Grants & Opportunities

Improving predictions of species distribution dynamics. This project aims to mainstream methods for improved prediction of species distributions under the impacts of environmental change. This is important because these predictions are commonly used to guide environmental decisions, but the standard modelling methods used to produce them have critical limitations. This project intends to (i) make key statistical developments to methods for modelling dynamics of species distributions and (ii) translate the methods into practice, through guidelines, tools and training, engagement with users and case studies addressing species of current concern. This should provide significant benefits because it will enable better decisions and more effective and cost-efficient management actions.. Scheme: ARC Future Fellowships. Field: 0502 - Environmental Science and Management. Lead: Dr Gurutzeta Guillera-Arroita

Missing link in the chain: Gateway to the Satellite-Internet Constellations. This project aims to develop affordable and compact, reconfigurable antenna systems for satellite-terminals. With unprecedented performance, the wide bandwidth of operation, and low cost of production, the resulting antenna systems will act as the ‘enabling’ chip in providing internet connectivity to millions of people, who are unconnected or poorly connected at present. High-speed internet is not a reality outside densely populated areas, even today. The outcomes will close the digital divide, increase Australia’s economic and intellectual standing internationally, generate socio-economic benefits by empowering regional populations, increase the economic viability and remote-jobs outside metropolitan cities, and develop tourism.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 1005 - Communications Technologies. Lead: Dr Raheel Hashmi

Investigating Wnt signaling during human nephron commitment and patterning. Aims: To use gene edited stem cell lines that display cell location, identity and cell state to map human kidney tissue formation in the laboratory. By monitoring how each cell responds to those around it across time and space, we will for the first time map the formation of kidney tissue in the dish. Significance: Understanding how stem cells form a tissue will help us to improve and control the process. This is key to advancing tissue engineering. Expected outcomes: The proposal will pioneer state-of-the-art imaging, gene editing and machine learning approaches, generating models of human development that are currently unavailable. Benefits: This understanding will guide the development of novel approaches to tissue engineering. . Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 0601 - Biochemistry and Cell Biology. Lead: Prof Melissa Little

Synthetic genes as reference standards for biology and biomanufacture. Reference standards are needed to improve the measurement of biology and the reliability of biomanufacturing processes. This project aims to engineer synthetic genes capable of acting as reference standards for DNA, RNA and protein. The synthetic genes can be transcribed into mRNA standards, and translated into protein standards, and be further integrated into living cells to measure internal cellular processes. The outcomes include a unified understanding of gene expression and more accurate next-generation sequencing and mass-spectrophotometry technologies. The synthetic genes also allow standardisation and optimisation of biomanufacturing processes that will produce mRNA and biologics products at a higher purity and lower cost.. Scheme: ARC Future Fellowships. Field: 3106 - Industrial Biotechnology. Lead: Prof Timothy Mercer

Should I stay or should I go? How brain stem cells leave quiescence. Most adult stem cells in our brains are sleeping (quiescent). Quiescence helps ensure animals have a lifelong population of brain stem cells, which is crucial for the maintenance of brain circuitry. This project aims to investigate how this process is regulated at a molecular level. This project expects to define the molecular playbook controlling quiescence and explain why brain stem cells progress into deeper states of quiescence during aging by combining novel tissue culture and genetic models, where brain stem cells have disrupted quiescence, with innovative methods of reading gene expression. The benefits of these outcomes include the development of methods to control the quiescence of brain stem cells for bioengineering purposes.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 3209 - Neurosciences. Lead: Dr Lachlan Harris

Revealing the origin and early evolution of spiralian animal body plans. This project aims to reconstruct the early evolutionary history of the Spiralia, a megadiverse animal group that extends back 540 million years. Their oldest fossils represent some of the earliest known animals and can reveal much about the speed and magnitude of evolution during the Cambrian Explosion, when most animal groups rapidly appeared. This project expects to generate new knowledge on the origin and radiation of some of the first animal body plans to better understand the early history of complex life. Anticipated outcomes and benefits include a new macroevolutionary framework for spiralians, novel approaches to studying invertebrate fossils, and highlighting the scientific importance of Australia’s natural heritage.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 3705 - Geology. Lead: Dr Luke Parry

