Grants & Opportunities

Physics-Informed Digital Twin for Large-scale Metal Additive Manufacturing. This project aims to develop a physics-informed digital twin framework for metal additive manufacturing (AM) to enhance process monitoring, simulation, and control. By integrating multi-sensor fusion, machine learning, and reinforcement learning, the system will enable real-time defect detection, predictive process modelling, and adaptive control. The outcomes include improved accuracy, reduced defects, and enhanced production efficiency, benefiting the aerospace and automotive industries. This research supports Australia’s national priority in advanced manufacturing, strengthens industry collaboration, and trains future experts in intelligent AM technologies, contributing to a more sustainable and globally competitive manufacturing sector.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4014 - Manufacturing Engineering. Lead: Dr LEI YUAN

Unveiling Myeloid Cells as Regulators of Nerve Innervation in Tissue Repair. The mechanisms that regulate peripheral tissue healing are not yet fully understood. My recent research, published in Nature in 2024, discovered that a neuro-immune axis plays a critical role in controlling skin and muscle healing in normal mice after injury. I found that nociceptor sensory nerve endings grow and infiltrate the tissue injury site and release neuropeptides, promoting tissue repair by locally regulating immune cells. These findings underscore the importance of nociceptor activation in skin and muscle healing. In this proposal, I aim to investigate how nociceptors are initially activated and regulated in injured skin and muscle, and how these mechanisms contribute to the regulation of tissue healing.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 3206 - Medical Biotechnology. Lead: Dr Yen-Zhen Lu

The Role of Money in Politics: Growing Concerns but Scarce Evidence. This project aims to investigate how financial power influences political decision-making and policy outcomes. It will examine how economic booms affect political participation and assess the effectiveness of campaign finance reforms in reducing undue influence. This project expects to generate new knowledge in political economy by using innovative data science techniques to study governance and electoral policies. Expected outcomes include new academic research, public datasets, and strengthened research collaborations. This should provide significant benefits, such as informing electoral reforms, improving transparency, and supporting evidence-based policy-making in Australia and beyond.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 3801 - Applied Economics. Lead: Dr Ricardo Dahis

Unlocking cardiac insight: a materials approach to model the left ventricle. This interdisciplinary project aims to unlock cardiac insights using a materials-based approach to modelling the heart’s left ventricle (LV). However, developing an accurate LV model that mimics the LV’s hierarchical structures and functions poses significant challenges. The project expects to achieve such a LV model through a novel 3D scaffold that guides self-organisation, differentiation, and growth of cells in a controlled environment. The expected outcomes include new insights into the development and structure-function relationship of the heart, as well as valuable guidelines for future engineering of the heart in vitro. This should provide significant benefits in reducing animal testing and enhancing human health.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4016 - Materials Engineering. Lead: Dr Linpeng Fan

Earth’s Thermostat: Did landscape evolution cool past Hothouse climates? This project explores how Earth's landscape has been reshaped over millions of years — and how these changes helped cool the planet by pulling CO2 from the atmosphere. By understanding how erosion and weathering naturally remove CO2, we can better assess climate change solutions that aim to speed up this process, like enhanced silicate weathering. Expected outcomes include the first global models linking landscape evolution to the geochemical record, revealing how Earth's natural thermostat works. The findings will guide carbon removal strategies and help pinpoint stable crustal regions rich in critical minerals for the green energy transition. . Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 3709 - Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience. Lead: Dr Samuel Boone

Designing peacemaking programs with First Nations languages and communities. This project aims to examine mediation, negotiation and peacemaking processes in First Nations communities, and the language practices that underpin them. Working under First Nations governance, the project expects to generate new knowledge about how these practices are being sustained, and how are they being adapted to contemporary community- and school-based contexts. The expected outcome is an improved understanding of peacemaking practices in First Nations communities and how they are supported by linguistic practices. The project will provide significant benefits by advancing the design and facilitation of culturally responsive peacemaking processes and improving cross-cultural mediation and negotiation programs.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4501 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Culture, Language and History. Lead: Dr James Bednall

