Grants & Opportunities

Examining Place-Based Investment Models through Civic Wealth Creation Lens. Place-based investment models aim to attract or blend private sector and philanthropic capital, alongside government funding, to enable communities to transition to a more sustainable and inclusive economy. Significant knowledge gaps exist as to the organisational forms, institutional infrastructure, and governance models at a community level that can attract, absorb, distribute and ensure active community participation in place-based investment. Our project examines place-based investment models through the lens of Civic Wealth Creation (CWC) to systematically investigate how such investment is delivered and sustained in communities, and to what effect, to generate longer term civic wealth.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3507 - Strategy, Management and Organisational Behaviour. Lead: Prof Danielle Logue

Adaptive introgression and rapid evolution to climate change. This project aims to use a high-impact Australian system to study how introgression (the movement of genes between species) might increase the ability of biodiversity to keep pace with climate change. Through integrated fieldwork, lab experiments and cutting edge genome sequencing it expects to discover the genomic basis and the fitness consequences of introgression in two ideal Darwinian laboratories to study adaptation – an elevational gradient and a subtropical-temperate transition zone. The project will assess the value of introgression as a management tool, tackling a major unresolved issue in conservation biology, empowering natural resource managers, and positioning Australia at the forefront of conservation science.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3104 - Evolutionary Biology. Lead: Prof Luciano Beheregaray

Next generation environmental regulation: Integrating regulatory technology. This project aims to develop new approaches to optimally integrating regulatory technology into environmental regulation. Regulatory technology is needed to improve regulators’ efficiency and effectiveness in response to mounting environmental challenges and resource constraints. The project will deliver new context sensitive strategies to enhance the design, adoption and application of regulatory technology. Expected outcomes include advances in regulatory theory and practical guidance strategies and training to fast track the successful uptake of regulatory technology to improve regulatory outcomes. This will provide significant public resource savings and promote the public interest goals of environmental regulation. . Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4804 - Law In Context. Lead: Prof Anna Huggins

Advancing fluid separation via engineered 3D-printed porous media. This project aims to advance fluid separation processes by harnessing inherent differences in how immiscible fluids like oil and water interact with the structures of 3D-printed porous materials. Combining numerical modelling, experiments and theoretical analyses, design principles will be derived from fluid properties, porous structures, and surface characteristics that drive spontaneous separation. Fluid separation is critical in wastewater treatment, food and pharmaceutical processing, and petrochemicals. Yet current methods remain energy-intensive, chemical-heavy, and inefficient. By designing porous materials that naturally separate fluids without extra energy or chemicals, the project offers a sustainable alternative for industries.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4012 - Fluid Mechanics and Thermal Engineering. Lead: Prof Emilie Sauret

Aperiodic neural activity across time. The aperiodic signal that pervades human brain activity changes over the lifespan and explains individual differences in cognitive function. Yet, the physiological and behavioural impacts of aperiodic signal fluctuations over shorter time scales remain unclear. This project aims to investigate the effects of time-varying aperiodic neural activity on human cognitive performance, brain excitability and neuroplasticity. This will be delivered by a closed-loop approach, using brain signals recorded in real time to target momentary shifts in aperiodic activity and infer direct causal relationships. Benefits include a detailed mechanistic understanding of how dynamic fluctuations in aperiodic neural activity across time affect human behaviour.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 5202 - Biological Psychology. Lead: Dr Mitchell Goldsworthy

Handwritten: scribal culture and the early modern woman writer, 1500-1700. This project aims to transform our understanding of handwriting, uncovering early modern women's engagement with scribal cultures to investigate how, why, when and by whom handwriting was acquired and used. Almost nothing is known about this process, despite its critical contribution to women's education, literacy and textual agency. The cross-disciplinary team expects to develop new methodologies transferable to other material forms, technologies and periods, and share cutting-edge resources through digital methods and public outreach. This should build capacity in a new generation of researchers, open up the period to new publics, and change how we think about the significance, value and power of writing by hand, then and now. . Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4705 - Literary Studies. Lead: Prof Rosalind Smith

