Grants & Opportunities

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

Defining a new family of sodium channel accessory proteins. Voltage-gated sodium channels are key proteins that function as multi-subunit complexes to regulate neuronal excitability. The project aims to investigate the structure and function of a novel family of accessory subunits by utilizing a class of toxins, derived from the giant Australian stinging tree, that directly binds to these proteins to modulate sodium channel function. The project aims to generate significant new knowledge on the function of sodium channels as multi-protein complexes. Expected outcomes of this project include development of novel channel-modulating molecules that may have applications as neuroscience tools to address fundamental questions about ion channel function and biology.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3404 - Medicinal and Biomolecular Chemistry. Lead: Prof Irina Vetter

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

Hyperactive endogenous retroviruses and their impact on the koala genome. Koala populations are in steep decline with the ubiquitous koala retrovirus (KoRV) strongly linked with disease. KoRV and other less studied endogenous retrovirus (ERVs) are extremely active within the genome of koalas to a level never observed in any other vertebrate genome. This study will map ERV integration sites within koalas from across their geographic range country and use long-read genomics approaches to understand the link between KoRV and other ERVs, the impact on koala caused by dramatic genomic rewiring, and the mechanisms of genomic immunity which supress ERV activity and mitigate disease. Findings will provide insights into the ongoing arms race between virus and host and inform conservation of an iconic species.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3107 - Microbiology. Lead: A/Prof Keith Chappell

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

Deciphering the immune complexity that orchestrates T cell activation. The adaptive immune system consists of a complex cellular network that can efficiently distinguish exogenous required inputs, such as nutrients, from those that are potentially harmful like pathogens. Such ‘friend-foe’ discrimination has its molecular basis in a multitude of receptors with specificity to certain ligands. Critically, however, it is unclear how such discrimination is mechanistically regulated at the functional level. We have developed new and sophisticated experimental models that will allow us to systematically dissect and unfold the complexity of the adaptive immune system and address this critical knowledge gap. Expected outcomes will critically advance our general understanding of a fundamental biological principle.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3204 - Immunology. Lead: Dr Daniel Utzschneider

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

A Novel Surrogate Framework for evaluating THM Properties of Bentonite. Compacted bentonite as favoured engineered barrier material is widely used in environmental geotechnics and its failure can incur huge societal, economic and environmental loss. The project aims to develop a novel surrogate model to identify the optimal controllable factors' value to increase barrier's integrity and reliability. It expects to advance the fundamental knowledge of bentonite thermo-hydro-mechanical properties through advanced molecular dynamics modelling, statistic learning and machine learning. It will deliver revolution design approach for bentonite used in engineered barriers in Australia and internationally. In the long-time it will bring huge economic, societal and environmental benefits to our community.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4017 - Mechanical Engineering. Lead: Dr Yilin Gui

Cubesat Technologies for High Spatial Resolution Astrophysics. This project aims to combine cubesat and hybrid cubesat/micro-satellite concepts studied in Australia and Japan, prototyping and space-qualifying the most custom components, enabling a future affordable launch. High angular resolution is critical for studying processes of star formation, black holes, and exoplanets. An array of small satellites can greatly exceed the angular resolution of a single telescope, or the sensitivity of atmosphere-limited ground-based interferometers. Space qualifying the key inter-spacecraft metrology and fibre injection technologies will not only enable a future Australian satellite astrophysical interferometer, but is also relevant for optical communications links and earth observations. . Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 5101 - Astronomical Sciences. Lead: Prof Michael Ireland

Economic analysis of child maltreatment and child protection. This project aims to investigate the economic causes and consequences of child maltreatment. It expects to generate new knowledge by applying microeconometric methods to large Australian administrative databases that track children’s health, education and welfare receipt over time. The expected outcomes of this project include an expanded knowledge base on how economic shocks affect maltreatment, the economic consequences of placing children in out-of-home care, and the value of economic policies for reducing the intergenerational transmission of maltreatment. This should provide significant benefits, such as providing practical evidence to policy makers and service providers that help prevent child maltreatment and reduce its harms.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3801 - Applied Economics. Lead: A/Prof Nicole Black

