Grants & Opportunities

Observer design for complex systems: robust convergence and performance. Estimation algorithms can estimate unmeasured variables using sensor measurements and the mathematical model of the system. This project aims to develop a novel estimation design methodology for systems characterised by complex dynamics and complex networked structure. Expected outcomes include novel estimation algorithms and novel methodologies for tuning the existing algorithms for the purpose of enhancing their convergence and robustness properties. As estimation is a critical enabling technology spanning all sectors, significant benefits are expected, including enhanced monitoring, control and optimisation for important classes of complex systems, including those arising in collaborative robotics and energy storage.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4007 - Control Engineering, Mechatronics and Robotics. Lead: Prof Dragan Nesic

Mining soil microbiomes for bioactives to combat antimicrobial resistance. Antimicrobial resistance is a global crisis affecting veterinary, medical, and agricultural industries and is driven by the overuse of antibiotics. This project aims to mine soil microbes for novel antimicrobial agents to act as probiotics or biocontrol agents against livestock pathogens and reduce the need for antibiotics in intensive farming operations. New knowledge on the Australian soil microbiome will be generated by the innovative combination of microbiology and advanced omics approaches. The project will bring significant environmental and economic benefits to Australia by providing sustainable, cost-effective, eco-friendly alternatives to traditional antimicrobials to improve animal husbandry and ensure Australia's food security. . Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 3107 - Microbiology. Lead: A/Prof Henrietta Venter

Self-Driving Labs for Data-Driven Design of Polymer Dispersions. This project aims at designing a self-driving autonomous lab that will enable continuous high-throughput synthesis of polymer emulsions, significantly accelerating capacity and enabling high volume and precise data generation. In conjunction with robotic performance evaluation, the project expects to use machine learning to rapidly optimise emulsion polymerisation towards greener paint formulations. An expected outcome of the research will be a much more rational design of materials based on holistic large data sets, revolutionising materials development and delivering a significant competitive advantage to Australian industry by transformation of traditional chemical research and development into a fully data-driven digitalised domain.. Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 3403 - Macromolecular and Materials Chemistry. Lead: Prof Dr Tanja Junkers

3D Printed FRP Reinforced Energy-Storable Concrete Thermal Insulation Panel. This project pioneers an innovative 3D-printed FRP-reinforced energy-saving concrete for thermal insulation panels. By integrating advanced concrete with phase-change materials and digital construction, it aims to develop sustainable, high-performance thermal insulation panels that enhance infrastructure resilience and adaptation to climate change. The research focuses on energy-saving phase-change capsules, FRP reinforcement and 3D printing techniques. Through multidisciplinary research and industry collaboration, this initiative will strengthen building sustainability, reduce maintenance costs, and support Australia’s carbon reduction goals, reinforcing its leadership in advanced construction technologies.. Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 4005 - Civil Engineering. Lead: Dr Jun-Jie Zeng

Sustainable Residential Framing Systems using Recycled Plastics and Fibres. The project aims to develop pultruded recycled plastic composite (PRPC)-based residential framing systems that incorporate waste plastics and recycled plastic fibres. The PRPC materials will initially be developed. Structural members that employ PRPC will then be developed using pultrusion technology, followed by the development of residential framing systems. The expected outcomes include sustainable and durable PRPC, structural members and framing systems through experimental validation, numerical and analytical prediction models, design guidance and field investigation. The project promotes sustainable infrastructure by increasing Australia's plastic recycling capacity and easing the current disruption to the residential housing sector.. Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 4005 - Civil Engineering. Lead: Prof Scott Smith

Tackling wage theft through innovative tripartite approaches. This project aims to investigate benefits and challenges of tripartite collaboration - involving labour regulator, representatives of workers and businesses - to tackle widespread wage theft. The project expects to generate new knowledge on how to increase employer compliance using an innovative mixed methods, engaged research design embedded in a novel initiative in state regulation of wage laws. Expected outcomes of the project include enhanced and coordinated capacity for increasing employer compliance with wage laws. This should provide significant benefit for state labour regulators seeking to maximise limited resources, workers expecting correct legal pay, businesses desiring a more level playing field, and for the integrity of laws.. Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 4801 - Commercial Law. Lead: A/Prof Stephen Clibborn