Deeptime History of Climate & Humans in the Most Diverse Ecosystem on Earth. Tropical rainforests are coming under increasing threat from climate change and human population growth. This project brings together a multidisciplinary team of scientists to reconstruct the deep-time rainforest history of Australia’s closest neighbour, Papua New Guinea, creating a new framework to understand the interplay between culture and biodiversity that stretch over thousands of years and build capability and understanding for future generations. The outcomes will fill a significant gap in our understanding of a critical part of the global climate system - the Indo-Pacific Warm Pool - that has driven the evolution of complex social-environmental systems in the most diverse ecosystem on earth.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3709 - Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience. Lead: Prof Simon Haberle

Out In Suburbia: Improving LGBTQ wellbeing in outer suburban Australia. LGBTQ people living in Australia's outer suburbs experience significant barriers to wellbeing. This project aims to understand how living in outer suburban areas shapes LGBTQ belonging and inclusion. This project intends to use qualitative methods to explore LGBTQ people’s experiences in outer suburbs and discover how local government policy and action impacts LGBTQ wellbeing and community connection and how these can be improved. Expected outcomes of the project include identifying approaches to LGBTQ-inclusion in outer suburban areas that can be translated into policy. It should provide significant societal benefits, enhancing local government responses to diversity and inclusion and promoting social cohesion and suburban liveability.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4206 - Public Health. Lead: Dr Ruby Grant

Multiphase droplet chemistry shapes dynamic survival of airborne viruses. When airborne viruses are exhaled, they are embedded in a droplet of human respiratory fluid. These droplets are not just carriers of viruses but are complex microenvironments containing a mixture of salts, proteins and other substances that dynamically change over time depending on the environment where they have been exhaled. We aim to improve our fundamental understanding of the physicochemical dynamics of exhaled respiratory droplets in order to understand what drives the virus survival in indoor environments. This is essential for developing effective public health strategies, such as optimising indoor air quality and controlling environmental conditions, to create an environment less conducive to virus transmission.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3701 - Atmospheric Sciences. Lead: Prof Zoran Ristovski

Combining biomechanics and biomarkers to establish brain injury thresholds. This project aims to define biomechanical thresholds for brain injury, overcoming limitations of prior efforts reliant on peak acceleration metrics and controlled lab tests that fail to capture the complexity of brain tissue mechanics. By integrating head kinematic data from instrumented mouthguards, MRI-based finite element modelling of brain strain, and brain injury-specific blood biomarkers, this project seeks to link mechanical strain with biological responses. Expected outcomes include identifying strain thresholds derived from wearable sensor data, facilitating timely detection of high-risk impacts. This approach promises significant benefits, enhancing injury detection and informing helmet design for sports, military, and transport.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4207 - Sports Science and Exercise. Lead: A/Prof Stuart McDonald

Semiconductor Photoisomerisation - A New class of Switchable Materials . This project aims to introduce a fundamentally novel approach to semiconductor device fabrication through a light- induced structural isomerization process. This allows to write and read information into a semiconductor with light and erase it with heat. We will explore the chemical universality of the approach and benchmark physical performance parameters to showcase its applicability for commercial semiconductor device fabrication. Expected outcomes include transformative advancements in semiconductor applications, with potential impacts on fabrication cost, energy consumption and environmental sustainability. The project aligns with Australian government priorities in energy, advanced manufacturing and environmental impact.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 5102 - Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics. Lead: Prof Udo Bach

Harnessing the Holobiont: Can We Evolve Microbes to Influence Their Hosts? This project aims to experimentally test the holobiont concept—that a host and its closely associated microbes function as a single, co-evolving unit. Using a defined set of microbial species grown on plant roots under controlled lab conditions, we will investigate how microbial evolution influences the host and whether directed evolution of microbes can alter plant growth. By exploring microbial evolution and ecological interactions, this research will provide valuable insights into sustainable agriculture, potentially reducing chemical inputs, and contributing to environmental and agricultural resilience.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3104 - Evolutionary Biology. Lead: Prof Michael McDonald

