Grants & Opportunities

Hitting the Limits: Intersectional sexisms in Australian universities. This project responds to the limits of Australian university culture by examining the conditions that limit social cohesion in relation to gender. The project generates new theoretical, cultural and practical knowledge about how experiences of intersectionality, gender, power and complexity shape universities. Innovation comes with multi-method design and pathway to impact via a suite of creative responses focused on raising awareness of the gender problem in universities and providing possible solutions. This project provides significant national benefits as the gender problem that shapes universities shapes Australian society, and will enables universities to lead the way in ameliorating gender-based inequalities. . Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3904 - Specialist Studies In Education. Lead: A/Prof Emily Gray

Cement-Based Triboelectric Nanogenerators for Renewable Energy Harvesting. Harvesting otherwise wasted mechanical energy is a critical step toward advancing renewable and sustainable energy sources. This project aims to develop multifunctional cement-based triboelectric nanogenerators with integrated energy-harvesting, self-healing, and hydrophobic capabilities. Energy harvesting efficiency will be optimised by incorporating hybrid high-surface-area nanofillers to enhance the dielectric constant of cementitious composites. Durability and environmental adaptability will be improved using crystalline admixtures and silane coatings, providing enhanced resistance to mechanical damage and humidity. These outcomes will create fundamental knowledge in self-powering and net-zero energy buildings and civil infrastructure.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4005 - Civil Engineering. Lead: A/Prof Wengui Li

Causes and consequences of post-ejaculatory sperm phenotypic plasticity. This project will explore the causes and consequences of sperm phenotypic plasticity and gene expression, thus challenging the fundamental assumption that spermatozoa are simple DNA-delivery machines. The project will build on exciting developments in sperm biology and the availability of a uniquely suitable marine invertebrate system that offer opportunities to test this long-standing ‘silent sperm’ paradigm. Expected outcomes include a revision of our understanding of gene expression in mature sperm, and data that explore the evolutionary implications of haploid selection. Benefits will be relevant across a range of sectors, from assisted reproduction, fertility, and the resilience of populations to environmental change.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3104 - Evolutionary Biology. Lead: Prof Jonathan Evans

Advancing synthetic photochemistry: online photoreactor mass spectrometry. The rapid and comprehensive profiling of photochemistry is required to expedite the development of next generation photoactivated processes, including LED-optimised photocatalysis. As such, this project will develop new photoreactor mass spectrometry tools to probe photochemistry online and evaluate the early stages of photocatalysis - including the interception of intermediates relevant to organic synthesis. With a tunable light source, photochemical action plots will be routinely attainable, revealing the wavelength with maximum photochemical potency, and facilitating innovative chromoselective reaction design. The project outcomes include new technologies and workflows, new photochemical knowledge and broad applications in synthesis.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3401 - Analytical Chemistry. Lead: Dr Sinead Keaveney

In Silico Design of New Catalysts for Nitrate Reduction to Green Ammonia. Sophisticated new catalysts will be vital in the transition to environmentally responsible energy and production industries. Through engineering catalyst microenvironment, this project will determine novel theoretical principles on the catalyst design, yielding significant insights for translation into sustainable new catalytic processing in nitrate reduction. Expected outcomes include new sustainable catalysts for nitrate reduction to ammonia, help minimise carbon emissions, reduce energy consumption, and remove nitrate contaminants from wastewater. These outcomes should benefit the Australian economy with potential for new knowledge-based energy and environmental industries and safer generation of energy and production of commodities.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4016 - Materials Engineering. Lead: Prof Dr Aijun Du

Dynamic cell membrane remodelling regulates nutrient homeostasis. The cell surface provides a major barrier to all external molecules. We propose that eukaryotic cells have evolved a mechanism to transiently modify its protein composition by regulating the entry and/or exit of nutrient regulatory molecules to this barrier. This serves as a major mechanism by which cells make decisions about the choice of nutrient entry to maintain nutrient homeostasis in the face of a changing environment. In this proposal we will examine the full repertoire of the regulated cell surface nutrient regulatory mechanism by identifying regulated membrane proteins and the mechanism by which they undergo regulated transport to and from the cell surface. . Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3101 - Biochemistry and Cell Biology. Lead: Prof David James

