Grants & Opportunities

DNA shape as a regulatory element in transcription factor activity. The regulation of gene activity is fundamental to biology. Transcription factors control gene expression by selectively recognizing DNA motifs near target genes. However, these motifs often exhibit highly similar primary DNA sequence, raising the question how transcription factors discriminate and activate genes based on cellular needs. Using interdisciplinary approaches, this project aims to demonstrate that transcription factor binding specificity is encoded in DNA shape and dynamics. The findings that the intrinsic DNA shape determines gene regulatory outcomes, will deepen our understanding of cell biology and guide future efforts to modulate cellular activity rationally.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 3101 - Biochemistry and Cell Biology. Lead: Dr Serafima Guseva

Strengthening Public Opinion Formation Amid Digital Threats. Online public opinion formation is broken, and research on how to fix it is urgently required. This project investigates how people form opinions online by analysing discussions about key flashpoints like climate change and immigration on mainstream social media platforms. It is the first cross-platform study of opinion formation that uses an innovative mix of relational content analysis, interviews, citizen science workshops and AI/LLM-assisted analysis. It reclaims the promise of online communication for constructive public conversations and resilient opinion formation by developing, among others, a civic literacy module designed to equip citizens of all ages with critical tools for navigating digital opinion formation.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4701 - Communication and Media Studies. Lead: Dr Katharina Esau

Smart light-sheet with metabolic imaging for extremely delicate samples. The aim of this project is to develop advanced imaging technologies to allow long term visualisation and recording of individual organelles and cells within complex multicellular structures such as embryos, developing tissues, organoids and iblastoids. Imaging technologies have driven major advances in the life sciences but photo-toxicity has limited advances in sensitive multicellular systems. The technology we will implement reduces phototoxicity by using 2-photon microscopy and adaptive opticsn and an Airy beam scanning system enhances speed and resolution of imaging. This capability will lead to new discoveries in how organelles and cells interact to create functional multicellular systems. . Scheme: Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities. Field: 3101 - Biochemistry and Cell Biology. Lead: Prof John Carroll

Schools as lonely spaces: Loneliness and undesirable social connections. Loneliness is a prevalent, and increasing, problem among young Australians, with long-term physical and mental health consequences. This project aims to investigate how young people experience loneliness within the physical, social, and emotional environment of high school. Loneliness is traditionally considered an absence of desired relationships; this project, with an innovative flipped focus to consider loneliness as the presence of undesirable relationships (e.g., bullies), expects to rectify a critical lack of knowledge about loneliness in young people. Expected outcomes include tested recommendations to better inform wellbeing policy and interventions in schools to support young people and create safer and more connected schools.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4410 - Sociology. Lead: Dr Ben Lohmeyer

Smart Covalent Organic Frameworks for Recovery of Rare Earth Elements. This project aims to develop innovative smart covalent organic frameworks featuring coordination and photo-responsive functionalities for the efficient separation and extraction of rare earth elements, thereby addressing critical challenges in resource sustainability and environmental conservation. The project anticipates generating novel insights and techniques in multifunctional material design and advanced mineral processing. Expected outcomes encompass improved strategies for efficient resource recovery, enhanced capacity and strengthened collaborations, ultimately providing substantial benefits for Australia's efficient mineral resource development and the establishment of a low-carbon, environmentally friendly ecosystem.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4016 - Materials Engineering. Lead: Dr Meiyan Gao

Integrated electronic textiles with miniature soft actuators. This project aims to realize haptic textiles by building miniature actuators at fibre interweaving points. This project expects to create new knowledge in tuning fibre heterostructures at the micron scale by extruding and achieving a robust interface at the fiber contact area. The new interwoven structure is expected to result in new electromechanical behavior to strengthen the understanding of electrostatic-hydraulic coupled actuation. The expected outcomes of this project are the haptic textiles that multiply the resolution of large-area haptic interface and maintain the intrinsic comfort of textiles, making substantial contributions to wearable human-machine interaction.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4014 - Manufacturing Engineering. Lead: Dr Xiang Shi