3D Diffusion Models for Generating and Understanding 3D Scenes. Diffusion models, such as DALL-E2 and Imagen, have achieved remarkable success in generating photorealistic images and hold promise to solve long-standing computer vision problems. However, 3D scene generation remains unexplored. This research project aims to bridge the gap by developing 3D diffusion models capable of generating complete 3D scenes. This will advance our theoretical understanding of diffusion in complex 3D environments and open up new possibilities for applications in fields such as virtual reality, architecture, and city planning. The proposed 3D diffusion models will also enhance the accuracy of computer vision tasks related to 3D scene understanding, such as object detection, tracking, and semantic segmentation.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4603 - Computer Vision and Multimedia Computation. Lead: Prof Ajmal Mian

Lifting the Veil on Cold Planets in the Inner Galaxy. The project aims to explore a unique aspect of exoplanet detection: searches for cold planets of Earth mass and larger in the densest stellar fields of the inner Milky Way. Infrared cameras will be used to detect small planets in this extreme galactic environment. The proposed project will open a new era of infrared microlensing observations from the ground and supply critical data in preparation for the next generation of microlensing from space. This work directly links to the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope (2026 launch) Galactic Exoplanet Survey. Expected outcomes are a greatly improved understanding of planet formation down to terrestrial-mass planets, and improved techniques for cold planet detection with gravitational microlensing. . Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 5101 - Astronomical Sciences. Lead: Prof Andrew Cole

Informing intervention responses to violent offenders through data linkage. The project aims to capitalise on new data access capacity to improve knowledge on violent offender pathways and criminogenic needs, such as acquired brain injury, to reduce offending and re-offending. Violence is a major social and health issue nationally and internationally. While there has been substantial investment in treatment/prevention campaigns, rates of violence remain high. Using diverse linked administrative data, we will identify key risk factors and times in trajectories, as well as effective treatment/justice responses. Expected benefits include evidence-based recommendations and engagement with policymakers targeting recidivism, offender screening, treatment, and coordinated violence prevention policy and practice.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 5205 - Social and Personality Psychology. Lead: Prof Peter Miller

An adaptive surface for improved modelling of rough wall bounded turbulence. This project aims to improve the prediction of drag where fluid flows over rough surfaces. This is a significant problem, with the uncertainty in drag penalty prediction for shipping alone exceeding ten billion dollars annually. The societal importance of these flows demands action, yet novel approaches must be sought to efficiently explore the wide range of roughness types encountered in practice. An adaptive surface is proposed, where a roughness configuration can be dialled in at the press of a button, to rapidly converge on improved models. A key outcome of this project will be improved predictive models of drag for rough wall flows. Benefits will include improved efficiencies and reduced emissions across a wide range of industries.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4012 - Fluid Mechanics and Thermal Engineering. Lead: Prof Nicholas Hutchins

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

Optimisation of Buildable Structures for 3D Concrete Printing. This project aims to establish a systematic approach to seamlessly integrate optimisation, characterisation, and 3D concrete printing (3DCP) manufacturing for the construction and building industry. New optimisation algorithms will first overcome the manufacturing limitations of 3DCP by considering the print path and early-age concrete properties, and directly create high-performance and innovative designs of buildable structures. The outcomes of this project include a powerful design tool that enables architects and engineers to optimally design and construct the next generation of cost-saving and aesthetically pleasing buildings and infrastructures through the adoption of modern 3DCP technology.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4017 - Mechanical Engineering. Lead: Prof Xiaodong Huang