Contextualised Commonsense Reasoning for Human Behaviour Analysis. Commonsense reasoning has long been a fundamental challenge in artificial intelligence (AI). One of the major lessons from 70 years of research in AI is that context matters. A more important lesson is that precise reasoning is an infeasible and unrealistic goal. This project pioneers a contextualised approach to commonsense reasoning; plans and contexts are tailored to specific behaviours and individuals and updated dynamically over time. Applications include care of elderly people in their homes where the number of Australians over 65 is expected to double by 2057. Detecting strange behaviour for ensuring security, enhancing workplace safety and assisting education are other applications where significant impact can be achieved.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4602 - Artificial Intelligence. Lead: Prof Maurice Pagnucco

Lighting the Path to Recovery: Addressing Delirium Risks in ICU Design. Access to circadian lighting significantly improves quality of life, particularly for critically ill patients in ICUs, who often experience disrupted circadian rhythms and sleep deprivation, increasing their risk of delirium. Current ICU lighting often fails to meet melanopic equivalent daylight illumination (m-EDI) thresholds needed to promote circadian entrainment. This project addresses these gaps by engineering dynamic lighting solutions tailored to critically ill patients’ needs for sleep, and recovery. By establishing patient-centered, evidence-based m-EDI recommendations and evaluating energy-efficient, tunable lighting systems, the research aims to enhance ICU luminous environment, fostering better sleep to reduce delirium risks.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3302 - Building. Lead: A/Prof Veronica Garcia Hansen

Weathering and geological carbon sequestration . This project investigates atmospheric CO₂ removal mechanisms over geological time through high-performance computational simulations and geochemical modelling. It aims to advance carbon sequestration science by integrating surface process simulations with geochemical modelling of the CO₂ removed via erosion, transport, and sedimentation. Outcomes include quantification of atmospheric carbon budgets over the past ~60 million years and advances in landscape evolution theory. Benefits encompass tools to understand Earth's CO₂ and temperature fluctuations and insights into planetary resilience under extreme conditions, aiding the assessments of current carbon sequestration budgets and the interpretation of global warming trends. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4101 - Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation. Lead: Prof Fabio Capitanio

Consoling the Self: Historical Grief Strategies and the Healing Arts. This project studies the rich store of Greek and Roman writings on how to cope with grief, caused by the death of family or a friend, but also the result from any significant loss, such as respect, honour, job, pet, or one’s country. By using a novel, interdisciplinary approach in line with the burgeoning fields of the history of emotions and the healing arts (writing, bibliotherapy, music, etc.) and building on my earlier grief studies in antiquity (2009-2018), it will use modern grief theory as a lens to exploit the sophisticated strategies of Greece and Rome and extract coping mechanisms for modern times. With the many real and potential losses facing humanity today the project aims to benefit from ancient wisdom.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4303 - Historical Studies. Lead: Prof Han (Johannes) Baltussen

Radar Integrated Body Area Networks. This project aims to unlock the potential of incorporating radar sensing into wireless body area network systems, thereby initiating a new era of transformative applications focused on human-centric needs. The project will generate AI-powered, radar-based sensing techniques integrated into wireless signal transmission within a body area network system. Anticipated outcomes include a suite of technological solutions that seamlessly integrate radar into body area networks, enhancing environmental perception and interaction capabilities. Integrating sensing capabilities through radar technology can facilitate the development of new technologies in healthcare, sports, the military, security, and safety applications.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4009 - Electronics, Sensors and Digital Hardware. Lead: Prof Mehmet Yuce

Efficient Bayesian analysis by exploiting fast approximate models. This project will develop novel methods for efficient statistical analysis of complex stochastic models. It will generate new knowledge in the area of statistics by exploiting and correcting fast model approximations to accelerate parameter estimation. The expected outcome of the project is the ability to process a much wider class of statistical models that are very computationally intensive to simulate on a computer. The methods are motivated by important problems in systems biology and epidemiology, but will be widely applicable, enabling discoveries in many fields. Other benefits include reduced reliance on supercomputing resources and training of the next generation of statistical data scientists.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4905 - Statistics. Lead: Prof Christopher Drovandi