Higher-order Fourier analysis: discerning structure from randomness. Despite having only arisen in the past 25 years, higher-order Fourier analysis has yielded remarkable breakthroughs in mathematics, including in combinatorics (e.g., around Szemerédi’s theorem), number theory (e.g., the Green-Tao theorem), ergodic theory, and theoretical computer science. Given the youth of the subject, understanding of it is in its infancy. This project aims to develop frameworks for understanding the generalised oscillatory patterns underlying higher-order Fourier analysis. These frameworks will be used to resolve major open problems about pseudorandomness in the above contexts, place Australia at the forefront of knowledge in this nascent area, and foster international collaboration in the many areas to which it applies.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4904 - Pure Mathematics. Lead: Dr Daniel Altman

Spatiotemporally Correlated Population-based Structural Health Monitoring. This project aims to advance infrastructure health monitoring by using sensor data from a structural population, focusing on the collective behavior of similar structures to enhance the accuracy and reliability of condition assessments. The project will generate new knowledge by developing novel transfer learning methods across structures and assessing structural conditions without monitoring systems. Expected outcomes include improved safety and lifespan of structures and establishing a new standard for infrastructure monitoring. This research should provide significant benefits, such as enhanced safety, extended lifespan, and reduced maintenance costs, leading to more efficient resource allocation in infrastructure management.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4005 - Civil Engineering. Lead: Dr Xiaoyou WANG

Inverse design of wave metamaterials for energy concentration. This project aims to develop an advanced topology optimisation framework for the automatic discovery of wave metamaterials for energy concentration. The project expects to digitally design materials that can achieve a wide range of frequency responses, addressing complex performance challenges that currently exist in waveguides, sensors, and energy harvesters. The expected outcomes include an efficient computational tool and optimization algorithms that integrate with additive manufacturing to enable the characterisation, design, and fabrication of the next-generation metamaterials. The research will contribute significantly to the sustainable development of Australia’s knowledge-based economy and commercial sectors.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4017 - Mechanical Engineering. Lead: Dr Weibai Li

Reaping Clean Power: Sustainable Energy Integration in Protected Cropping. This project aims to address the heavy dependence on fossil fuels in protected cropping systems by integrating low-carbon energy solutions that are tailored to Australia’s diverse climate zones. It expects to generate new knowledge in environmental and techno-economic assessment of renewable energy for high-tech glasshouses and vertical farms, advancing data-driven methods for reducing emissions and costs. Anticipated outcomes include a comprehensive framework for energy optimisation, improved resource efficiency, and guidelines for industry adoption. This will provide significant benefits, including strengthening food security, enhancing Australia’s leadership in sustainable agricultural practices, and transitioning to a net zero economy.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 3008 - Horticultural Production. Lead: Dr Jing He

Computationally efficient climate projections under net-zero and beyond. The project aims to develop a computationally efficient climate model emulator suitable for net-zero and net-negative emission scenarios. As a result, the project expects to generate new knowledge of our future climate, specifically spatially resolved projections with an explicit focus on uncertainties. The project’s expected outcome is a new capability to explore the climate implications of different choices on the path to net-zero and beyond. This should provide significant benefits, such as establishing Australia’s position in the rapidly growing area of spatially explicit climate model emulators and providing a new, open-source tool for use both within, and outside, research.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 3702 - Climate Change Science. Lead: Dr Zebedee Nicholls

Harnessing glycomics to dissect virus-mosquito interaction and transmission. This project aims to investigate the role of carbohydrate molecules on viruses and mosquito cells in influencing infection, replication, and spread within mosquitos. How these interactions impact the transmission of mosquito-borne viruses will be examined. Using state-of-the-art spatial biology and glycomics, the project aims to uncover molecular mechanisms by which viruses interact with cell surface receptors, utilise mosquito host factors for replication, and spread within mosquito tissues, ultimately shaping transmission to mammalian hosts. This research should advance understanding of virus-mosquito biology, support antiviral development, and improve public health preparedness through better surveillance and mosquito control strategies.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 3107 - Microbiology. Lead: Dr Xiang Liu