Safe and accessible care for older survivors of psychological trauma. This project aims to improve the safety and accessibility of community aged care services for older survivors of psychological trauma, particularly those from diverse populations. We will co-design and test a practice framework that transforms the conceptual principles of trauma-informed care into actionable care behaviours and processes for implementation. Outcomes will include a world-first roadmap to guide implementation of trauma-informed aged care, as well for policy makers to regulate and monitor its delivery. The project will also increase knowledge about the priorities for change within aged care from the perspective of older trauma survivors, and improve understanding of how best to engage this group in co-design.. Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 4205 - Nursing. Lead: Dr Monica Cations

Next generation soil carbon satellite-based measurement for carbon markets. Soil carbon sequestration is a federal government priority to offset greenhouse gas emissions. Efforts to advance this opportunity are hindered by the high technical costs of soil carbon quantification. This project will develop an innovative and potentially commercialisable technology that integrates ground data, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), satellites, Eddy covariance CO2 flux towers, soil carbon (C) models, and artificial intelligence (AI) to improve the accuracy of satellite-based soil C modelling. The project will provide an accurate and cost-effective solution to quantification of soil C changes to unlock a large potential of carbon offsets in rangelands in Australia and worldwide.. Scheme: Early Career Industry Fellowships. Field: 4101 - Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation. Lead: Dr Trung Nguyen

Unraveling a new cytokine working model in immune cell exhaustion. This project will investigate a novel paradigm of how a key messenger protein can be sensed by fundamental immune cells, preventing their ‘exhaustion’. Immune cell exhaustion is a fundamental mechanism to maintain the internal homeostasis of vertebrates. However, it is often hijacked by pathogens to dampen the defensive capacity of the immune system. And this specific messenger protein is the only known soluble factor that can deliver ‘anti-exhaustion’ signals to immune cells. This study will advance basic knowledge in biochemistry and immunology by combining interdisciplinary and cutting-edge approaches. The expected outcomes include the developing new scientific theories and identifying novel molecular basis of biological processes. . Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 3101 - Biochemistry and Cell Biology. Lead: Dr Zhian Chen

Quantum Generative Diffusion Models for Molecular Research. This project will devise quantum generative diffusion models to equip classical counterparts with the ability to harness quantum data that naturally arise in molecular research. Theoretical foundations for analysing fast sampling methods with the help of inductive bias regarding the input data and employed circuits will validate efficient quantum generative diffusion models that have training and sampling advantages over classical counterparts. Outcomes include applications in molecular conformation generation, compound screening, and drug design. The innovative research will significantly benefit Australia’s science, industry and health, and will maintain Australia’s global leading role in quantum machine learning and molecular research.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4611 - Machine Learning. Lead: Prof Dacheng Tao

Global public deliberation beyond the Sustainable Development Goals. The aim of this project is to propose a process for global public deliberation beyond the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It advances a timely and novel research program on how direct forms of deliberative citizen engagement can transform institutions of global governance to be more responsive to marginalised communities and open to alternative futures. Outcomes of this project include a global public engagement framework that the UN, its member states, international development agencies and civil society organisations can use to facilitate public deliberation on the successes and failures of SDGs and co-generate proposals on what comes after the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. . Scheme: ARC Future Fellowships. Field: 4408 - Political Science. Lead: Prof Nicole Curato

Responding to the harms of ultra-processed foods in Australia. This project aims to develop strategies to increase public awareness of the harms of ultra-processed foods in Australia. Ultra-processed foods make up nearly half of Australia's diet, with highest intakes among the youth and the most disadvantaged. Despite the surge in their intake each year, many consumers remain unaware of their detrimental effects. This project will develop a framework to guide stakeholders in tailoring messages to reduce ultra-processed food consumption, and create a novel warning label for ultra-processed food packaging to help consumers identify these foods. Outcomes will deliver significant benefits by informing strategies and policies to reduce the societal harms linked with ultra-processed foods consumption.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4206 - Public Health. Lead: Dr Priscila Pereira Machado