Quality-Aware and Verifiable Data Valuation in Decentralized Networks. Unlocking fragmented data resources to enhance the fairness and trustworthiness of collaborations in decentralized networks is a vital challenge. This project aims to develop a quality-aware and verifiable data valuation framework for the challenge. The framework generates new knowledge in decentralized data ecosystems through innovative approaches to data representation, multi-dimensional quality assessment, and secure verifications. Project outcomes include theoretical advancements in data valuation and a prototype system demonstrating cross-organizational data collaboration. It strengthens national security and improves healthcare delivery by filtering malicious data and utilizing valuable data to build robust systems across the nation.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4605 - Data Management and Data Science. Lead: Dr Jie Xu

Where Are All Our Intermediate Mass Black Holes? How do galaxies grow? Current theory suggests the intermediate mass black holes that are the building blocks of supermassive black holes, should be distributed throughout the Universe. However, there is scant evidence. This project will leverage observations from new facilities like the Vera C. Rubin Observatory and the Square Kilometre Array, and take a the first systematic approach to finding these black holes, thereby testing a key theory of how our Universe evolved. By hunting for electromagnetic signatures of these black holes in 300,000 star clusters in the nearby Universe, it will be possible to detect the long-sought population of intermediate mass black holes, or place stringent constraints on their existence.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 5101 - Astronomical Sciences. Lead: Dr Kristen Dage

Efficient Bug Detection for Reliable AI Software Infrastructures. AI software infrastructures, such as PyTorch and TensorRT, form the backbone of AI technologies and are increasingly critical for the widespread adoption of AI. However, bugs within these software systems can cause AI applications to make wrong decisions, leading to catastrophic failures such as car crashes. This project aims to enhance the reliability and cybersecurity of these systems by developing bug-directed fuzzing techniques for efficient bug detection. The expected outcomes include cutting-edge fuzzing methods and a new framework for systematic testing. This project will significantly mitigate risks and enhance the profitability of AI, particularly in high-impact sectors such as smart transportation, agriculture and manufacturing.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4604 - Cybersecurity and Privacy. Lead: Dr Xiaogang Zhu

Decoding Stellar and Galactic Evolution through Star Clusters. Star clusters are the fossils and living dinosaurs of the Milky Way, preserving its history while shaping its evolution. These stellar groups are the birthplaces of millions of Milky Way stars, yet their full life cycle—from formation to dissolution—remains poorly understood. This project will trace their evolution, from young clusters where stellar rotation influences early evolution to ancient globular clusters holding the chemical fingerprints of the Galaxy’s past. By uncovering how clusters form, evolve, and dissolve, this research will provide fundamental insights into stellar and Galactic evolution, supporting and preparing for the scientific discoveries of next-generation billion-dollar instruments.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 5101 - Astronomical Sciences. Lead: Dr Giacomo Cordoni

Hurried childhoods, slow narratives and the ecology of attention. In a time of rapid change and accelerated childhoods, this project aims to establish slow narrative practices that promote deep engagement. Exploring how children co-create stories across diverse learning environments, the project is expected to reveal the role of children’s literature and creative writing in shaping their relationship with the world around them and their ability to imagine and build hopeful futures. The expected outcome includes new insights into the narrative practices that cultivate resilience and adaptive thinking: essential skills for navigating uncertainty. This would provide significant benefits enriching Australia’s educational, literary and cultural spheres.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 3602 - Creative and Professional Writing. Lead: Dr Penelope Russon

Policy transformations for compound climate disasters. This project aims to identify the capacity of Australia’s current and future disaster policy to address the needs of people who live through multiple climate disasters. Through a groundbreaking analysis that links policy, survivor experiences and the perspectives of policy actors, this project will generate new knowledge on how disaster services can be adapted from the current focus on ‘single disasters’ to better address overlapping, compound disasters. Expected outcomes include an inventory of new policy instruments and enhanced capacity to develop interventions. This should provide significant benefits for improving emergency management services for compound disasters, which are projected to increase with climate change.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4407 - Policy and Administration. Lead: Dr Claire Leppold