Ethical, social and regulatory implications of informal sperm donation. This project aims to address ethical, social and regulatory issues in sperm donation for family formation in Australia to ensure that all people who need the assistance of a sperm donor to become a parent can do so safely. The project expects to generate new knowledge to address the the informal provision of sperm via the internet, while also improving the formal and regulated system of sperm donation. Expected outcomes include a more ethically robust and equitable system for accessing donor sperm for family formation achieved through cohesive, stakeholder-informed recommendations. It is expected to have long-lasting benefits for people who donate sperm, people who need to access donor sperm and for people conceived through sperm donation.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 5001 - Applied Ethics. Lead: Prof Catherine Mills

Protein-based quantum sensors: a new tool for biology. This project aims to develop a new class of quantum sensors using recently discovered magneto-responsive fluorescent proteins, to enable new ways to monitor biological processes with sub-cellular resolution. The project expects to generate new knowledge in the area of quantum bio-sensing, by adapting existing quantum methods to fluorescent proteins. Expected outcomes include enhanced understanding of the magneto-optical properties of proteins, development of new quantum sensing protocols, and demonstration of protein-based sensing in biological scenarios. This should provide significant benefits from developing new quantum sensors and creating intellectual property, and laying the foundation for future medical applications in diagnostics.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 5108 - Quantum Physics. Lead: A/Prof Jean-Philippe Tetienne

Metal-based complexes and materials that challenge antimicrobial resistance. This research project focuses on the design, development, and application of new bismuth, gallium and indium compounds as antimicrobial and anti-biofilm agents. These metals act as iron mimics in vivo and can exert antimicrobial activity while displaying low systemic toxicity in humans. The project aims to exploit this, and the inability of microbes to easily develop resistance towards metals, to combat bacteria for which modern drugs are rapidly becoming ineffective, as highlighted in the WHO list of critical and priority pathogens. The intended outcome is that efficacy will be driven through advances in synthetic and structural chemistry, discovering the mode of action, and creating anti-infective polymers and gels.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3402 - Inorganic Chemistry. Lead: Prof Philip Andrews

Mental healthcare pricing and socioeconomic inequities in access to care. Improving the affordability of and access to mental healthcare is a crucial issue. This project aims to understand the drivers of patient fees for mental health services and their impact on socioeconomic inequities in access to care. It will use econometric methods and population-wide administrative records on the supply of mental health workers and mental healthcare services delivered over time. The expected outcomes of this project include new evidence on how the market structure and behaviour of mental health professionals impact prices and access to mental healthcare. This will provide significant benefits, such as supporting policies that improve the affordability of mental healthcare for those most in need.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3801 - Applied Economics. Lead: A/Prof Nicole Black

Understanding health care labour markets to improve population health. The health workforce is essential for the routine operations of healthcare systems, the adoption of innovations, and sustainability during crises. However, the uneven distribution of health professionals leads to shortages, surpluses, patient harm, and burnout among health professionals. This research uses new longitudinal data on all Australian doctors and nurses to study the effects of policy changes and labour market shocks on recruitment, retention, workforce participation, health outcomes, and the well-being of health professionals. By combining labour economics and micro-econometrics with policy insights, this project aims to generate new evidence for more innovative health workforce planning.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3801 - Applied Economics. Lead: Prof Anthony Scott

Fluid dynamical processes in the formation of magmatic ore deposits. Sulfide deposits in solidified magmas are some of the world’s most valuable ores. Their formation is driven by fluid dynamical processes that are not well understood and are not accounted for in exploration tools. This project aims to use mathematical modelling and analogue experiments to examine the key physical processes involved in the motion of liquid sulfides in crystal-rich molten magmas and the ultimate location and form in which this liquid is deposited. Expected outcomes include theoretical developments in interactions between viscous liquids and granular material and improved understanding of magmatic ore formation. This should enable development of new exploration tools based on physical processes.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4901 - Applied Mathematics. Lead: A/Prof Anja Slim

Skillphabets: Teaching robots new skills by reducing information asymmetry. Tool use is a key aspect of human intelligence, relying on the extraction of perceptual information and fine motor skills. The ability to break down complex tasks into reusable skills is crucial for problem-solving. For instance, a teacher may teach a child to write by starting with basic strokes that form letters, which then combine into words and sentences. This can be challenging due to information asymmetry between teacher and student. This project will enable robots to learn reusable skills (Skillphabets) from human teachers by minimising this information asymmetry. Anticipated outcomes include improved alignment between humans and AI, pretrained Skillphabets and applications spanning defense, aerospace, agriculture and manufacturing.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4602 - Artificial Intelligence. Lead: Dr Michael Burke

