Grants & Opportunities

Inverse design of wave metamaterials for energy concentration. This project aims to develop an advanced topology optimisation framework for the automatic discovery of wave metamaterials for energy concentration. The project expects to digitally design materials that can achieve a wide range of frequency responses, addressing complex performance challenges that currently exist in waveguides, sensors, and energy harvesters. The expected outcomes include an efficient computational tool and optimization algorithms that integrate with additive manufacturing to enable the characterisation, design, and fabrication of the next-generation metamaterials. The research will contribute significantly to the sustainable development of Australia’s knowledge-based economy and commercial sectors.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4017 - Mechanical Engineering. Lead: Dr Weibai Li

Reaping Clean Power: Sustainable Energy Integration in Protected Cropping. This project aims to address the heavy dependence on fossil fuels in protected cropping systems by integrating low-carbon energy solutions that are tailored to Australia’s diverse climate zones. It expects to generate new knowledge in environmental and techno-economic assessment of renewable energy for high-tech glasshouses and vertical farms, advancing data-driven methods for reducing emissions and costs. Anticipated outcomes include a comprehensive framework for energy optimisation, improved resource efficiency, and guidelines for industry adoption. This will provide significant benefits, including strengthening food security, enhancing Australia’s leadership in sustainable agricultural practices, and transitioning to a net zero economy.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 3008 - Horticultural Production. Lead: Dr Jing He

Computationally efficient climate projections under net-zero and beyond. The project aims to develop a computationally efficient climate model emulator suitable for net-zero and net-negative emission scenarios. As a result, the project expects to generate new knowledge of our future climate, specifically spatially resolved projections with an explicit focus on uncertainties. The project’s expected outcome is a new capability to explore the climate implications of different choices on the path to net-zero and beyond. This should provide significant benefits, such as establishing Australia’s position in the rapidly growing area of spatially explicit climate model emulators and providing a new, open-source tool for use both within, and outside, research.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 3702 - Climate Change Science. Lead: Dr Zebedee Nicholls

Harnessing glycomics to dissect virus-mosquito interaction and transmission. This project aims to investigate the role of carbohydrate molecules on viruses and mosquito cells in influencing infection, replication, and spread within mosquitos. How these interactions impact the transmission of mosquito-borne viruses will be examined. Using state-of-the-art spatial biology and glycomics, the project aims to uncover molecular mechanisms by which viruses interact with cell surface receptors, utilise mosquito host factors for replication, and spread within mosquito tissues, ultimately shaping transmission to mammalian hosts. This research should advance understanding of virus-mosquito biology, support antiviral development, and improve public health preparedness through better surveillance and mosquito control strategies.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 3107 - Microbiology. Lead: Dr Xiang Liu

Empire’s Edge: Migration, Conflict, and the Politics of Decolonization. This project aims to develop a new framework to explain the three-decade deadlock in global decolonisation and address the gap in understanding why some colonies have independence movements whereas others do not. Through survey experiments, supervised text analysis and fieldwork in five Pacific non-self-governing territories, this research expects to generate new knowledge on how migration drives contemporary anti-colonial conflicts. Expected outcomes include a theory explaining how institutional arrangements surrounding migration can exacerbate or ameliorate sovereignty disputes, benefiting Australian and United Nations officials by identifying pathways to the resolution of ongoing conflicts that threaten regional stability.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4408 - Political Science. Lead: Dr Lachlan McNamee

Shock Value - Electrical Phenomena in Charge of Ore Formation. This project aims to investigate how the formation of valuable and critical minerals is enabled by natural voltages generated by quartz, a piezoelectric mineral that produces an electric charge when stressed. This project expects to generate new knowledge concerning ore deposit formation, thereby enabling more efficient mineral exploration. Expected outcomes of the project include establishing core principles regarding the geological significance of piezoelectricity, with implications for metal cycling and hydrogen generation in Earth’s crust. This should provide significant benefits, such as aiding the discovery of new deposits of valuable and critical minerals, as well as hydrogen reservoirs, a crucial clean energy source.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 3703 - Geochemistry. Lead: Dr Christopher Voisey

Defining optimal cell culture conditions to prevent T cell ferroptosis . This project aims to improve the survival and function of T cells by fine-tuning the conditions in which they grow. Currently, physicians rely solely on a minimum number of collected primary cells to expand or modify, which presents a challenge in acquiring sufficient cell numbers. Our project specifically aims to understand and control the metabolic changes that lead to particular cell death, with the goal of developing better culture conditions to keep cells healthy and functional. The anticipated benefits include include advancements in fundamental biology, cell metabolism research, cell expansion industries, cell-based therapy research, and more.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 3101 - Biochemistry and Cell Biology. Lead: Dr Pooranee Morgan

Dying with Dignity. Caring for people without a home at the end of life. This project aims to better understand preferences, perspectives and opportunities to improve end-of-life care for people experiencing homelessness. Dying with dignity is often equated with the wish to be dying at home, yet, more and more Australians do not have access to a stable home. This project expects to generate knowledge on what it means to die well in the absence of home from which to approach the end of life. Expected outcomes include nuanced knowledge on the complexities of care for the dying beyond place, while refining sophisticated research methods. This should provide significant benefits, including progress towards establishing homelessness community and hospice care pathways to enable dying with dignity for all Australians.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4410 - Sociology. Lead: Dr Stefanie Plage

