Grants & Opportunities

Improving the representation of C4 photosynthesis in vegetation models. The world’s most efficient way of converting CO2 and light into food for humans (e.g. corn, sugar) and livestock (e.g. grasslands) is a process known as C4 photosynthesis. This project aims to better understand how C4 photosynthesis works and improve predictions of C4 plant performance across Australia. This project aims to use a new interdisciplinary approach to: 1) provide novel insights into the mechanisms that underlie C4 photosynthesis; and 2) ensure these mechanisms are captured in the models we use to predict plant productivity. Expected outcomes include more accurate estimates of C4 plant productivity and CO2 uptake, which should provide significant benefits for decisions around climate change policy, land use and food security. . Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3108 - Plant Biology. Lead: Prof Danielle Way

Unravelling community assembly rules to understand biodiversity maintenance. Biodiversity is vital to humanity, yet there remains the long-standing problem of what drives and maintains it in ecological communities. Leveraging the team’s recent breakthroughs, this project aims to address this problem by unravelling the assembly rules governing ecological communities using interdisciplinary approaches: field experiments, ecological modelling, and machine learning. This project is expected to generate crucial new mechanistic insights into biodiversity maintenance. Expected outcomes include advancing biodiversity theory and strategies to protect Australia's vulnerable coastal ecosystems. Significant benefits include predictive models linking local biodiversity to regional processes and practical conservation solutions.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3103 - Ecology. Lead: Dr Lynette Loke

Sex, Synthesis and Structure: Investigating Diatom Reproduction Pheromones. This project aims to explore the reproductive pheromones of diatoms through chemical synthesis, shedding light on the ecological and biological mechanisms driving their reproduction. Diatoms, a type of aquatic algae, play a pivotal role in regulating atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), capturing as much CO2 as the world’s rainforests. Despite their importance, the diatom reproductive life cycle is poorly understood. This research aims to reveal how pheromones influence diatom reproduction, uncovering key mechanisms that could lead to innovative ways to manage their breeding and population growth. These findings could pave the way for new biotechnological solutions, such as enhancing CO2 sequestration and improving aquaculture systems.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3404 - Medicinal and Biomolecular Chemistry. Lead: Prof Lara Malins

Molecular Dance: Choreographing Stimuli-Responsive Materials with Pressure. This project aims to develop flexible, responsive, and energy-efficient electronics using molecular materials. The project will use pressure to fine-tune interactions between molecules and create new design paradigms for molecular electronics. The expected outcomes include a deeper understanding of how pressure modulates both intra- and intermolecular interactions, and how these modifications translate to bulk properties. This research has the potential to transform how we interact with technology and lead to the development of new technologies in areas such as sensors, electronics, and energy harvesting.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3402 - Inorganic Chemistry. Lead: Prof Stephen Moggach

Foreign conflicts, domestic divides: Advancing a deliberative response . The project will extend the application of deliberative democracy to address de-territorialized conflicts in multicultural societies. It will examine public sphere responses in Australia to two major foreign conflicts—the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas wars—aiming to test and enhance the deliberative approach. Adapting a mixed-method strategy, the project will analyse communications on foreign conflicts across multiple sites, including digital platforms, and explore the roles of actors from political leaders and journalists to everyday citizens in fostering or hindering deliberation across difference. Expected outcomes include the refinement of deliberative thinking and practices to strengthen democratic resilience in Australia. . Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4408 - Political Science. Lead: Prof Selen Ercan

City-level structural health monitoring of bridges with drive-by sensing. This project aims to address the challenge of managing ageing bridges in a city-level network by using drive-by sensing. By integrating advanced signal processing and physics-informed optimization techniques, the project will enhance the capability of identifying bridge modal parameters from drive-by measurements. The project will advance knowledge in effectively monitoring a large number of ageing bridges. The expected outcomes include the development and application of a cost-effective city-level bridge health monitoring framework, enabling scalable and efficient condition assessment. The benefits include improving structural safety, reducing maintenance costs, and supporting Australia's priority on building a secure and resilient nation.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4005 - Civil Engineering. Lead: Prof Jun Li

Hunting for gamma ray bursts with an Australia-Italy satellite swarm. This project aims to study gamma ray bursts, explosions that make a dying star million times brighter than an entire galaxy, using an innovative constellation of Australia- Italy satellites equipped with miniaturised detectors. The project expects to generate new knowledge in time-domain and high-energy astrophysics, and to advance satellite remote sensing technology. Expected outcomes include a new understanding of the extreme physics at play during the production of rare elements such as gold, and the demonstration that nanosatellite swarms are cost effective compared to traditional large spacecraft. This will bring concrete benefits for Australia's space sector international reputation and its economic growth, and inspire the public.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 5101 - Astronomical Sciences. Lead: Prof Michele Trenti

Hybrid Value-Added Electrolyser for Green Hydrogen and Methanol Production. The recent breakthroughs in electrocatalysis have opened an opportunity for value-added green hydrogen production by coupling it with the electrochemical transformation of methane into high-value chemicals. This project aims to establish the basic knowledge to realise selective electrocatalytic oxidation of methane to methanol through a novel integrated multidisciplinary approach. New bio-inspired single-atom catalysts will be developed and incorporated into a tailored membrane electrode assembly for the co-production of green hydrogen and methanol. The significant benefits will be revolutionary green hydrogen and methane conversion technologies that will help to alleviate the urgent climate challenges facing Australia and the world.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4004 - Chemical Engineering. Lead: Prof Chuan Zhao

