Grants & Opportunities

Archaeologies of community and colonialism in Oceania. This project aims to understand the colonial past, its repercussions for the present and future in Oceania and the relationships between global forces and local experiences. It will use an interdisciplinary approach to historical archaeology and community archaeology. The unique colonial landscapes in Mangareva, French Polynesia will provide a landmark case study with global implications. In addition to internationally significant scholarly outputs and collaboration development, the project will make a substantive contribution to public outreach and education. Benefits would include advancement of Oceanic contributions to global historical archaeology, and increased awareness of the meanings of colonial heritage among Pacific peoples.. Scheme: ARC Future Fellowships. Field: 2101 - Archaeology. Lead: Dr James Flexner

Improving workplace productivity via an AI-based physical activity chatbot . This project aims to develop, train and evaluate a physical activity chatbot using artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve workplace productivity in sedentary office workers. Productivity losses, due to high numbers of physically inactive workers, cost the Australian economy $14 billion per year. The cost of effective and scalable workplace physical activity programs acts as a barrier to their implementation. As such, innovative programs that can reach large numbers of workers at minimal cost are needed. This project aims to generate new knowledge on the use of artificial intelligence to achieve behavioural improvements and will lead to the development of a new type of behaviour change program with broad applicability. . Scheme: ARC Future Fellowships. Field: 1701 - Psychology. Lead: Prof Corneel Vandelanotte

International Tax in the Digital Age: A Blueprint for Allocating Profits. This project aims to investigate tax avoidance by multinational enterprises in the age of the digital economy. It addresses the difficult problem of determining the location in which profits are made. The project expects to generate new knowledge in international tax by developing a blueprint for allocating profits of multinational enterprises between jurisdictions that aligns with profit making activity and reduces international tax avoidance. A systematic structure for allocating profits of multinational enterprises will address the important problem of tax base erosion caused by profit shifting. This will provide the significant benefit of developing a major tool in securing Australia’s revenue base in the digital age.. Scheme: ARC Future Fellowships. Field: 1801 - Law. Lead: Prof Kerrie Sadiq

Painting Country: the life and legacy of western Arnhem Land rock painters. This project aims to generate new understandings of Australia’s past by exploring the lives and legacies of known Aboriginal rock art artists. It addresses key questions in global archaeology relating to when, where and why rock art was created. Using innovative methodologies, this project intends to create a unique archive of 20th century rock art and oral history recordings from western Arnhem Land. The anticipated outcomes will include new internationally significant knowledge concerning the impacts of colonisation on artistic practices in Australia. Furthermore, the project aims to contribute new information and data that can be used to inform cultural heritage management and education programs both locally and across Australia. . Scheme: ARC Future Fellowships. Field: 2101 - Archaeology. Lead: A/Prof Sally May

Unlocking digital innovation: Intellectual Property and the Right to Repair. This project aims to investigate the role that Intellectual Property (IP) plays in the rights and capacities of Australians to repair their smart goods. This project will generate new knowledge with regards to how IP can contribute to emerging regulatory approaches to the 'Right to Repair', which has consequences for a more efficient and sustainable use of Australia's resources. Expected outcomes include advanced knowledge and understanding of IP and the role it can play in rebalancing manufacturer and consumer relationships in digital consumables and in Australia's future environmental sustainability. This will enhance Australia's economy and society through legal, economic, and environmental regulatory reform.. Scheme: ARC Future Fellowships. Field: 1801 - Law. Lead: Prof Leanne Wiseman

Two-Dimensional Covalent Organic Framework for Next-Generation Batteries. This project aims to develop advanced two-dimensional (2D) covalent organic framework (COF) materials for sodium and potassium-ion batteries. It expects to generate a new family of few-layered 2D COF materials and their 2D-2D heterostructured composites with improved electrochemical properties, and develop processing technologies and fundamental understanding of COF-based electrodes for flexible sodium and potassium-ion batteries. Expected outcomes include novel materials, technologies, and energy-storage options for Australia. Significant economic and environmental benefits are expected from developing advanced sodium and potassium-ion batteries with low cost, high energy density, and improved safety for renewable energy storage.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 0306 - Physical Chemistry (Incl. Structural). Lead: Dr Jie Wang

