Grants & Opportunities

Unravelling the molecular basis of CD8+ T cell development and behaviour . The immune system is essential in disease resistance and resilience across diverse species and ecosystems. CD8+ T cells are a critical component of effective immunity. However, the molecular mechanisms governing their development and behaviour are poorly understood. This project aims to explore these mechanisms in unprecedented depth using an innovative in vivo CRISPR/Cas gene editing platform. Expected outcomes from this project include transformative insights into the genetic networks regulating CD8+ T cell immunity, and the establishment of an advanced novel platform for studying immune cell biology. This research promises significant benefits in advancing fundamental immunology and facilitating future studies in this field.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3204 - Immunology. Lead: Prof Marco Herold

The stone toolkit of the first Homo sapiens from Africa to Australia. This project aims to explore the technological variability of Homo sapiens in their expansion out of Africa to Australia over the last 200,000 years. The project expects to generate new knowledge in the areas of archaeology and human origins by employing groundbreaking 3D computational analysis of stone tools found in sites spanning the period of Homo sapiens expansion. Expected outcomes of this project are to understand the technological underpinning of our forebears' successful expansion out of Africa, their replacement of other hominin species, and the pace and routes of expansion. This should provide significant benefits in understanding human evolution and the resilience of our species in the face of major climate change.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4301 - Archaeology. Lead: Prof Christopher Clarkson

Teen-informed strategies to counter sexual image abuse and sextortion. Coming of age has never been so fraught. Many teens use sexts to consensually explore emerging sexual citizenship. Yet this is prohibited, and teens-who-sext may experience gender-linked sexual shaming and victimisation, including by adults. This cultural studies project gathers teens' perspectives upon and remedies for peer-perpetrated and peer-magnified image-based sexual harassment and abuse. Reports of sextortion, sexualised deepfakes and blackmail of teens by adult predators are rising, even as teens worry that reporting such abuse might see them, as victim, accused of creating child exploitation material. Project outcomes align with a Rights of the Child approach and will mitigate risk, reducing harm while supporting vulnerable peers.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4702 - Cultural Studies. Lead: Prof Lelia Green

Human-Machine Teaming in a Communications-denied Environment. This project will develop new learning and long-term memory capabilities for Artificial Intelligence (AI) to advance human-machine teaming in challenging and communications-denied environments. It will develop new approaches for AI systems to predict future human behaviour, to improve abilities to rapidly respond to changes in the environment, and to enable stronger decision-making with incomplete and uncertain data. New methods will be developed for complex and adversarial environments to support a range of industry sectors including collaborative and service robotics, manufacturing, and transport. Outcomes will increase Australia’s competitive advantage in AI, augmenting human abilities, and will support sovereign defence capabilities.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4603 - Computer Vision and Multimedia Computation. Lead: Prof Clinton Fookes

Understanding social-ecological feedbacks in protected area resilience. The project aims to describe, quantify and understand feedbacks between societies and ecosystems, both in and adjacent to protected areas. Using the Coupled Infrastructure Systems Framework to describe and quantify system structure, it will collect empirical data from 40 protected areas and progress from statistical analysis to empirical simulation models of feedbacks. Models of feedbacks will be used to clarify influences on protected area resilience. The project will improve understanding of how to efficiently monitor social-ecological dynamics and enhance protected area resilience to climate change and other shocks. Insights resulting from the analysis will support protected area governance and management in Australia and South Africa.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4104 - Environmental Management. Lead: Prof Graeme Cumming

Evolutionary Framework for Electric Vehicles and Drones Logistics Systems. This project aims to develop an adaptive evolutionary approach for solving electric vehicle and drone-supported, last-mile logistics and distribution planning problems. The project addresses the escalating challenges in current logistics systems by focusing on enhancing efficiency, reducing costs, and minimizing the environmental impact of logistics systems. This novel approach will challenge existing methodologies, offering enhanced decision-making approaches, significant economic and environmental benefits, a robust decision-making tool and strong research training, with a vision for long-term impact on logistics efficiency. . Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4602 - Artificial Intelligence. Lead: Prof Ruhul Sarker

