Grants & Opportunities

Sustaining intensive agriculture through droughts and floods. This project aims to develop state-of-the-art conceptual and numerical models of river-soil-groundwater interactions to address complex and persistent questions on water sustainability in the Lower Burdekin Delta, Queensland, where groundwater pumping to irrigate sugarcane has been supplemented by artificial recharge for over 50 years. This project expects to deliver new knowledge of critical aquifer processes to inform the scheme operation, the largest in the country. Expected outcomes include ground-breaking management plans for the aquifer-replenishment scheme. Anticipated benefits involve balancing the needs of agriculture and the protection of pristine environments, including groundwater discharge to the Great Barrier Reef. . Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 0406 - Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience. Lead: Prof Adrian Werner

Developing a novel carbon negative fertiliser . Food security is vital to support our growing population. However, our increasing reliance on intensive farming systems necessitates increased fertiliser use, leading to increased water pollution and soil degradation - threatening both the Australian environment and food security. Increasing carbon storage capacity by soil and decreasing fertiliser use are two of the primary pathways for restoring the bio-support capacity of soils and reducing farming footprints. This innovative and first-of-its-kind project aims to develop a cost-effective, carbon negative fertiliser that reduces fertiliser inputs and increases soil carbon storage. Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 0503 - Soil Sciences. Lead: A/Prof Shahla Hosseini Bai

Investigating the responses of Australian native bees to climatic warming. This project aims to investigate changes to native bee cognition, morphology, and pollination capability in response to climatic warming. Using emerging experimental methods for behavioural testing and state-of-the-art 3D modelling of museum specimens, the project expects to identify which species are likely to experience change under future climate scenarios. This project expects to determine if increased temperatures cause pollination deficits through impaired bee cognition and changed morphology. The knowledge gained in this project will allow us to identify vulnerable species and develop strategies across agriculture, government, and community sectors to support pollination and inform conservation priorities.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 3109 - Zoology. Lead: Dr Scarlett Howard

Smart materials for atmospheric water management and water harvesting. Fresh water is a scarce resource in many parts of the globe but uncomfortably over-supplied in other regions. Dehumidifying machines, such as air conditioners, are extensively used in humid climates to enhance human comfort, but with great energy costs. Likewise, the production of potable water in remote dry regions is energy intensive. We propose novel hyper-absorbent desiccating polymers combined into sorption-powered engines inspired by nastic movements in plants to develop extremely efficient dehumidifiers and water harvesting machines. These polymer actuators can help address the auto-acceleration of climate change caused by the increasing use of air conditioners and provide cheap, clean water for remote communities.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4016 - Materials Engineering. Lead: Prof Geoffrey Spinks

Ammonium-selective membranes to shift water industry into circular economy. The project aims to develop ammonium-selective membranes which are urgently needed in Australian key industries for sustainable ammonia recovery. The project expects to construct the membranes to achieve desirable pore size and surface functionality for fast and selective ammonia transport. The developed membranes should make ammonia recovery from wastewater more effective and sustainable, leading to the healthy waterway and reduced energy for both ammonia production and removal. Recovered ammonia expects to produce valuable products, supporting agriculture industry and hydrogen economy. The developed membranes should enable water industry's shift into circular economy, providing significant economic and environmental benefits to Australia.. Scheme: Early Career Industry Fellowships. Field: 4016 - Materials Engineering. Lead: Dr Li Gao

Reading climate: Indigenous literatures, school English and sustainablity. Reading Climate aims to investigate the connections between sustainability and Indigenous knowledge in the context of school English and directly responds to imperatives for climate education and racial justice in Australian schools. It links teachers, students, authors and scholars through book clubs, exploring the potential of literature as an interdisciplinary site for knowledge building and for reimagining social and environmental futures. With partners the Stella Prize, the Australian Association for the Teaching of English, Feral Arts and VoicEd Radio, the project will develop strong collaborations between literary education, industry, and Indigenous writing, producing an open access digital resource for use in schools nationally. . Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 3901 - Curriculum and Pedagogy. Lead: Prof Larissa McLean Davies

Improving grain legume seeds for future climates. Grain legumes are essential for sustainable agriculture and human dietary protein, but seed quality is predicted to decline under future scenarios of high CO2 and warmer temperatures. This project aims to improve legume seed quality under future climates by comparing metabolites and physiological traits of chickpea and other legumes to establish mechanisms by which legumes maximise seed nutrient allocation. The anticipated outcomes include new metabolite-based breeding markers for the improvement of crops with higher seed proteins, micronutrients and bioactive compounds that are adapted to future climates. Seed nutrient improvement will also include increased biological nitrogen fixation to reduce the need for chemical nitrogen fertilisers.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3108 - Plant Biology. Lead: Prof Ulrike Mathesius