Rewriting moral character and professional virtue. This project aims to solve the philosophical problems of whether moral character motivates action and how it does so by developing an innovative account of moral character that draws on two overlooked bodies of research: the psychology of ‘moral identity’ and the philosophy of narrative self-constitution. The resulting narrative account of moral character claims that moral identities motivate moral action and, therefore, underpin moral character. The project then applies this knowledge to professional ethics, empirically testing the extent to which professional moral identities influence action and creating novel, self-narrative focused strategies to foster professional virtue.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 2203 - Philosophy. Lead: Dr Douglas McConnell

Deciphering molecular genetic mechanisms underlying chromatin interactions. This project aims to generate the high confidence map of enhancer-promoter links in 61 tissues and cells through robust integration of novel machine learning tools with genomic and epigenomic datasets. Understanding which key elements in the genome may be important to fine-tune gene expression is essential for understanding biological pathways. The expected outcomes include i) New tools to robustly identify true chromatin pairs; ii) Comperehensive maps of regulatory interactomes in 61 tissues & cells, which will provide a roadmap for interpreting & prioritising noncoding variants. This should provide significant benefit to Australia's capacity for cutting-edge genomics research through fundamental understanding of gene regulation mechanism.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 0604 - Genetics. Lead: Dr Hamid Alinejad Rokny

Mapping resources, demands and constraints to critical metal supplies. This project aims to assess the mineral resources of five metals needed for renewable energy transitions and map the potential impacts of their mining. It uses novel geochemical proxy models to build highly detailed resource databases and demonstrates a world-first use of cloud-computing power to assess worldwide satellite data of mine areas. Expected outcomes include in-depth knowledge of geological endowments and global-scale patterns of mining emerging to meet changing metal demands, plus the discovery of geological and socio-environmental constraints to future supplies. This will enhance government and industry capacities for de-risking metal supply chains, and facilitate more sophisticated land use planning of mining regions.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 0909 - Geomatic Engineering. Lead: Dr Timothy Werner

Inside Others: Early Christian Protagonists and their Impairments. This project aims to uncover how disability functions in the portraits of key early Christian figures and their receptions over time. Its innovative approach combines disability studies, emotions studies, literary criticism, social history, and reception studies. It expects to generate new knowledge by intervening in disability readings of late antique literature, introducing a new category of impaired protagonists and constructing the first reception history of disability in early Christianity. It intends to enhance Australia’s capacity in interdisciplinary studies of antiquity and contribute to critical reflection on the nature of impairment in light of urgent questions arising from the Disability Royal Commission and Covid-19 measures.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 2204 - Religion and Religious Studies. Lead: A/Prof Kylie Crabbe

Assessing the vulnerability of East Antarctica to future warming. This DECRA aims to address major gaps in our understanding of how the Antarctic Ice Sheet will respond to climate change, by enabling critical insights on its sensitivity to past climate warming. The project will apply a suite of geochemical approaches to determine – for East Antarctica’s most vulnerable basin – the extent of ice-sheet loss during past warming, and the impact of glacial meltwater on biological productivity and Southern Ocean circulation. New knowledge of how the ice sheet and ocean respond to climate warming, will lead to more reliable projections of future sea-level rise and climate. The DECRA will benefit Australia by providing a strong evidence base for policy decision-making to manage the impact of sea-level rise.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 0406 - Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience. Lead: Dr Taryn Noble

Understanding nutritional interactions for targeted microbiome manipulation. This project aims to identify how microbial communities, known as microbiomes, can be effectively manipulated to the benefit of their host. Microbiome manipulation has been in the spotlight as a potential solution to maintain or improve the health of several hosts, from threatened coral species to livestock and humans, but the development of industry-scale strategies has been slow. This project proposes to chart the nutritional interactions among microorganisms and to identify cascade effects of microbiome manipulation. This will generate fundamental knowledge on the biological processes underlying community stability and malleability, which will ultimately help engineering optimised microbiomes.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 0605 - Microbiology. Lead: Dr Vanessa Rossetto Marcelino