Emergent phenomena in chaotic active matter. Active matter is a nascent area concerned with collective motion of many interacting active entities such as human crowds, bird flocks and robotic swarms. Many active entities show signatures of chaos that cannot be captured by traditional active matter models. By undertaking a novel interdisciplinary approach connecting active-matter physics with the mathematics of chaos, this project aims to investigate the effects of encoding chaos in individual active entities on emergent collective behaviours and their subsequent control. It expects to generate foundational knowledge in active matter with potential applications in controlling collective motion of engineered systems (e.g. robotic swarms for search missions and environmental monitoring).. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4901 - Applied Mathematics. Lead: Dr Rahil Valani

Assessing impacts of ocean warming on carbon export in the Southern Ocean . Marine zooplankton consume ~75% of phytoplankton primary production and play a major role in the biologically mediated export of carbon into the deep ocean. Despite their importance, the cycling of carbon by zooplankton is the largest source of uncertainty in global climate models used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This DECRA project will apply a suite of laboratory and field-based approaches, and numerical models, to quantify zooplankton grazing dynamics and carbon export in the Southern Ocean under current and future ocean temperatures. Results from this study will be used to improve how zooplankton are represented in global climate models to better predict changes in marine carbon cycling in a changing climate.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 3708 - Oceanography. Lead: Dr Lavenia Ratnarajah

Symmetry making and breaking in neocortical development. Brain halves become wired during development following molecular and neural activity-dependent rules of symmetry. This project aims to unravel the mechanisms by which spatio-temporal symmetries between cortical hemispheres instruct the precise formation of functional connections. Using advanced methods in high-throughput gene expression analyses, live imaging of neural activity, behaviour, and connectivity mapping in a marsupial model of early brain patterning, this project aims to unravel new generative principles of mammalian brain circuit formation. Expected outcomes include innovative ways to manipulate brain wiring, and to functionally link mechanistic knowledge of complex trait formation across levels of biological organisation.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3109 - Zoology. Lead: A/Prof Rodrigo Suarez

Hydrogen Liquefaction Optimization via Thermophysical Property Measurements. This project aims to improve the cooling process needed to keep hydrogen in a liquid state, which is essential for safe and efficient storage and transport. By developing novel apparatus to measure how different cooling fluids (“refrigerants”) work at relevant conditions, the project will generate accurate models to increase cooling efficiency, reduce energy consumption, and lower operational costs. Expected outcomes include advanced models integrated into industry-standard software, enabling better process design and identification of optimal refrigerant composition. This work will support Australia’s leadership in hydrogen technology and advance the global transition towards net-zero, promoting cleaner energy solutions on a large scale.. Scheme: Early Career Industry Fellowships. Field: 3406 - Physical Chemistry. Lead: Dr Xiong Xiao

The Development of Wearable Zinc Ion Batteries . This project aims to develop flexible, safe, and efficient zinc-ion batteries for wearable devices, such as smartwatches and fitness trackers, using environmentally friendly and low-cost materials as a safer alternative to traditional options. This project expects to advance the field of energy storage for wearables by enhancing battery performance, flexibility, and durability to meet the demands of modern electronics. Expected outcomes include reliable, lightweight power sources, stronger industry collaborations, and advancements in sustainable battery technology. The project promises significant benefits, including job creation, growth in Australia’s wearable tech sector, and sustainable energy solutions for both consumers and businesses.. Scheme: Mid-Career Industry Fellowships. Field: 4016 - Materials Engineering. Lead: Prof Dawei Su

How climate extremes shape plant microbiome functions and pathogen invasion. This project aims to investigate how extreme climate events impact the structure and functions of plant-associated microorganisms, which are essential for sustaining crop health. Climate extremes, such as heatwaves and floods, severely impact plant diseases and food security. Using advanced approaches and microbial analysis, this project will generate new knowledge about the responses of crop microorganisms to climate extremes and pathogen invasion. It expects to develop an innovative workflow for harnessing beneficial microbial traits to enhance plant health. This will provide novel microbial applications to boost plant resilience to climate change and pathogen threats and offer significant benefits to support sustainable agriculture.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4106 - Soil Sciences. Lead: Dr Chao Xiong