Planet Chicken: Chemical Entanglements in Asia's Poultry Boom . This project aims to study the effects of Asia’s rapidly expanding chicken meat industry on environmental degradation, social inequality, public health and animal welfare. Agricultural chemicals and veterinary drugs saturate this industry, with little regulation or data on types, quantities and applications. Deploying interdisciplinary methods at key nodes of the chicken value chain in India, Thailand and Vietnam, this study will 1) examine practices and market structures that shape chemical use and 2) uncover chemical presence and socio-ecological impacts. The project intends to expose how toxicity, biodiversity, and health interact with global food systems and to propose interventions for effective governance of factory farming in Asia.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4499 - Other Human Society. Lead: Prof Sango Mahanty

ARC Research Hub for Molecular Biosensors at Point-of-Use (MOBIUS). The Hub’s primary goal is to accelerate the growth of Australia's emerging biosensing industry. It aims to bridge the gap between university research and industry, while also nurturing future leaders in the field. This initiative will significantly enhance the Australian biotechnology sector, focusing on increasing production capacity and establishing new sovereign capability. Traditionally limited to healthcare, point-of-need biosensing technologies will now find uses in agriculture, food production, defence, biosecurity, and environmental protection. This expansion is expected to yield significant economic advantages and societal benefits through the accessibility of new, transformative technologies across key employment areas. . Scheme: Industrial Transformation Research Hubs. Field: 3401 - Analytical Chemistry. Lead: Prof Conor Hogan

The legacy of coastal infrastructure: reclamations and seawalls. Positioning coastal reclamations and seawalls in Asia-Australia as artefacts of the Anthropocene, the project aims to highlight their historical role in the expansion of human habitat into the sea, provoking debate on the sustainability of human coastal terraforming practices and assisting the heritage field to reassess the significance of historic coastal infrastructure in the context of the current climate crisis. Examining the threat that sea level rise poses to reclaimed land that, over time, has been integrated into the terrain of everyday life in Sydney, Hong Kong, and Japan, the project will better equip the Australian public to understand the background to this threat, thus laying groundwork for enhanced climate resilience.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4302 - Heritage, Archive and Museum Studies. Lead: Prof Denis Byrne

Tracking 600,000 years of flooding and aridification in Australia’s deserts. This project aims to provide unprecedented understanding of how tropical rainfall promotes excessive wet pulses and floods in Australia’s iconic dry, desert interior. This is achieved by developing a 600,000 year record of tropical rainfall and river runoff to the desert, becoming the longest and most continuous sedimentary climate record from the Kati Thanda–Lake Eyre Basin. Outcomes will unravel the global climate conditions that fostered extensive wet pulses in the past, providing unprecedented reference for the period of human migration and extinction of megafauna during the last 65,000 years. Outcomes will also inform how the desert responds to flooding, relevant to constrain risk to agriculture, infrastructure, and ecologic habitats.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3709 - Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience. Lead: Dr Alexander Francke

All-Polymer Desalination Batteries. This project aims to develop an all-polymer desalination battery containing no metals. It will study a new mechanism for the electrochemical salt-in/salt-out effect of polyelectrolytes during simultaneous ion removal and energy storage. Expected outcomes include an all-polymer battery designed for salt removal from seawater with high efficiency and safety. By combining such desalination batteries with solar and wind farms along the coast, the efficient use of renewable energy to address Australia's energy-water crisis is highly anticipated. The benefit includes new water resources suitable for agriculture and breeding industries and extends to polymer antifouling and anti-corrosion coatings for marine industries and civic applications.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4016 - Materials Engineering. Lead: A/Prof Zhongfan Jia

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

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

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

Modern mathematics to unravel the birth of coherence in dynamical systems. This project aims to reveal the precise mathematical mechanisms underlying the emergence and disappearance of long-lived coherent features in dynamical systems. This project expects to generate new fundamental mathematics in the area of dynamical systems, using innovative operator-theoretic approaches to carefully tease apart the lifecycles of coherent structures. The expected outcomes of this project include new mathematical theory and computational algorithms to anticipate the genesis and destruction of coherent objects, which are key organisers of complex geophysical flows. This breakthrough mathematics should provide significant benefits, such as improved prediction of eddy transport and persistence of weather and climate patterns.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 0102 - Applied Mathematics. Lead: Prof Gary Froyland

Protecting prey from predators using sensory tactics. This project aims to develop new approaches to prevent the extinction of threatened native species from invasive predators, such as rats, pigs, cats and foxes. Many native species are hard to see but vulnerable to being found by predators with powerful senses of smell and hearing. By harnessing the sensory cues of prey that predators use when hunting, this project expects to discover olfactory and auditory techniques that prevent predators finding threatened species. In doing so, the project intends to provide new perspectives on how animals find food using multiple senses, and lead the recovery of threatened species in areas where predators remain within Australia and globally. . Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 0502 - Environmental Science and Management. Lead: Dr Catherine Price