Tracking absorbable plastic contaminants in drinking water. This project aims to investigate the occurrence, sources, and removal of absorbable plastic particles (particles smaller than 10 µm) in drinking water. Using cutting-edge analytical techniques, it expects to identify and track plastic contaminants in Australian water supplies and evaluate the effectiveness of household filtration systems to remove them. The findings should inform regulatory standards, enhance water quality management, and support safer drinking water practices. By providing essential evidence for policymakers, water utilities, and consumers, this research should help mitigate plastic pollution risks and strengthen public confidence in drinking water safety. . Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4104 - Environmental Management. Lead: Dr Elvis Okoffo

Safeguarding sexual and reproductive rights online. Digital platforms can provide generative spaces for sexual expression, sex education and sexual health information, however online spaces are increasing hostile for sexual minorities, who face criminalisation and surveillance. Bringing together local and global stakeholders, including sexual health organisations, public interest technologists, human rights lawyers and affected communities, the project investigates how digital platforms can better safeguard sexual and reproductive rights online. Through participatory and creative methods, it advances a novel theoretical and evidence-based approach to sexual content moderation that reconceptualises online safety and improves platform and regulatory approaches to building safer sexual spaces.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4701 - Communication and Media Studies. Lead: Dr Zahra Stardust

Advanced Characterisation Facility for High Speed Quantum Devices. This project will provide critical new capabilities for the measurement and characterisation of advanced quantum devices and materials in a new multi-user Quantum Science and Industry Laboratory. It will leverage existing ARC and university funding to provide a unique new capability designed to serve the needs of users both from Australia's emerging quantum technology industries as well as academia. Expected outcomes include the creation of new intellectual property, local manufacturing of quantum control hardware, support for Australia's quantum industries, and training of researchers and workers for the burgeoning quantum technology sector which is predicted to generate $6 billion in revenue and create 19,400 jobs in Australia by 2045.. Scheme: Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities. Field: 5108 - Quantum Physics. Lead: Prof Alexander Hamilton

Fully Printable Low-Dimensional Perovskites for Sustainable Memory Devices. This project aims to create a new class of environmentally friendly, low-dimensional perovskites and pioneer inkjet printing techniques for multifunctional memory devices. These devices are designed to respond to both electrical and optical signals, opening up new opportunities for sustainable electronics. This project expects to yield fundamental insights into perovskite properties and memory mechanisms by establishing structure-property-performance correlations. Expected outcomes include novel device concepts and manufacturing approaches that can be scaled up. This should provide significant economic and societal benefits to Australia by supporting advanced manufacturing and positioning the nation at the forefront of memory technologies.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4016 - Materials Engineering. Lead: Dr Xinwei Guan

Corrosion-resistant catalysts for stable and scalable seawater electrolysis. This project aims to develop corrosion-resistant catalysts for stable seawater electrolysis, providing a robust solution to the critical challenge of anode degradation in chloride-rich environments. By combining advanced material synthesis, in-situ characterisation, and device integration, it seeks to enhance catalyst stability and efficiency in green hydrogen production. Expected outcomes include innovative synthesis methods, new insights into anti-corrosion mechanisms, and engineering breakthroughs from the molecular to industrial scale. This research will contribute to Australia’s renewable energy transition by advancing sustainable technologies and enabling large-scale green hydrogen production to support national net-zero targets.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4018 - Nanotechnology. Lead: Dr Feiyue Gao

Understanding cellular adaptation in microgravity with bioengineering tools. As humanity ventures further into space, understanding how cells adapt to microgravity is essential to expand the fundamental knowledge of life beyond Earth. This project will investigate how the absence of gravity alters key biological processes, including cell migration, tissue remodelling, and barrier function—essential for how cells organize, communicate, and adapt to their environment. Using advanced bioengineered models and microfluidic systems, we will identify gravity-sensitive pathways that drive cellular adaptation in extreme conditions. These discoveries will challenge current biological paradigms and redefine our understanding of how mechanical forces shape life in ways never before explored. . Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4003 - Biomedical Engineering. Lead: Dr Giulia Silvani

Forest restoration for equitable carbon and biodiversity markets. Forest restoration projects are a critical strategy in environmental markets to curb climate change and reverse biodiversity loss. This project develops a tool to help decision-makers identify the best land for forest restoration to maximise 1. carbon, 2. biodiversity, and 3. economic benefits while ensuring restoration does not shift agriculture elsewhere negatively impacting other areas. The tool will be used to design the best options for Australia to expand its environmental markets, and then developed to identify options for international market expansion. This project will guide both governments and the many industries who engage with these markets to ensure net environmental and economic outcomes from their restoration projects.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4104 - Environmental Management. Lead: Dr Brooke Williams