Battery-free IoT-Based Sensing and Control for Protected Cropping . This project pioneers battery-free Internet of Things (IoT) technologies for protected cropping, integrating energy-harvesting sensors, data-driven analytics, and adaptive climate control to optimise plant growth while minimising energy and water use. By enabling real-time, self-sustaining monitoring and automation, it enhances efficiency, sustainability, and scalability in urban farming. The outcomes will reduce operational costs, improve food security, and lower environmental impact, supporting Australia’s Net Zero goals. With strong industry collaboration, this research will position Australia at the forefront of smart farming innovation, driving the global transition to sustainable, high-tech agriculture.. Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 4606 - Distributed Computing and Systems Software. Lead: Prof Wen Hu

Human responses to post-glacial sea level rise at Red Lily, Arnhem Land. This project combines Western science with traditional Knowledge to understand human responses to the Last Glacial Maximum and post-glacial sea level rise at Red Lily Lagoon, Arnhem Land, a region known for its archaeology, rock art and biodiversity. The project expects to produce new knowledge of human/environment interactions during a period of significant climate change, enhance Traditional Owners’ capacity to manage their heritage, attract 20 PhD, Masters and Honours students, and develop new understanding of the impact of future climate change and sea level rise on environments and heritage. This should provide significant benefits by documenting National Heritage listed sites and in preparing for future climate change in the region.. Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 4301 - Archaeology. Lead: Prof Christopher Clarkson

Secure and Robust Stream Analytics at Scale. The project aims to address data privacy risks and intellectual property protection challenges in stream data analysis by developing a scalable and secure learning-based analytics system. It will detect unauthorised data usage and protect sensitive information throughout the entire process. The project will generate new knowledge in secure and robust stream analytics by combining interdisciplinary techniques for data misuse detection, machine unlearning, and privacy-preserving machine learning. Expected outcomes include measures that prevent breaches and protect the proprietary model. This research is anticipated to deliver significant benefits, including increased operational security and enhanced public trust in energy infrastructure.. Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 4604 - Cybersecurity and Privacy. Lead: A/Prof Xingliang Yuan

Highly Selective Membranes for Sustainable Lithium Extraction and Recycling. This project aims to develop next-generation lithium extraction technology by scaling up highly lithium-selective membranes for sustainable recovery and recycling. This project expects to address critical challenges in ion selectivity, scalability, and sustainability, enabling the efficient extraction of lithium from brines and leach liquors of spent lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) while minimising environmental impact. Expected outcomes of this project include an energy-efficient, eco-friendly process by integrating high-performance separation technologies, reducing LIB waste, and supporting Australia’s lithium circular economy. This should provide significant benefits, such as enabling a sustainable and cost-effective lithium supply chain.. Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 4004 - Chemical Engineering. Lead: Prof Huacheng Zhang

Advancing Railway Suspension for Superior Stability and Ride Comfort. This project aims to enhance the stability and ride comfort of railway vehicles by introducing innovative suspension technologies. It will resolve the stiffness conflict in primary suspension through a variable stiffness axlebox, improving both straight-track stability and curving performance. A novel quasi-active damper integrating variable damping and negative stiffness technologies will be developed for superior vibration control with low power consumption in secondary suspension. An integrated control strategy will optimise the overall performance of both suspension systems. This project will benefit Australian railway manufacturers by advancing suspension technology, improving operational safety, and enhancing passenger experience.. Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 4017 - Mechanical Engineering. Lead: Prof Haiping Du

Disaster Ready Schools: Strengthening Australia's Education Sector. "Disaster Ready Schools" seeks to address the significant learning disruptions experienced by children and young people due to climate-induced disasters, which have affected over 242 million students globally. This national project aims to deepen our understanding of how these disasters impact Australia’s education system. Collaborating with key partners, including UNICEF Australia and the Queensland Department of Education, the project will co-design a disaster-ready education framework and supportive resources. Critical to the UN SDGs, it will investigate critical questions regarding the nature of these impacts, stakeholder adaptations, and strategies for enhancing resilience, ultimately fostering robust support systems for young people.. Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 3901 - Curriculum and Pedagogy. Lead: Prof Amy Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles

Whole-of-Community approaches to regional migration, settlement & retention. This project aims to investigate diverse migrant settlement and retention in regional communities, a major priority for governments and regional stakeholders. It will refine and deploy a novel ‘Whole-of-Community’ conceptual framework that prioritises regional voices. It will generate new knowledge by using an innovative interdisciplinary, comparative, extensive, multiple methods approach over 4 years. Expected outcomes include producing rich analytical data and insights into migrant settlement/retention focusing on the NT, SA, NSW and Victoria. The project’s benefits will include new knowledge to inform migrant settlement policies across all levels of government, leading to better regional settlement outcomes for all stakeholders.. Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 4410 - Sociology. Lead: A/Prof David Radford

Transforming Australian Hypersonics with Upgraded Optical Diagnostics. This project aims to transform the research performed in Australia’s world-class hypersonic facilities by procuring state-of-the-art optical diagnostics such as high-speed laser absorption spectroscopy systems and ultra-high-speed cameras. This will enable hypersonic flows to be studied with precision, resolution, and accuracy never before possible in Australia, yielding new and definitive data about underlying flow processes. Expected outcomes include improved designs for hypersonic vehicles such as rockets, re-entry capsules and vehicles powered by scramjet engines. This will amplify Australia’s global leadership in hypersonics research and provide upgraded infrastructure to assist Australian organisations developing hypersonic vehicles.. Scheme: Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities. Field: 4001 - Aerospace Engineering. Lead: Prof Richard Morgan

A next-generation computational framework for evolving sewer networks. This project aims to drive a paradigm shift in sewer management, enabling water utilities to simultaneously manage Australia’s ageing sewer infrastructure and embracing emerging applications for the next-generation smart, sustainable sewer systems. By learning from the intrinsic features of sewer environments, this project expects to transform the understandings and interpretations of modern-day sewer networks. Anticipated outcomes include new knowledge and smart water technologies for sewer network modelling and prediction. This should advance Australia’s smart water monitoring and control, enhance wastewater infrastructure resilience, decrease sewage overflows and greenhouse gas emissions, and safeguard public health.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4005 - Civil Engineering. Lead: Dr Jiuling Li

Queensland Advanced Non-Linear Tissue-biomaterials Imaging Capacity. The Queensland Advanced Non-Linear Tissue-biomaterials Imaging Capacity (QUANTIC) is a cutting-edge imaging platform that will transform our understanding of living tissues. By integrating near-infrared multiphoton, multiharmonic confocal and 4D lightfield imaging, it will provide unprecedented insights into how cells interact with each other and engineered biomaterials in 3D. Expected outcomes include high-impact publications, training opportunities and fundamental discoveries that will drive innovation in cell biology, bioengineering and quantum imaging. QUANTIC will catalyse development of next-generation materials, sustainable manufacturing and novel biological systems with broad applications in biotechnology, defence and energy.. Scheme: Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities. Field: 4003 - Biomedical Engineering. Lead: Prof Jennifer Stow

A spectral flow cytometry platform for the Australian Capital Territory. This application will support the purchase of 5-laser Cytek Aurora spectral flow cytometer to be housed at the Australian National University. Spectral flow cytometers allow for the rapid acquisition of large amounts of data about individual cells and have applications in many fields of the life sciences. Acquiring this technology will enhance research in veterinary microbiology, environmental pest control, synthetic biology, and plant sciences. This investment will accelerate research, foster collaborations, and help maintain the position of institutions in the Australian Capital Territory at the forefront of innovative biological science.. Scheme: Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities. Field: 3107 - Microbiology. Lead: Prof Ian Cockburn

Unravelling the Internal Physics of Stars that have Rotational Twists. This project aims to study a newly discovered class of astronomical objects — stars with rotational 'twists', whose insides and outsides rotate around different axes. These stars remain poorly understood, as they have only just been discovered. This project expects to observationally characterise and search for more such rotationally twisted stars, to describe their physical features, and to study the astrophysical implications of their internal rotational misalignment. In order to do so, this project will develop and deploy novel analysis techniques for measuring the internal structure and rotation of stars. This will qualitatively advance the state of the art in both the theory and observations of internal stellar rotation. . Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 5101 - Astronomical Sciences. Lead: Dr Joel Ong

The multiscale, adaptive brain: neuromodulatory control of information flow. This project will investigate how the brain coordinates its activity across different scales to support flexible cognition and behaviour. By integrating physics-inspired analysis, biophysical modelling, and existing cross-species imaging datasets, this research will reveal how neuromodulatory systems regulate information flow and neural organisation. These insights will advance our understanding of the fundamental principles governing brain function. Expected outcomes include next-generation multiscale models, high-impact publications, and international collaborations. This research will strengthen Australia’s leadership in computational and systems neuroscience while providing advanced training for the next generation of neuroscientists.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 3101 - Biochemistry and Cell Biology. Lead: Dr Brandon Munn