Statistical approaches for spatial genomics at single cell resolution. Cells cooperate to form complex, dynamic and varied tissue structures. This project aims to develop statistical and computational approaches to analyse spatial genomics data, a novel technology that retains vital spatial information at single cell resolution while detecting RNA molecules for hundreds of genes. Observing the molecular activity of cells in their spatial context is critical for tackling key biological questions, such as how tumour cells behave during malignancy or how stem cells determine their fate. Expected outcomes also include techniques to fully harmonise spatial and non-spatial genomics datasets, and methods toward understanding the complex relationships among cells in their environment, revealing novel cell biology.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 0601 - Biochemistry and Cell Biology. Lead: Dr Shila Ghazanfar

Smart Optimisation of Functionally Graded Porous Structures. This project aims to develop a novel smart optimisation method for shaping the porosity geometries of metal foams for design requirements. Although these functionally graded porous structures have superior engineering properties, efficient examination methods to understand the mechanical behaviour of irregular graded porosities are lacking. Expected outcomes of this project include the expansion of fundamental knowledge in porous media and new technologies to build stronger and lighter multifunctional structural components. The project will provide significant benefits, including enhanced manufacturing capacities of local industries to fabricate metal foam products, new job opportunities in a growing market, and less carbon emissions.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 0905 - Civil Engineering. Lead: Dr Da Chen

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from Australian farm dams. There is an untapped potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from millions of Australian farm dams. This project aims to quantify the nation-wide carbon footprint of farm dams and develop low-cost strategies for “greener” practices. Contributing to Australia’s commitment to tackle climate change, this project aspires to empower farmers to significantly reduce the carbon footprint of their farm dams. It will also inform on the economic viability of alternative management strategies for mitigating farm dam emissions and provide recommendations for financial incentives. This project should enhance the capacity of Australia to meet its carbon reduction targets and mitigate anthropogenic climate change.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 0502 - Environmental Science and Management. Lead: Dr Martino Edoardo Malerba

Engineering ion specificity for water electrolysis. This project aims to understand how foreign ions in water can be manipulated to selectively control the activity and selectivity of electrocatalytic water splitting and explore the potential if seawater or low-grade-water can be used as water feed to mitigate the economical barrier for large-scale hydrogen production through electrolysis. The new knowledge gained will be helpful for future design of more cost-effective electrolyser systems to underpin Australia’s emerging hydrogen economy.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 0912 - Materials Engineering. Lead: Dr Wenjie Jiang

Green Water is Good: Control and Design of Low-Carbon Water Pumping Systems. This project aims to develop new theoretical tools for the control and design of low-carbon water pumping systems powered by renewable energy. One expected outcome is to establish advanced control frameworks that significantly reduce operational cost for water pumping systems and meanwhile produce the least carbon emissions. The control frameworks will integrate stochastic uncertainties of solar cloud cover, electricity price and water demand. The control frameworks will be incorporated into a two-stage constrained optimisation as a codesign strategy for future low-carbon water pumping systems. This project will gain significant economic, commercial and environmental benefits to the Australian community.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 0906 - Electrical and Electronic Engineering. Lead: Dr Ye Wang

Measuring social media speed and the acceleration of informational crisis. The project aims to investigate the role that time plays in the production of misinformation on social media. The speed of digital communication is frequently implicated in destabilising the reasoned discussion upon which democracy depends. However, the temporal study of the internet is hampered by a contradiction in time theory between mathematical-scientific time and intuitive-social time. This project advances a theoretical solution to this problem and aims to measure the production of time online, developing digital methods to fulfil this purpose. A better understanding of the relationship between time and communication could support strategies to counter misinformation and promote better informed and more consensual discourse. . Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 2001 - Communication and Media Studies. Lead: Dr Philip Pond

Mito-nuclear coevolution as an engine of biodiversity. This project aims to advance understanding of the processes that drive speciation and generate biodiversity. It will use Australia’s native social bees to test whether genetic diversity in mitochondrial genomes drives biodiversity at the population level, combining molecular and field studies in this uniquely tractable natural system. The expected outcome is a significant advance in knowledge of how coevolution between the two genomes of eukaryotic cells - mitochondrial and nuclear - affect the observable diversity of the natural world. The project is also expected to benefit the management and conservation of Australian native bees, which are vital pollinators in our natural and agro-ecosystems. . Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 0603 - Evolutionary Biology. Lead: Dr Rosalyn Gloag