Navigating Social Media Experiences within Australian Families. This research aims to understand Australian families' social media experiences and the associated impacts on children aged 8-17. It will reframe the thinking about children's social media experiences as shaped by familial, social, and technical contexts. Expected outcomes include knowledge about the experiences of families navigating the complexities of social media and a theoretical innovation for understanding the impacts of social media on children. In the context of a legislated ban on some social media for children under 16, this work benefits governments, families, and children by providing evidence-based policy directions and resources to promote safe and age-appropriate social media experiences.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 3904 - Specialist Studies In Education. Lead: Dr Tiffani Apps

Using low-redshift cosmic observables to probe local space-time curvature. This project aims to measure local distortions in space from nearby clumps of matter using exciting new observations and simulations. We usually study our cosmic neighborhood in a vastly simplified way, neglecting local curvature entirely. This project will develop methods for data analysis that go beyond common over-simplifications. This project expects to generate new knowledge in studying inhomogeneous curvature and expansion, which are naturally expected in the nearby Universe, with a novel approach. Expected outcomes include potential solutions to current differences in observations compared to theory. This should place Australia as a leader in cosmology and supply the next generation of scientists with advanced computational skills.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 5101 - Astronomical Sciences. Lead: Dr Hayley Macpherson

Building and Governing Sectarianism: Muslims and the Modern Chinese State . This project aims to investigate how modern states encourage and institutionalise sectarianism, focusing specifically on the encounter between the Chinese state and its Muslim citizens along its Northwest frontier regions. Utilising a multilingual interdisciplinary approach, archival research, and ethnographic work, the project will generate new knowledge on sectarianism as an instrument of authoritarian governance. This will contribute to enhancing Australia’s national capacity in analysing Chinese politics and regime resilience. It will also provide the necessary tools for policymakers to understand how sectarianism is used by both Muslim and non-Muslim states in managing their Muslim populations across the Asia-Pacific.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 5004 - Religious Studies. Lead: Dr Mohammed Alsudairi

Addressing long-term climate displacement in Australia. This project aims to investigate the long-term impacts of internal climate displacement in Australia and identify effective policies to support community resilience. It will generate insights into how climate disaster displacement impacts people’s social and economic stability over time. It will analyse the Australian policy landscape and global best practices to identify opportunities to improve resilience. This is significant given the lack of understanding of climate displacement in advanced economies. Expected outcomes include co-designed, evidence-based policy recommendations and interactive story mapping. This should benefit Australia by fostering an engaged policy network that can strategically address climate displacement.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4101 - Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation. Lead: Dr Colette Mortreux

Unveiling Sulfur Reaction Pathways in All-Solid-State Li–S Batteries. All-solid-state lithium–sulfur batteries offer up to ten times the energy density of today's lithium-ion batteries while reducing material costs by over 30% through the use of abundant sulfur. This project aims to unlock their full potential by developing an advanced sulfur electrode material that enhances voltage stability and energy efficiency, ensuring optimal performance and reliability. Expected outcomes of this project include establishing the foundation for the development of longer-range electric vehicles and cost-effective renewable energy storage solutions. This should provide significant benefits, such as strengthening Australia’s battery manufacturing sector while promoting economic and environmental sustainability.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4004 - Chemical Engineering. Lead: Dr Borui Liu

Children as cultural agents: New frameworks for creative arts practice . Currently under-researched, there are limited opportunities for children and young people from marginalised backgrounds to assume artistic decision-making responsibilities within the creative industries. This has resulted in systemic exclusion from cultural citizenship and artistic leadership. This project aims to utilise co-design methodologies to design inclusive, culturally safe spaces for children and young people to exercise creative agency and leadership in arts participation contexts. Expected outcomes of this project include developing evidence-based replicable frameworks for cultural leadership, thus providing significant benefit and re-establishing Australia as a world-leader in arts participation for children and young people. . Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 3604 - Performing Arts. Lead: Dr Sarah Austin

Boom or bust? Predicting species’ responses to extreme environmental change. This project aims to transform our understanding of population responses in hypervariable environments as they face intensifying climate pressures by using Australian terrestrial ectotherms as a model system. This project will identify individual traits that drive demographic processes by integrating existing long-term field data with new genomic analysis, physiological experiments, and ecological modelling. Expected outcomes include the ability to differentiate between natural population fluctuations and changes driven by climate and human disturbance. This new knowledge will inform managers what species are at risk following disturbance and, most importantly, it will enable the prediction and mitigation of additive climate change impacts.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 3103 - Ecology. Lead: Dr Kristoffer Wild

Hybrid encoding of light for fault tolerant optical quantum computing. Optical quantum computing is a leading contender in the global quantum arena, offering unprecedented computational power using all-optical components at room temperature. However, current optical quantum computers lack practical methods to correct computational errors, significantly limiting their applications. This project aims to efficiently generate optical quantum states that represent a core enabling technology for quantum error correction in an all-optical platform. By making quantum computers scalable and error-protected, this project aims to mark a pivotal step towards building fully-fledged, general-purpose quantum computers with transformative potential for industries in medicine, cybersecurity, and climate modeling. . Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 5108 - Quantum Physics. Lead: Dr Jie Zhao

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

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