New Tools in Effective Field Theory for Physics beyond the Standard Model. This project aims to develop new theoretical and computational tools for effective field theories, crucial for exploring physics beyond the Standard Model. This project expects to provide methods for managing the complexity of the Standard Model Effective Field Theory arising from its large number of free parameters, while enhancing the precision of its predictions. Expected outcomes include a generalized geometric framework for effective field theories, as well as a fully automated phenomenology pipeline to test new physics models against experimental data. This research will equip both the Australian and international particle physics community with powerful tools to bridge theory and experiment at current and future facilities.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 5107 - Particle and High Energy Physics. Lead: Dr Julie Pagès

Develop Solid-state Sodium-Sulfur Batteries for Renewable Energy Storage. This project aims to develop solid-state sodium-sulfur batteries for large-scale energy storage. Sodium-sulfur batteries are widely regarded as a promising technology due to the low cost and the abundance of sodium and sulfur. However, their development is hindered by challenges such as short cycle life and limited capacity. This project will address these challenges by innovating solid-state electrolytes with high ionic conductivity and enhancing the stability of interfaces between solid electrolyte and electrodes. The ultimate goal is to manufacture all-solid-state sodium-sulfur batteries to support Australia’s renewable energy. This initiative will support the Australian Government’s commitment to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4008 - Electrical Engineering. Lead: Dr Yaojie Lei

Building a Black Justice Journalism. This project argues for a new form of scholarly journalism, grounded in conceptions of Black Justice, as a critical intervention needed to address the ongoing media misreporting of Indigenous affairs. Through an innovative methodological approach combining scholarship, journalistic practice and archival research, the research agenda will seek to understand the role of the media in sustaining and entrenching settler colonialism. It will interrogate the field of journalism ethics, arguing that accepted norms of journalistic practice compound harm and restrict the voices of Black Witnesses. In doing so, it will aim to build an ethics of practice in the form of Black Justice Journalism which will be disseminated to the Indigenous media sector.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4501 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Culture, Language and History. Lead: Dr Amy McQuire

Innovate Aqueous Zinc Metal Batteries for Grid-Scale Energy Storage. This project aims to develop a new strategy for stabilizing aqueous zinc metal batteries using natural biological molecules. Aqueous Zinc metal batteries are a safer, cost-effective, and sustainable alternative to lithium-ion batteries, but their practical use is hindered by instability, dendrite formation, and side reactions. By leveraging bio-based materials, this research will enhance battery lifespan, efficiency, and safety while reducing environmental impact. The outcomes will support Australia’s transition to clean energy by advancing battery storage solutions for renewable energy integration. This project will also foster innovation in sustainable materials and strengthen Australia’s global leadership in battery technology.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4016 - Materials Engineering. Lead: Dr Tianyi Wang

A next-generation electron microprobe for Western Australia. This project will address the significant problem of limited access to rapid high spatial resolution high precision analysis of solid materials by West Australian researchers. Existing facilities in Western Australia are ageing and over-subscribed, resulting in lengthy wait times and forcing analysis out-of-state and offshore. This project will establish a new world-class facility in Western Australia, providing researchers across diverse institutions with local access to a next-generation electron microprobe. Here, academic, government, and industry researchers across the Earth, Health, and Materials sciences, and beyond, will undertake fundamental high impact and applied research to support the resources sector and the energy transition.. Scheme: Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities. Field: 3703 - Geochemistry. Lead: Prof Katy Evans

Structure, function and engineering of plant osmolarity sensors. This project aims to elucidate the mechanisms by which plants sense drought using specialised protein sensors. By integrating cutting-edge computer simulations, artificial intelligence and molecular biology, this project will unravel the molecular basis of plant osmosensation and how this is converted to cellular signals. Expected outcomes include the advanced knowledge of plant stress sensing, innovative computational tools, proof-of-concept drought-tolerant plants and novel molecules for regulating plant behaviour. This offers a promising route for engineering climate-smart crops with enhanced drought resilience, leading to better water use, increased yields and strengthened food security.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 3101 - Biochemistry and Cell Biology. Lead: Dr Ruitao Jin