Does metamorphosis facilitate or constrain adaptation to new environments? Improved understanding of what facilitates and constrains rapid evolution is essential to predict how organisms will respond to environmental change. This project investigates how evolution is influenced by genomic conflict occurring between life-stages in animals that undergo metamorphosis. It uses an ecologically important group of Australian beetles to measure larval and adult traits that are key in adapting to climate change. This project will lead to an improved ability to predict how insects and other animals with metamorphosis will adapt to climate change. Further, this project will provide fundamental knowledge that will impact how we manage of a wide range of economically important insects.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3104 - Evolutionary Biology. Lead: A/Prof Megan Head

News and Australian Teens: Enablers and Barriers to Digital Citizenship. With debates surrounding teens' social media use reaching new heights, this project addresses the critical yet underexplored role of news engagement in shaping Australian teenagers’ digital citizenship. While teens (aged 13-17) primarily access news and engage with current events via social media, little is known about how this shapes their online civic participation. Using a youth-centred, participatory approach, this project investigates barriers and enablers to equitable inclusive youth participation in society. It develops an evidence-based framework to support teens’ news engagement and digital citizenship practices. Findings will inform policies that aim to increase youth agency to address generational shifts in democratic practices. . Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4701 - Communication and Media Studies. Lead: Dr Jee Young Lee

Unveiling Human Hypoblast Specification and Differentiation. This research aims to deepen our understanding of early human development by focusing on the hypoblast, a vital cell type that contributes to the formation of the yolk sac, a structure essential for early embryonic growth and development. Using innovative laboratory-grown embryo models and advanced molecular techniques, this study will explore how hypoblast cells form, maintain their identity, and interact with other embryonic cell types. By addressing fundamental questions about the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying early human development, this research will contribute to advancing the global understanding of developmental biology and reinforce Australia's leadership in cutting-edge scientific discovery.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3109 - Zoology. Lead: Prof Jose Polo

Enhancing Vision-Language Models with Game-Based Reasoning and Evaluation. This project aims to enhance Large Vision-Language Models by developing innovative evaluation tools and training methods that focus on complex reasoning, decision-making, and adaptability. Current evaluation methods lack the ability to test these advanced skills comprehensively. By addressing this gap, the project will improve Large Vision-Language Models ability to understand and solve intricate, real-world problems. The outcomes will not only enhance AI's capabilities in specific tasks but also provide transferable skills applicable to various domains, benefiting industries such as healthcare, business, and education, while supporting Australia's leadership in AI research and applications.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4603 - Computer Vision and Multimedia Computation. Lead: A/Prof Qi Wu

Enabling low noise offshore foundation installation for renewable energy. This project aims to develop methods to confidently predict foundation installation for offshore renewable energy, a must for safe reliable operation. This is significant for these large infrastructure developments with each project costing tens of billions of dollars and hundreds of foundations accounting for a quarter of the cost. This project expects to directly link seabed information obtained offshore with fundamental new geotechnical insights to provide robust tools for a priori prediction. Expected outcomes include significantly reduced uncertainties of low noise foundation installation. This research should therefore lead to significant environmental, economic and societal benefits of affordable clean energy and generation of jobs.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4005 - Civil Engineering. Lead: Prof Britta Bienen

The transgenerational nature of microplastic toxicity in mammals. A leading global concern is the upsurgence of degrading plastic in nature. Microplastic toxicity impairs fertility in the exposed generation, but it is not yet known whether these negative impacts linger from one generation to the next. Transgenerational microplastic toxicity is set to have far-reaching repercussions for population persistence. It is essential that this threat is examined and documented. This project includes a series of innovative investigations to fulfil this research gap. This research will be extremely beneficial to Australia. It will generate new knowledge on how degrading plastic waste will affect mammals, which is relevant to two critical areas (i) the conservation of threatened species and (ii) human health.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3103 - Ecology. Lead: Dr Renee Firman

Linking Ecology and Evolution to Protect Australian Frogs. This project will inform Australian frog conservation planning for the next 25 years. The project leverages accumulated data on Australian frogs, and adds critical new data, to link macroevolutionary patterns across all Australian species to dispersal capabilities and genetic structure of individual species. The project will identify the specific factors that are most impacting every individual Australian frog species right now and provide this same information for species that are not currently threatened but are predicted to be threatened in the future. This project is complementary to existing conservation efforts and will deliver science-driven conservation planning advice that will take future climate projections into account. . Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4104 - Environmental Management. Lead: Prof J. Scott Keogh

