservation, and assess the feasibility of new approaches to managing and restoring coral reefs. . Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3109 - Zoology. Lead: Prof David Miller

Optimising disease surveillance to support decision-making. COVID-19 has demonstrated the critical role of epidemic data and analytics in guiding government response to pandemic threats, reducing disease and saving lives. The demand for epidemic analytics for response to threats of national significance will only grow. The goals of this project are to 1) determine the combination(s) of surveillance methods that provide the most useful data for epidemic analysis and 2) translate these findings into the blueprint for a next-generation infectious disease surveillance system for Australia. We will use a simulation-evaluation approach, coupling methods from infectious disease modelling with those from information theory optimal design. Outcomes will enable more tailored and effective pandemic response.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4901 - Applied Mathematics. Lead: A/Prof Freya Shearer

Aboriginal Exemption: Truth-telling, History, and Healing. This project aims to develop accessible, Indigenous-led knowledge about little known twentieth-century Australian policies that caused pain and dislocation in Indigenous communities. Expected outcomes will include an anthology of family stories, school curriculum materials, symposia, and methodological articles. Benefits include empowering descendants to access archival information about exemption in culturally safe ways, disseminating culturally appropriate histories, financial support for Elders acknowledging their time and expertise, and a model of collaboration in which Elders lead Indigenous and non-Indigenous historians to undertake urgent history-making.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4501 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Culture, Language and History. Lead: Prof Katherine Ellinghaus

“Janus” Transition Metal Dichalcogenides: Quest for Novel Properties . Novel two-dimensional nanomaterials – so called “Janus” transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) - are featured by breaking out-of-plane structural symmetry that enables prolongated exciton lifetime, strong spin-orbit coupling, large vertical piezoelectric polarization, and exceptional electromechanical properties. We plan to develop reliable and efficient synthetic routes for various "Janus" TMDs and their heterostructures, to investigate their physical properties, and find the ways of property tailoring. Deep understanding of structure-property relationships uncovered for these materials will pave the way for transferring discovered new features into cutting-edge technologies in electromechanical, optoelectronic, and catalytic fields.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3403 - Macromolecular and Materials Chemistry. Lead: Prof Dmitri Golberg

Developing vitrimers: next generation reusable plastics. This project aims to develop a new class of advanced multifunctional polymer materials with the potential to underpin significant breakthrough capabilities for soft materials in general. The proposed work will relocate biological catalysts from their native, wet environment to solid organic engineering bio-sourced resins. Suitably selected enzymes will allow creation of polymer-based products that can be fully recyclable, with built-in properties such as self-healing, shape morphing, which are mechanically tunable, and have the ability to be reprocessed/recycled multiple times. This research will initiate a disruptive change in the application of biocatalysts for bio-based polymers.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3403 - Macromolecular and Materials Chemistry. Lead: A/Prof Matthieu Gresil

Consumer and Community Involvement Process Implementation Model . The project aims to examine the barriers and enablers to Consumer and Community Involvement. We will generate new knowledge via innovative methods from narrative medicine and economic and marketing studies including establishing the first Community of Practice for consumers and stakeholders in dementia research as the example. The outcomes include the creation of a process implementation model for Consumer and Community Involvement to inform policies and guidelines for research systems and funding. This process model will propel research forward and generate opportunities to maximise the health and social benefits of research, including significant translation of research into practice. . Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4407 - Policy and Administration. Lead: A/Prof Darshini Ayton

Understanding Ageism in Australia. Ageism refers to stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination towards people based on their age. This project aims to generate new knowledge in relation to older Australians’ experiences of ageism by conducting a population-based survey of ageism and examining its links with mental health and wellbeing. The project will also use intensive longitudinal methods to study everyday ageism. Expected outcomes include identification of at-risk groups that can be used to inform government policy responses to tackling ageism and will inform the development of interventions and education programs to reduce ageism in the community. This should provide significant benefits for social inclusion, intergenerational solidarity and economic participation . Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 5201 - Applied and Developmental Psychology. Lead: Prof Timothy Windsor

Novel tractography-guided MRI methods for studying healthy brain ageing. Advances in imaging, and particularly Magnetic Resonance Imaging, have opened a new era in the study of the brain enabling a myriad of neuroscience discoveries. This project aims to develop new analysis methods to study and understand the variability in the human brain during ageing, exploiting the wealth of information contained in the so-called tractogram, a mapping of the brain’s wiring. This project expects to develop innovative imaging biomarkers to characterise the brain changes in the course of healthy brain ageing. Expected outcomes include novel imaging tools for neuroscience, which should allow us to map trajectories of normative healthy brain ageing and use them to identify lifestyle factors that impact these trajectories.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4003 - Biomedical Engineering. Lead: Prof Fernando Calamante

A network perspective for ecosystem responses to plant invasion. Invasive species are key drivers of global change, yet, our understanding of their negative impacts on ecosystems is limited within many contexts. This project will provide the first large-scale test for interactions between plants and microbes, via network analyses, as yardsticks for invasive species impacts on ecosystems. Using innovative approaches that link interactions network properties with ecosystem functioning, the fundamental data generated in this study will answer unsolved theoretical questions, providing evidence for the use of networks to predict and mitigate invader impacts. These benefits are not only crucial for biodiversity managers but also for those responsible for sustainable crop development under future climates.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4102 - Ecological Applications. Lead: Prof Johannes Le Roux

Causal Knowledge-Empowered Adaptive Federated Learning. Federated learning tools are a promising framework for collaborative machine learning (ML) that also maintain data privacy; however, their ability to model heterogeneous data remains a key challenge. This project aims to develop a new learning scheme for coordinated training of ML models that successfully bridges variable data distributions. The framework proposed will be the first globally that can use causal knowledge to 1) handle data heterogeneity across devices and 2) address the real-world challenges when only a subset of devices have labelled data. Expected outcomes and benefits include the theoretical underpinnings and algorithms of causality-based collaborative training of ML models while better preserving the users’ data privacy.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4611 - Machine Learning. Lead: Dr Mingming Gong

Moral Injury and the Ethics of Military Conditioning . Military personnel undergo extensive conditioning in the name of combat effectiveness and resilience. The aim of this project is to determine whether any of the intended effects of this conditioning constitute "moral injuries", and to describe the ethical and policy implications if so. This will deepen our understanding of the ethics of military recruitment, training, and socialisation. The expected outcomes include a statement of the obligations owed to professional soldiers on account of the potential for moral injury in preparing them for deployment. This will enhance Australia’s reputation for being ethically proactive and for taking a holistic approach to the welfare of its military servicemen and women.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 5003 - Philosophy. Lead: A/Prof Ned Dobos

Restoring amphibian populations in chytrid-impacted landscapes. This project aims to address an outstanding problem in wildlife disease ecology: how can we enable susceptible amphibians to persist in the face of the chytrid pathogen, which has devastated amphibian biodiversity? This project expects to generate new knowledge by experimentally trialling two highly promising interventions: immunising animals and creating disease refugia through simple habitat manipulations. Outcomes of this project include a framework for predicting how interventions might enable host-pathogen coexistence. This project should provide significant benefits including enhanced understanding of wildlife disease dynamics that will pave the way for interventions to restore amphibian biodiversity in chytrid-impacted landscapes.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4104 - Environmental Management. Lead: A/Prof Simon Clulow