Beyond Query: Exploratory Subgraph Discovery and Search System. Exploring co-working user groups in dynamic network data is a vital challenge in many applications, for example, in online education. This project aims to discover new relationships of users and compute their co-working performance in continuous time periods. The outcomes of the project are to design effective subgraph exploratory models, three novel types of subgraph search solutions, and devise a friendly exploratory subgraph search system for supporting the real-time network data analytics. The success of the project will make a significant contribution to the scientific foundation of graph data mining and its applications in data engineering domains, as well as benefiting co-working performance of people in Australian labor markets.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4605 - Data Management and Data Science. Lead: Prof Jianxin Li

Big time crystals: a new paradigm in condensed matter. This project aims to extend condensed matter physics to the time dimension using big time crystals created by a periodically driven Bose-Einstein condensate. Such a system is expected to offer exceptional versatility, allowing effective potentials and long-range interactions in a time lattice to be engineered almost at will by proper periodic driving and modulation of the particle interaction. Expected outcomes include realisation of novel condensed matter phenomena such as topologically protected states in the time dimension, time crystalline structures exhibiting disorder or quasi-crystalline order and time-tronics devices analogous to electronics. Potential future benefits include novel advanced materials and semiconductor-like devices. . Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 5108 - Quantum Physics. Lead: Prof Peter Hannaford

Multi-energy driven photothermal evaporators for all-weather desalination. This project aims to develop advanced Interfacial solar evaporation (ISE) technology to stably deliver clean water. This project expects to facilitate desalination practices by generating new ISE systems that use multiple energy sources from the environment and can operate under different weather conditions. Expected outcomes of this project include new knowledge in the area of renewable energy, improved ISE technique and enhanced capacity for desalination and industrial wastewater treatment. This should provide significant benefits to remote communities who suffer from severe freshwater shortages and enhance research capabilities to position Australia as a global leader in developing green and affordable desalination technologies.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4016 - Materials Engineering. Lead: Prof Haolan Xu

Room Temperature High Energy Density Sodium-Sulfur Batteries. The project aims to boost room temperature sodium sulfur batteries (RT-NaSBs) with low cost and high energy density based on the insight understanding of “structure (atomic and electronic levels) - performance” relationship between sodium polysulfides, electrolytes, and electrocatalysts, which is a critical but rarely understood in developing a broader family of sulfur redox reaction electrocatalysts. The mechanisms discovered and electrocatalytic materials rationally designed in this project will advance knowledge in fundamental science and engineering to strengthen national research capacity. The anticipated goal of the project is bringing RT-NaSBs from lab to fab, elevating Australia’s standing in Advanced Manufacturing priority. . Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4016 - Materials Engineering. Lead: Prof Dawei Su

Addressing significant product safety knowledge gaps for older Australians . This project addresses significant gaps in contemporary knowledge of consumer product safety risks for older persons, with 25 years since the last Australian product safety research found older persons are at high risk of product-related injury/death. Products have evolved substantially and aged care models have changed in that time. This project generates contemporary knowledge of unsafe products causing injuries/deaths, risk factors/behaviours, and human rights issues. Outcomes benefiting the Australian community are improved prediction/characterisation of product safety issues for older Australians informing safer product design and use, targetted regulatory responses, ageing-in-place strategies, and creating safer home environments.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4203 - Health Services and Systems. Lead: Prof Kirsten Vallmuur

Exploiting James Webb Space Telescope Observations of the First Galaxies. This Discovery Project aims exploit the next generation spectroscopy with the James Webb Space Telescope, combined with Australian supercomputing expertise to make fundamental new measurements of the formation of stars in the first galaxies. The results will be used to make predictions for key experiments that will be conducted with the Square Kilometer Array. The research outcomes aim to benefit astronomy by generating new knowledge of high redshift galaxies and provide new spectral star-formation diagnostics which will be made available to the general astronomical community. The project also aims to provide cultural benefit through effective public and education as well training of future leaders for astronomy and industry research.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 5101 - Astronomical Sciences. Lead: Dr Kathryn Grasha