Attention under threat: Maintaining attention in a noisy, cluttered world. This interdisciplinary project aims to understand how people sustain attention and what causes them to fail, focusing on the challenges of modern environments where rapidly changing information from multiple senses competes for our attention. Developing novel behavioural tasks and cutting-edge neural methods, this project will advance understanding of the interaction between attention and multisensory processing, discovering the factors that affect our ability to sustain attention in dynamic environments. The outcomes will contribute to the global endeavour to understand how the human brain processes incoming information, and provide an evidence-based foundation for designing environments which support, rather than impair, attention.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 5204 - Cognitive and Computational Psychology. Lead: Prof Anina Rich

Mechanistic analysis of perovskite degradation for stable photovoltaics. This project addresses the largest roadblock in perovskite research—stability—and aims to identify the most promising pathway(s) to enhance the stability. Powerful interpretable, quantitative materials analysis techniques will be developed via physics-based machine learning, leading to the discovery of degradation mechanisms and the extraction of dominant material parameters. With these insights, this project will deliver targeted strategies to enhance perovskite stability, accelerating the revolution of low-cost solar technology and decarbonising Australia's economy. The new material analysis technique is adaptable to other materials and experiments, providing a new paradigm to the research community for developing novel semiconductors.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4009 - Electronics, Sensors and Digital Hardware. Lead: Prof Kylie Catchpole

Saline Water Electrolysis via Catalyst Ion-Selective Interface Engineering. This project aims at low-cost and sustainable production of hydrogen from abundant saline water (e.g. raw seawater) on all types of commercially available electrolysers. By introducing an innovative ion-selective gate concept, fundamental science will be developed for addressing the knowledge gap between well-developed purified water electrolysis and emerging saline surface water electrolysis. Outcomes will include new knowledge of complex reaction mechanism(s), new electrode materials design, and relative device development for saline water electrolysis. This project will significantly benefit renewable energy use and large-scale green hydrogen production, together with reducing pressure on Australia's freshwater scarcity.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4018 - Nanotechnology. Lead: Prof Yao Zheng

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

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

Chiral electrochemistry with standard achiral electrodes. Many essential drugs and agricultural chemicals exist as molecular mirror images—enantiomers—one beneficial and the other possibly harmful. Current manufacturing and detection of the desired enantiomer are wasteful, energy-intensive, and costly. The project aims to develop a new electrochemistry that selects enantiomers using a minimal quantity of strategically placed insulators on standard electrodes. This will enable enhancement effects at inexpensive and readily available interfaces. By combining advances in microscopy and electrochemistry, we aim to transform synthesis and analysis for reduced waste, energy use, and costs, while advancing renewable-powered chemical synthesis and creating opportunities for high-value production.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3406 - Physical Chemistry. Lead: Prof Simone Ciampi

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

Hidden in plain sight: an investigation into telomere phage biology. This project aims to investigate a peculiar class of what had long seemed rare microbes called telomere phages. We have discovered that they in fact mediate control over populations of bacteria and this project will investigate how they do so. The project expects to generate new knowledge on how proteins encoded by the telomere phage are secreted from its host bacterium, and how the proteins then enter and kill neighbouring bacteria. Expected outcomes from this project include knowledge gain as well as methods and technology development. This project should provide significant benefits in research training excellence as well as the potential means to decontaminate environments of specific bacteria.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3101 - Biochemistry and Cell Biology. Lead: Prof Trevor Lithgow

Protecting the Australian cattle industry from haemorrhagic septicaemia . The bacterium Pasteurella multocida can cause the rapidly fatal disease haemorrhagic septicaemia in cattle and other ungulates. This disease occurs in many countries, including one of our nearest neighbours, Indonesia. The importation of haemorrhagic septicaemia is a major food security and economic threat to the Australian cattle industry. Current vaccines are crude, locally made and offer only limited immunity; a commercial vaccine with increased efficacy would safeguard the Australian cattle industry and help control the disease worldwide. In this project, we aim to identify factors required for haemorrhagic septicaemia strains to cause disease and use this knowledge to generate novel vaccine strains that provide long-lasting immunity. . Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3009 - Veterinary Sciences. Lead: Prof John Boyce

Evolutionary expansion of neocortical computations. The neocortex is the most evolved part of the mammalian brain, exhibiting massive expansion of neuronal number in non-human primates (NHPs) and humans. Are the enhanced cognitive abilities of humans and NHPs formed by a complexification of neocortical neuronal networks, which operate with evolutionary conserved principles? We aim to address this fundamental question by investigating the functional properties of molecularly and anatomically defined neocortical neurons, the computational elements of the neocortex, using high-resolution electrophysiological and optical techniques in acute ex vivo preparations of the living human, NHP and rodent neocortex. The results will herald a new computational understanding of the evolution of neocortex.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3209 - Neurosciences. Lead: Prof Stephen Williams

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