Building the sperm RNA profile: Mechanisms of acquisition and modulation. Paternal non-genetic inheritance has been shown to be driven by changing ecosystems in many species. Although RNAs have been identified as the primary non-genetic factor in sperm, contributing to fertility and breeding success, their modulation within the reproductive tract remains unclear. This project aims to address how environmental exposures alter the RNA profile of sperm prior to conception and impact offspring, generating new global knowledge in non-genetic inheritance. Expected outcomes include insights and biological strategies to respond to and mitigate the impact of our changing ecosystem. In the face of current unprecedented environmental shifts this will provide benefits to animals of conservation and agricultural significance.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 3109 - Zoology. Lead: Dr Natalie Trigg

The first global currency: tracing early Indian Ocean cowrie shell networks. This project will apply innovative methods in archaeological science to investigate how cowrie shell money from the Maldives—the first global currency—emerged and sustained globe-spanning trade networks for millennia. It will deliver socio-cultural benefits by shedding light on the deep history of trade in our region and generating a better understanding and appreciation of the role of our Indo-Pacific partners in early global trade. The project seeks to engage with communities in India and the Maldives, strengthening regional relationships through collaboration and capacity building. To maximise impact, major findings will be disseminated through an international online exhibition to enhance global cultural awareness.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4301 - Archaeology. Lead: Dr Mirani Litster

Nonlinear topology optimisation for stretchable mechanical structures. This project aims to develop a novel computational framework for design of stretchable mechanical structures with tailored, exceptional performance. It will address a critical methodological gap in “inverse design” of novel stretchable structures by advancing numerical modelling, data-driven, and optimisation approaches in a nonlinear regime. Expected outcomes include innovative design schemes and development of a new class of stretchable structures to meet increasingly complex functional demands. This could provide significant benefits for technical innovations in soft robotics, wearable technologies, biomedical devices, and energy-absorbing systems, enabling new applications across engineering disciplines.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4017 - Mechanical Engineering. Lead: Dr Chi Wu

Enhancing Social Prescribing. The project aims to enable the integration, long-term adoption, and scalability of social prescribing into Australia’s social system. Social prescribing links people to non-medical services and supports to improve their wellbeing and quality of life. The program will co-design evidence-based infrastructure to support long-term adoption and scalability. Expected outcomes include a secure data hub, enhanced evidence-based social prescribing programs to enable optimised resource allocation, and improved consistency of social services. Given the established cost-effectiveness of social prescribing, significant anticipated benefits include reduced welfare and economic burdens, as well as increased social connection and community wellbeing. . Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4409 - Social Work. Lead: Dr Rosanne Freak-Poli

Writing Therapy: Narrative Writing and the Making of Mental Health. This project provides a new literary history of psychological knowledge in the second half of the twentieth century, examining the decline of psychoanalysis and the rise of the cognitive therapies. It aims to generate novel insights into the enduring success of therapeutic and self-help writing, as well as the historical development of various vocabularies of well-being. Expected outcomes include an interdisciplinary methodology combining literary, psychological, and cultural history, and the curation of new narrative sources documenting the post-1950s history of psychology. This project is crucial for helping Australians understand the history behind the therapeutic literature with which they engage today.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4705 - Literary Studies. Lead: Dr Christian Gelder

Safeguarding Australia's most threatened plants in a drier and hotter world. This project aims to use physiologically-based models to assess threatened plants' risk of mortality in response to the combined effects of droughts and heatwaves. This is a critical issue in Australia, where climate change is intensifying hotter droughts and increasing extinction risks for many species. By disentangling drought/heat impacts on mature and young trees’ physiology, this study expects to better predict when, where and which species will experience mortality. Project outcomes will benefit tree-planting initiatives, by selecting appropriate species/sites; policy makers, by incorporating climate-change risk into conservation planning; and all Australians, by ensuring a future for our unique species in a drier and hotter world.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 3103 - Ecology. Lead: Dr Ilaine Silveira Matos