Processes & responses of nitrous oxide production in marine invertebrates . This project aims to investigate how marine sponges and ascidian produce the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide. Using environmental surveys, microbiome analyses and experimental ecology, this project will reveal how microbial symbionts in sponges and ascidian produce nitrous oxide and how this production responds to environmental change. It is anticipated that increases in nutrients and temperature will increase nitrous oxide production and raises the number of sponges and ascidians in our oceans. This research is expected to significantly enhance our understanding of how our marine environment contributes to the global production of an important greenhouse gas and will enable more accurate predictions of future nitrous oxide emissions.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3107 - Microbiology. Lead: Prof Torsten Thomas

The Mismatch between Photochemical Reactivity and Molecular Absorptivity. It was a long-held belief in photochemistry that the color of a photoactive compound was the best guide to achieve the most efficient photochemical reaction. For example, if a molecule appeared blue, then complementary orange light was the optimum excitation source. Recently, our team has upended this paradigm. Our findings that maximum absorptivity (color) and maximum reaction efficiency are not necessarily congruent has far-reaching consequences for all production process that involve photochemical reactions, from 3D printing to surface curing, as much milder light sources can be used than previously thought. This project will investigate the underpinning cause of the mismatch and enable us to predict photochemical reactivity.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3406 - Physical Chemistry. Lead: Prof Christopher Barner-Kowollik

Mapping dark matter and testing gravity with galaxy surveys. This project aims to map the motions of vast numbers of galaxies to precisely measure the amount and distribution of dark matter and test Einstein’s theory of gravity. It will apply an innovative analysis to a major new galaxy survey using the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder and to other ongoing surveys. The outcome will be the most comprehensive and precise map to date of galaxies and their motions over most of the sky, tracing the growth of massive structures in the Universe and probing how gravity works on a cosmic scale. The project will leverage Australia’s investment in radio telescopes, address key priorities of the Astronomy Decadal Plan, train young researchers in data science, and enhance scientific links with Europe.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 5101 - Astronomical Sciences. Lead: Prof Matthew Colless

Integrating Communication and Sensing: Connecting the Cyber-Physical World . Integrating sensing and communications (ISAC) is crucial to unlock the full capabilities of future cyber-physical fusion, yet is challenged by limited network resources and diverse user requirements. The project will tackle these challenges by devising new ISAC techniques offering robust performance in both functions. Anchoring theory with practical requirements, the project expects to develop new methods leveraging advanced mathematical tools and machine learning techniques. The outcomes will break through the bottleneck of ISAC under stringent application requirements of high accuracy and high rates. The project will benefit Australia in advancing knowledge base in key wireless technologies and supporting future critical infrastructures.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4006 - Communications Engineering. Lead: Prof Emanuele Viterbo

From Noise to Signal. The project will investigate how sound works are installed within art exhibitions in the increasingly noisy art museum and gallery sector. It combines cross-cultural curatorial research with visitor experience testing using emerging technologies for non-intrusive surveying to better understand the significance of sound on the visitor experience. Expected outcomes include strategies to transform institutional paradigms concerning sound, improved experiences for the public within art institutions and potential benefits for the future development of analogous public spaces. The project will contribute tangible cultural benefits for Australian cultural sector by providing actionable recommendations to enhance exhibition environments.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3605 - Screen and Digital Media. Lead: A/Prof Caleb Kelly

Australians and the Past Revisited. Twenty-five years ago, researchers carried out an ARC-funded survey about how Australians discover, think about and use the past in their lives. The digital revolution has since transformed the ways that people access historical knowledge and understanding. Using online surveys, focus groups and interviews with diverse Australians this project aims to investigate how Australians learn about, value and respond to their history and use it to address today’s social issues. Expected outcomes include better understanding of the value and significance of history and heritage for all Australians. This will benefit the Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museum sector, teachers, the media and policy makers and help foster social inclusion.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4303 - Historical Studies. Lead: Prof Laurajane Smith