Transformed landscapes: 3000 years of adaptation and resilience in Vanuatu. This project aims to explore the history of dramatic human modification of a Pacific Island landscape over the past 3000 years and draws out the implications of these transformations for future generations in a changing global climate. Since initial settlement, the island of Efate in Vanuatu has been spectacularly altered by a series of socio-agrosystems, recently revealed by LiDAR aerial imagery. This transdisciplinary project will combine field and archival research by archaeologists, historians and linguists to map social and agricultural development across Efate, generating a deep-time perspective that will inform responses to contemporary challenges around population growth and food security in the Pacific.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4513 - Pacific Peoples Culture, Language and History. Lead: A/Prof Stuart Bedford

An integrated framework to understand emotional learning. Positive and negative emotional responses enrich or harm the quality of our everyday lives. Although the acquisition of emotional responses is well understood, less is known about how they can be modified – amplified or reduced. The proposed research will address this gap, building on our team’s research on both human fear and evaluative conditioning and cutting-edge findings in these areas. The project is innovative in its focus on (a) positive and negative emotional learning; and (b) the processes underlying this learning. The project will provide the foundational knowledge required for the development of an integrated framework of emotional learning and the design of psychological interventions to reduce fear and interpersonal biases.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 5202 - Biological Psychology. Lead: Prof Ottmar Lipp

Using a Light-induced Field-Gradient to Promote Homogeneous Catalysis. Synthesizing fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals often relies on homogeneous transition metal-complex catalysts for their selectivity and efficiency. However, they are difficult to separate and reuse. This project offers a solution to not only overcome limitations of traditional catalysts but that can enhance metal-complex catalyst performance by leveraging the optical properties of plasmonic metal nanoparticles. Our approach will advance understanding of light-matter interactions and explore parameters of a versatile photocatalyst design to achieve high-turnover chemical synthesis with minimal catalyst waste. It will provide invaluable training opportunities for graduate students, contributing significantly to our knowledge-based economy.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3406 - Physical Chemistry. Lead: Prof Dr Huai-Yong Zhu

Innovation in durable goods: expansion of electric cars in Australia. Highly desirable transition to environmentally friendly technologies such as electric automobiles requires well-designed governmental support. Short-sighted policies may lead to unintended consequences and do more harm than good. The importance of a secondary market for durable goods makes the policy design a complex dynamic problem. This project will produce mathematical and computational tools to explore potential regulation standards and stimulus programs in a simulated environment to find an optimal approach for expanding electric cars in Australia. Built on the team's groundbreaking research in modelling equilibria in markets for automobiles, this project will enable the search for optimal policy that will benefit Australian society.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3801 - Applied Economics. Lead: Prof Fedor Iskhakov

UNDERSTANDING TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY MEDIA USES AND PURPOSES. How we use media technologies and content today are radically changed from when core theories about the role of media in society were established and media content was widely shared at a national level. This project will investigate why Australians choose to use the media available and how they select their media diet to assess the implications of the changed cultural roles media play in our lives and the consequences of a fractured media environment. The program of research will use multiple methods to explore how Australians engage an unprecedented range of content and sources. The project will generate the knowledge needed to address pressing sociocultural issues of our time such as social cohesion, misinformation, and belonging. . Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4701 - Communication and Media Studies. Lead: Prof Amanda Lotz

Decolonising the History of Childhood(s), 1946-2023. This project aims to partially resolve the problem of Eurocentric bias in histories of childhood by proposing a new construction of childhood through a history of Philippine childhoods. It will allow concepts of childhood from Southeast Asia to be recognised alongside the Western norm, and demonstrate how children from non-European contexts can be empowered by criticizing indigenous constructions. Using archival sources, interviews, and ethnography, it will contribute to understanding the diversity of childhoods in Australia’s multicultural society where multiple views of childhood exist, compelling international scholarship to move beyond the Euro-Atlantic context that has dominated the field, and hindered it from becoming truly global. . Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4303 - Historical Studies. Lead: Prof Mina Roces