Momentarily immobile: the futures of backpacking and seasonal farm workers. This project aims to examine the experiences of backpackers and seasonal migrants who live in communal hostel accommodation while doing farm work in regional Queensland. This project expects to generate new knowledge using ethnographic and arts-based methods on how backpackers navigate periods of being affixed to the one place while completing required farm work, and their contribution to the socio-cultural life of regional communities. Expected outcomes include greater understanding on the contributions of seasonal migrant labour, a public forum, recommendations for industry and governments, and an exhibition. This should provide significant benefits to encouraging post-pandemic growth back into regional communities and farming labour.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 1604 - Human Geography. Lead: Dr Kaya Barry

Life without Birth: The Ethics, Politics, and Law of Artificial Wombs. This project aims to assess the morality of ectogenesis, the process of gestating a foetus in an artificial womb. Recent technological advances in non-human ectogenesis raise the question of whether it is desirable to pursue research in human ectogenesis. This project expects to generate new knowledge in social philosophy by inquiring into the value of natural gestation, the foundations of parenthood, and the interests of foetuses during gestation. Expected outcomes of this project include an improved understanding of the costs, risks, and benefits of ectogenesis. This should provide significant benefits, such as resources for ethical decision-making in light of technologies aimed at radically reshaping the process of human creation. . Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 2203 - Philosophy. Lead: A/Prof Luara Ferracioli

Mother Tongue: Language revitalisation through immersive practice. This project aims to expand and enhance Gunditjmara language ecology. It will examine Gunditjmara language acquisition and learning through practical methodologies in everyday settings and across the spectrum of cultural revitalisation praxis. Expected outcomes include new knowledge about the value and efficacy of traditional Aboriginal pedagogical and methodological approaches in language acquisition and intergenerational knowledge transmission. A cultural model of immersion practice, toolkit and digital resources will support cultural continuity, survival and thriving of First Languages into the future. Benefits include increased Aboriginal language use and improved transmission to safeguard and revitalise enduring Aboriginal traditions. . Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 2002 - Cultural Studies. Lead: Dr Vicki Couzens

Did ocean circulation changes build the Antarctic ice sheet? The evolution of the Antarctic ice sheet, from its beginning 34 million years ago (Ma) until today, is critical to our understanding of future climate change. This project aims to improve climate and ocean model simulations of the early Oligocene (30 Ma) and middle Miocene (15 Ma), using higher resolution and more accurate paleogeography than has previously been done. Expected outcomes include improvements to paleoclimate reconstructions, better constraints on future climate change, and a better understanding of the impact of ocean eddies on Antarctic climate. These outcomes should strengthen Australia’s long-term program of climate modelling, and enable more effective climate adaptation, mitigation and risk management.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 0406 - Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience. Lead: Dr David Hutchinson

Engineering micropatterned surfaces for cell mechanics and mechanobiology. This project aims to engineer a highly versatile micropatterned surface that can be used to culture and study cells. This project expects to generate a unique microtechnology, as well as new knowledge in surface science and cell mechanics by elucidating the relationship between controlled surface wettability and cell behaviour. The expected outcomes of this project include a low-cost and highly engineered tissue culture tool that controls cellular functions, revolutionising practices in stem cell engineering. The platform technology has a great potential for commercialisation and enhancing Australian research capacity through international and interdisciplinary collaborations and will directly benefit the Australian biotech industry.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 0913 - Mechanical Engineering. Lead: Dr Navid Kashaninejad

Superhydrophobic thermally rearranged membranes for low-energy separation. This project aims to develop thermally rearranged membranes with superhydrophobicity using novel polymer chemistry and nanofibre morphology. Both water flowrate in membrane distillation and gas flowrate in carbon dioxide stripping from solvents will be increased by minimising the water vapor condensation between the nanofibers; resolving shortcomings in current energy-intensive filtration systems. This project will provide significant benefits to Australian communities by advancing cost-effective and energy-efficient potable water production and carbon dioxide separation processes for sustainable development. The advanced materials developed can be manufactured locally and will enhance our national capability in modern manufacturing.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 0904 - Chemical Engineering. Lead: Dr Seungju Kim