Caring for Cosmologies: Making Living Maps for West Miyarrka. This project aims to develop a new kind of digital mapping to document endangered forms of knowledge along a coastline under threat from climate change. The project expects to draw on unique Yolngu knowledge practices and representational systems - with traditional owners and managers guiding digital media experts, rangers and artists. Expected outcomes include: 1) expanded Indigenous research capacities and digital expertise; and, 2) access to novel resources for a new generation of Indigenous leaders. Benefits include: enhanced intergenerational and intercultural knowledge transmission and negotiation; methods adaptable to other Indigenous contexts; and greater national recognition of Indigenous seeing and caring for country.. Scheme: Discovery Indigenous. Field: 0502 - Environmental Science and Management. Lead: Ms Enid Wunungmurra

Novel governance for marine ecosystems in rapid transition. This project will develop the governance knowledge required to manage rapidly changing marine ecosystems. Australia has the third largest marine estate globally, and its ecosystems support critical economic and sociocultural values. However, human pressures are tipping marine ecosystems into alternate states, inspiring new interventions to sustain industries and communities. New interventions necessitate transitions in governance. Expected outcomes include a comparative understanding of novel marine interventions now underway globally, and practical guidance on how to diagnose and implement responsible marine governance. Significant benefits include enhanced governance and sustainability of Australian and international marine ecosystems.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 0502 - Environmental Science and Management. Lead: Prof Tiffany Morrison

Impacts of diet on the brain, body, and microbiome. Dietary habits determine cognitive function, metabolism and the composition of the gut microbiome. This project seeks to clarify the role of the gut microbiome in diet-induced changes to cognition. It aims to do so through longitudinal studies of cognitive function in which dietary patterns are systematically varied, and intervention studies where cognition is tested after experimentally manipulating the gut microbiome. Expected outcomes include new interdisciplinary knowledge spanning psychology, neuroscience, nutrition and metabolism. This project is timely given the enormous shifts in Australian dietary choices. The knowledge to be gained should provide benefits to individual and public health, agriculture, and food systems.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 1701 - Psychology. Lead: Dr Michael Kendig

Cold catalysis for water splitting. This project aims to develop photocatalysts via AC magnetic field through nanoscale heating for efficient H2 generation. This project is to introduce cold catalysis concept, which heats catalysts only but not solution, thus called cold catalysis, in the area of production of renewable energy. Expected outcome is the creation of clean and low cost catalysts to effectively harvest the chemical energy from the sun via splitting of water into H2 and O2 without causing any environmental damage. This unique technology will also help to address clean energy generation, which is in line with H2 economy plan by Australia government, and provide opportunities for new industries that will benefit Australian economy.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 0912 - Materials Engineering. Lead: Dr Jae-Hun Yang

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

Modelling dynamics in spatial ecology. This project addresses how birth, death and movement drive patterns of plants and animals in space and time. We aim to apply and extend dynamical statistical models grounded in theory. Dynamical models are needed for us to understand how species and ecological communities respond to environmental change and disturbance including bushfires, climate change and extremes and species invasion. Using data from forest plots and animal movement, we aim to understand influences on individuals and species, and how to use that to generate robust predictions. The project is expected to produce statistical models and software for use by ecologists. This should help predict, and manage, ecological impacts of environmental change and disturbances.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 0502 - Environmental Science and Management. Lead: Prof Peter Vesk

Is there a climatic tipping point for Antarctic Bottom Water formation? Antarctic Bottom Water plays an important role in global ocean circulation and climate and yet its formation is also highly sensitive to climate change. This project will analyse new seafloor, core and water samples from the understudied Cape Darnley, East Antarctica, collected on a voyage in early 2022. This new data will be used in combination with an improved high resolution regional ocean model, to understand modern and past Antarctic Bottom Water formation under different climate states (warmer and colder than present), to determine if there are climate tipping points for the shut down of Antarctic Bottom Water formation. The anticipated benefits include a better understanding of future climate change on this important water mass.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 0405 - Oceanography. Lead: Prof Helen Bostock

Rhizosphere mediation of soil greenhouse gas fluxes with climate change. Increasingly extreme heat waves, droughts and floods contribute major uncertainties in predicting natural land-based climate change mitigation. This project will quantify current and future greenhouse gas absorption in a managed grassland ecosystem, and the new knowledge will contribute to carbon emissions offsets in climate change accounting schemes. We will conduct this research using a manipulative field experiment, controlled laboratory incubations, microbial gene analysis and mechanistic modelling to provide new insights into future potential climate change mitigation by soils.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 0501 - Ecological Applications. Lead: Prof Elise Pendall