Investigating the enigmatic slowly repeating radio transients. The Australian sky has revealed a new celestial mystery: slowly-repeating Galactic radio transients. Our cutting-edge data processing and search algorithms, optimised for the vast fields-of-view and sensitivity of new radio telescopes, are unearthing a new population of these enigmatic objects. We propose to unravel their true nature by swiftly following up new detections with multiwavelength observations, and modelling the sources' evolutionary paths and magnetic field configurations. The expected outcome of this project will rewrite our understanding of the evolution of magnetic compact stellar remnants such as white dwarfs and neutron stars. Success would establish Australia as a leader in this new field of radio astronomy.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 5101 - Astronomical Sciences. Lead: A/Prof Natasha Hurley-Walker

Harnessing Eco-Emotions for Social Action on Climate Change. The effects of climate change are escalating and the emotional impact is costing Australia in money and lives. This project aims to understand ‘eco-emotions’ about climate change and harness their power to promote much-needed action. Combining cutting-edge experimental and experience sampling methodology, the project expects to create new knowledge on functional and flexible regulation of eco-emotions in everyday life. Expected outcomes include new theory of emotional complexity in the context of climate change and new methods of studying collection action in situ. Potential benefits include enhanced national capacity in emotion science, increased climate action, and greater well-being among Australians coping with the climate crisis.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 5205 - Social and Personality Psychology. Lead: Dr Katharine Greenaway

The sounds of Papua. This study investigates speech in the Papuan languages spoken to the immediate north of Australia, which have very simple consonant and vowel systems, but which have been consistently reported as showing a very high level of language-internal variability. The New Guinea area is recognised as having the highest language diversity in the world, yet the sound systems of its languages are greatly under-studied. This project aims to produce the first ever large-scale phonetic studies of these superficially simple sound systems of Papuan languages. This is expected to provide a better understanding of human speech production in general. In addition, online dictionaries are planned based on the sound recordings from this project. . Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4704 - Linguistics. Lead: Prof Marija Tabain

Engineering 2D van der Waals Materials for Solar Hydrogen Production. Efficient and low cost photo-catalyst for solar hydrogen production will be vital in the transition to environmentally responsible energy industries. This project aims, through engineering polarization and the binding of photoexcited electron and hole in stacked 2D van der Waals materials, to determine novel theoretical principles on new photocatalyst design, yielding insights for translation into sustainable new photocatalytic processing in water splitting. Expected outcomes include innovative 2D photocatalysts for producing clean hydrogen fuels. The materials and knowledge achieved from this project will dramatically advance the development of renewable energy technology, providing solutions to the global energy and environmental issues. . Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4018 - Nanotechnology. Lead: Prof Dr Aijun Du

On processing and knowledge discovery in large dynamic multilayer networks. Multilayer networks contain rich and dynamic interaction information among objects spanning multiple aspects. Properly processing these networks and exploring cohesive information within find many applications and bring challenges as well. This project aims to devise efficient strategies for processing large and dynamic multilayer graphs and investigate different effective methods for searching different cohesive groups in various applications. The theoretic outcomes of this project will set the foundation for building cutting-edge technology for effectively modelling and efficiently searching/tracking interested information in large dynamic multilayer networks and contribute to theoretical foundations in big graph data management.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4605 - Data Management and Data Science. Lead: Prof Chengfei Liu

Sustainable working conditions: Requirements to enable long working lives? This project aims to build a contemporary post-covid model of sustainable work, through examining the necessary workplace conditions required to address current age and gender inequities. This project expects to generate new knowledge of changes to the work environment following the unprecedented large scale labour market disruption caused by the COVID-19. A model of the key requirements for supporting sustainable work will enhance our capacity to create more equitable conditions to address current age and gender inequities. This should provide significant benefits to the Australian economy through improved work participation rates of older workers and women and the associated productivity gains.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3505 - Human Resources and Industrial Relations. Lead: Prof Jodi Oakman

Animal building for a changing world. This project aims to reveal how animal constructions will cope with the damaging effects of global warming. Most animals build structures critical for survival (or that of their progeny) but there is no information on how animal designs will react to modern climate change. Using a powerful integration of experimental and analytical approaches, this project will uncover how animals can adjust their designs in response to temperature within their lifetime and at at evolutionary scale, using bird nests as model system. This project will pioneer the study of animal constructions as buffers of climate change. It will inform predictions of species vulnerabilities in future conditions by assessing animal capacities to modify their constructions.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3103 - Ecology. Lead: Dr Iliana Medina