Empire’s Edge: Migration, Conflict, and the Politics of Decolonization. This project aims to develop a new framework to explain the three-decade deadlock in global decolonisation and address the gap in understanding why some colonies have independence movements whereas others do not. Through survey experiments, supervised text analysis and fieldwork in five Pacific non-self-governing territories, this research expects to generate new knowledge on how migration drives contemporary anti-colonial conflicts. Expected outcomes include a theory explaining how institutional arrangements surrounding migration can exacerbate or ameliorate sovereignty disputes, benefiting Australian and United Nations officials by identifying pathways to the resolution of ongoing conflicts that threaten regional stability.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4408 - Political Science. Lead: Dr Lachlan McNamee

Shock Value - Electrical Phenomena in Charge of Ore Formation. This project aims to investigate how the formation of valuable and critical minerals is enabled by natural voltages generated by quartz, a piezoelectric mineral that produces an electric charge when stressed. This project expects to generate new knowledge concerning ore deposit formation, thereby enabling more efficient mineral exploration. Expected outcomes of the project include establishing core principles regarding the geological significance of piezoelectricity, with implications for metal cycling and hydrogen generation in Earth’s crust. This should provide significant benefits, such as aiding the discovery of new deposits of valuable and critical minerals, as well as hydrogen reservoirs, a crucial clean energy source.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 3703 - Geochemistry. Lead: Dr Christopher Voisey

Defining optimal cell culture conditions to prevent T cell ferroptosis . This project aims to improve the survival and function of T cells by fine-tuning the conditions in which they grow. Currently, physicians rely solely on a minimum number of collected primary cells to expand or modify, which presents a challenge in acquiring sufficient cell numbers. Our project specifically aims to understand and control the metabolic changes that lead to particular cell death, with the goal of developing better culture conditions to keep cells healthy and functional. The anticipated benefits include include advancements in fundamental biology, cell metabolism research, cell expansion industries, cell-based therapy research, and more.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 3101 - Biochemistry and Cell Biology. Lead: Dr Pooranee Morgan

Dying with Dignity. Caring for people without a home at the end of life. This project aims to better understand preferences, perspectives and opportunities to improve end-of-life care for people experiencing homelessness. Dying with dignity is often equated with the wish to be dying at home, yet, more and more Australians do not have access to a stable home. This project expects to generate knowledge on what it means to die well in the absence of home from which to approach the end of life. Expected outcomes include nuanced knowledge on the complexities of care for the dying beyond place, while refining sophisticated research methods. This should provide significant benefits, including progress towards establishing homelessness community and hospice care pathways to enable dying with dignity for all Australians.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4410 - Sociology. Lead: Dr Stefanie Plage

Navigating Social Media Experiences within Australian Families. This research aims to understand Australian families' social media experiences and the associated impacts on children aged 8-17. It will reframe the thinking about children's social media experiences as shaped by familial, social, and technical contexts. Expected outcomes include knowledge about the experiences of families navigating the complexities of social media and a theoretical innovation for understanding the impacts of social media on children. In the context of a legislated ban on some social media for children under 16, this work benefits governments, families, and children by providing evidence-based policy directions and resources to promote safe and age-appropriate social media experiences.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 3904 - Specialist Studies In Education. Lead: Dr Tiffani Apps

Using low-redshift cosmic observables to probe local space-time curvature. This project aims to measure local distortions in space from nearby clumps of matter using exciting new observations and simulations. We usually study our cosmic neighborhood in a vastly simplified way, neglecting local curvature entirely. This project will develop methods for data analysis that go beyond common over-simplifications. This project expects to generate new knowledge in studying inhomogeneous curvature and expansion, which are naturally expected in the nearby Universe, with a novel approach. Expected outcomes include potential solutions to current differences in observations compared to theory. This should place Australia as a leader in cosmology and supply the next generation of scientists with advanced computational skills.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 5101 - Astronomical Sciences. Lead: Dr Hayley Macpherson

Building and Governing Sectarianism: Muslims and the Modern Chinese State . This project aims to investigate how modern states encourage and institutionalise sectarianism, focusing specifically on the encounter between the Chinese state and its Muslim citizens along its Northwest frontier regions. Utilising a multilingual interdisciplinary approach, archival research, and ethnographic work, the project will generate new knowledge on sectarianism as an instrument of authoritarian governance. This will contribute to enhancing Australia’s national capacity in analysing Chinese politics and regime resilience. It will also provide the necessary tools for policymakers to understand how sectarianism is used by both Muslim and non-Muslim states in managing their Muslim populations across the Asia-Pacific.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 5004 - Religious Studies. Lead: Dr Mohammed Alsudairi