Revealing Order in Organic Semiconductors with Cryo-Electron Microscopy. This project aims to utilise cryo-electron microscopy as a disruptive tool to uncover the functional microstructure of organic semiconductor devices. The project expects to generate new knowledge of how structure relates to processing and function in organic semiconductor devices by utilising the ability of cryo-electron microscopy to image organic samples with high resolution, high contrast, low beam damage and in their true operating conditions. Expected outcomes of this project include new strategies to design and optimise a range of devices to drive new technologies. These technologies would provide benefits in the energy, health, communications and manufacturing sectors. . Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3406 - Physical Chemistry. Lead: Prof Christopher McNeill

Generative Graph Modelling for Anomaly Detection. This project aims to develop cutting-edge generative graph modelling techniques to address critical challenges in anomaly detection, including data imbalance, lack of interpretability, and limited generalisability, for unforeseen anomalies. By leveraging diffusion dynamics to integrate local and global graph patterns, this project will discover hidden anomalies and provide human-understandable explanations. Anticipated outcomes include advanced generative graph algorithms, theories and models for next-generation anomaly detection. The research will benefit Australia’s economy and society, including advancements in fraud detection, smart devices, and urban transportation, while strengthening its global leadership in data science and AI.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4605 - Data Management and Data Science. Lead: Prof Jia Wu

Mobile-Energy-as-a-Service: Delivering Sustainable Electromobility. This project proposes a novel concept of Mobile-Energy-as-a-Service, a comprehensive mechanism utilising the transport, power, and infrastructure aspects of electric vehicle mobility. It uses electric vehicle batteries as mobile energy sources and eases the pressure on the grid during peak times. The proposal incorporates an evidence-based, user-specific, & flexible incentivised pricing scheme to handle the impending wave of electric vehicles on our roads. With the help of appropriate digital platforms, users can plan their travel in an economically optimal way while passing through differentially priced energy zones. This research helps Australia to achieve its energy sustainability and carbon neutrality targets.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4008 - Electrical Engineering. Lead: Prof Mahinda Vilathgamuwa

Evolution of aridity in the Red Centre expressed in linear dunes. This project aims to understand how the linear dunes that cover one third of Australia’s surface record the history of aridity in the Red Centre over the last 125 thousand years. Correct interpretation of these records is highly significant as there are very few alternative ways to infer the environmental conditions during population of the continent and megafaunal extinction. Expected outcomes of this project are to revaluate the history of aridity in Australia’s interior from the sand grains and layers inside the dunes by developing new computational and laboratory techniques. This project will benefit Australia by providing new, robust environmental context for late Quaternary history in the arid interior.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3705 - Geology. Lead: Dr Andrew Gunn

A molecular investigation into the lipid antigen-presenting molecule, CD1a. This project aims to investigate the role of lipid antigen presentation in T cell mediated immunity, an area of research for which there is a very limited understanding. Using X-ray crystallography, biophysical measurements and cellular immunology, the project will provide structural data on how the lipid antigen-presenting molecule, CD1a, can bind an array of lipid classes, and how these CD1a-lipid complexes are subsequently recognised by the responding T cell repertoire. This project will generate new knowledge in the burgeoning field of lipid-mediated T cell immunity. This basic discovery project will lay the foundations for new therapies targeting the CD1a lipid display molecule.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3101 - Biochemistry and Cell Biology. Lead: Prof Jamie Rossjohn

Broad molecular characterisation of the vertebrate T cell complex. T cells play central roles in vertebrate immunity yet we lack molecular insight into how the T cell receptor complex triggers development and cellular activation. This project aims to establish how a cell-surface protein complex on T cells, orchestrates their development and function. Expected outcomes include the generation of fundamental knowledge in immunology and membrane receptor biology. This proposal uses advanced microscopy, including advancement of cryo-electron microscopy and single-molecule light microscopy capabilities, this will enable advanced postgraduate student training. Other outcomes include influential publications, building expertise at Australian universities and establishing international collaborations.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3101 - Biochemistry and Cell Biology. Lead: Dr Benjamin Gully