Accurate and fast 3D stiffness mapping via vision-guided robotic probing. This project aims to develop novel methods to generate 3D stiffness maps of deformable surfaces within confined spaces, facilitating remote estimation of mechanical properties of delicate objects with limited accessibility. This project expects to achieve high accuracy and efficiency in this challenge by seamlessly integrating computer vision, machine learning, and robotics. Expected outcomes include new frameworks and algorithms for precise 3D reconstruction using visual and tactile data, accurate single-point stiffness estimation, and efficient sampling strategies for stiffness mapping of large surfaces. This should provide significant benefits in enabling remote haptic evaluation in critical sectors such as healthcare and manufacturing.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4007 - Control Engineering, Mechatronics and Robotics. Lead: A/Prof Liao Wu

Generative AI and the future of academic writing and publishing. This project examines the impact of Generative AI (GenAI) technologies on scholarly research and publishing. The project investigates how GenAI technologies are shaping the future of academic research from search to publication, including how academic publishers and peak research advisory bodies are responding to the potential of these technologies. The project develops a framework for understanding the sociotechnical drivers shaping the debate and establishes cross-sector principles to promote a more consistent and critical response by key stakeholders. In doing so, it supports ongoing learning within scholarly communities for a more responsive national research system, optimising GenAI for public good.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4701 - Communication and Media Studies. Lead: A/Prof Michelle Riedlinger

Breaking Down Silos: Optimal Aligned Decisions via Forecast Reconciliation. This project aims to develop new forecasting methods, where forecasts are needed at different levels of aggregation, such as store level and total regional demand in retail. This project expects to generate new knowledge in terms of forecasting methods that are robust to extreme events such as supply chain disruptions, while ensuring decisions made by different agents in an organisation are aligned. An interdisciplinary approach, using techniques from mathematical optimisation and statistics will be taken. Expected outcomes include improved forecasting methods placed on a rigorous footing by new theory. This should provide significant benefits, including efficient retail operations and better planning of infrastructure investment in energy.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3802 - Econometrics. Lead: A/Prof Anastasios Panagiotelis

Evolution of Antarctic glaciers from icequake seismology: a new capability. This project will establish a new capability to reveal change in the outlet glacier systems of the vast Australian Antarctic Territory, East Antarctica. Machine learning will be applied to the ‘seismic symphony’ of icequakes caused by the sudden vibrations of moving and cracking ice, tumbling melt water and ocean wave action. Highly significant, fast-changing outlets of the largest ice sheet on Earth will be analysed. Outcomes include a step-change in the knowledge of how influences, such as reduced sea ice, are instigating new mechanisms for ice loss. Benefits include advanced training for the scientific and geotechnical workforce, and informing Australia's response to the timing of accelerated sea level rise and climate tipping points.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3706 - Geophysics. Lead: Prof Anya Reading

Twisted algebras for Zappa–Szép products of categories. This project in pure mathematics aims to significantly advance our understanding of twisted algebras, especially operator algebras, using the investigators’ recent discoveries about sophisticated composite structures called Zappa–Szép products. It expects to generate new knowledge about twisted algebras, which permeate the mathematical theory used to model quantum states of matter such as topological insulators. Expected outcomes include flexible techniques for constructing twisted algebras for use further along the research pipeline, and cross-pollination of ideas within mathematics. Benefits include enhanced international collaboration and increased Australian capacity in pure mathematics, particularly algebra and operator algebras.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4904 - Pure Mathematics. Lead: Prof Aidan Sims

Unlocking the mechanobiological events in oxygen unloading by erythrocytes. This project aims to use state-of-the-art technologies to reveal the process of oxygen release from red blood cells during mechanical force exposure. This project expects to generate new knowledge on a vital biological process originally described using static models of cell-free haemoglobin that do not reflect the diffusive barriers to gas exchange or the mechanical dynamics of the in vivo environment. Expected outcomes include identifying molecular targets responsible for, and equations to accurately describe, the relation between mechanical stress and oxygen transfer. Benefits will include knowledge to improve models of biological dynamics and economic opportunities due to industry applications related to oxygen supply-demand management.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4003 - Biomedical Engineering. Lead: Prof Michael Simmonds