Addressing long-term climate displacement in Australia. This project aims to investigate the long-term impacts of internal climate displacement in Australia and identify effective policies to support community resilience. It will generate insights into how climate disaster displacement impacts people’s social and economic stability over time. It will analyse the Australian policy landscape and global best practices to identify opportunities to improve resilience. This is significant given the lack of understanding of climate displacement in advanced economies. Expected outcomes include co-designed, evidence-based policy recommendations and interactive story mapping. This should benefit Australia by fostering an engaged policy network that can strategically address climate displacement.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4101 - Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation. Lead: Dr Colette Mortreux

Unveiling Sulfur Reaction Pathways in All-Solid-State Li–S Batteries. All-solid-state lithium–sulfur batteries offer up to ten times the energy density of today's lithium-ion batteries while reducing material costs by over 30% through the use of abundant sulfur. This project aims to unlock their full potential by developing an advanced sulfur electrode material that enhances voltage stability and energy efficiency, ensuring optimal performance and reliability. Expected outcomes of this project include establishing the foundation for the development of longer-range electric vehicles and cost-effective renewable energy storage solutions. This should provide significant benefits, such as strengthening Australia’s battery manufacturing sector while promoting economic and environmental sustainability.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4004 - Chemical Engineering. Lead: Dr Borui Liu

Revealing the role of adaptive radiation in driving early animal evolution. This project aims to determine the importance of adaptive radiation—the rapid diversification of a group into a variety of ecological niches—in driving early animal evolution. New knowledge will be generated by synthesizing large fossil and palaeoenvironmental datasets, and using a new method of calculating morphological diversity through deep time. Expected outcomes include a greater understanding of the factors driving past diversification events, including how groups recover after major extinctions. Significant benefits include a new framework for analysing biodiversity in the fossil record, and highlighting Australia’s outstanding museum collections and geological record of early life.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 3705 - Geology. Lead: Dr James Holmes

Children as cultural agents: New frameworks for creative arts practice . Currently under-researched, there are limited opportunities for children and young people from marginalised backgrounds to assume artistic decision-making responsibilities within the creative industries. This has resulted in systemic exclusion from cultural citizenship and artistic leadership. This project aims to utilise co-design methodologies to design inclusive, culturally safe spaces for children and young people to exercise creative agency and leadership in arts participation contexts. Expected outcomes of this project include developing evidence-based replicable frameworks for cultural leadership, thus providing significant benefit and re-establishing Australia as a world-leader in arts participation for children and young people. . Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 3604 - Performing Arts. Lead: Dr Sarah Austin

Boom or bust? Predicting species’ responses to extreme environmental change. This project aims to transform our understanding of population responses in hypervariable environments as they face intensifying climate pressures by using Australian terrestrial ectotherms as a model system. This project will identify individual traits that drive demographic processes by integrating existing long-term field data with new genomic analysis, physiological experiments, and ecological modelling. Expected outcomes include the ability to differentiate between natural population fluctuations and changes driven by climate and human disturbance. This new knowledge will inform managers what species are at risk following disturbance and, most importantly, it will enable the prediction and mitigation of additive climate change impacts.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 3103 - Ecology. Lead: Dr Kristoffer Wild

Hybrid encoding of light for fault tolerant optical quantum computing. Optical quantum computing is a leading contender in the global quantum arena, offering unprecedented computational power using all-optical components at room temperature. However, current optical quantum computers lack practical methods to correct computational errors, significantly limiting their applications. This project aims to efficiently generate optical quantum states that represent a core enabling technology for quantum error correction in an all-optical platform. By making quantum computers scalable and error-protected, this project aims to mark a pivotal step towards building fully-fledged, general-purpose quantum computers with transformative potential for industries in medicine, cybersecurity, and climate modeling. . Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 5108 - Quantum Physics. Lead: Dr Jie Zhao