Grants & Opportunities

Mathematical Breakthroughs in Wave Propagation. This Fellowship proposal in theoretical mathematics aims to solve three major open problems in wave propagation. These are the long-time behaviour of nonlinear waves, including the behaviour and interaction of solitary waves; the propagation of waves in rough media; and the small-scale behaviour of interacting waves under the assumption of chaotic ray dynamics. The research aims to analyse wave equations that model problems in optical media and waveguides, medical and seismic imaging, and nano-electronic devices. Outcomes and benefits are expected in new mathematical theory, Australian research capability, better algorithms for numerically computing waves, and technological advances in communications, medical imaging, and seismic imaging.. Scheme: Australian Laureate Fellowships. Field: 4904 - Pure Mathematics. Lead: Prof Andrew Hassell

Artificial Self-Replication of Peptide Nanocapsules. Replication is key to the operation of biology, but how molecular replicators arose spontaneously on early Earth remains an open question. The ability of molecules to self-replicate must have come before the development of the highly evolved enzymes that biology currently employs. The aim of this Future Fellowship is to develop a peptide nanocapsule capable of replicating itself nonenzymatically by self-templated ligation, thus offering a platform that possesses the traits needed for Darwinian evolution to emerge. By obtaining a better understanding of the design and function of self-replicating systems, this project is expected to transform our understanding of some of the key chemical principles needed for life's emergence.. Scheme: ARC Future Fellowships. Field: 5101 - Astronomical Sciences. Lead: Dr Albert Fahrenbach

Understanding and controlling neuropeptide GPCR-transducer coupling. G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are physiologically essential, yet the spatiotemporal complexity of receptor function has limited our understanding of their function and success in drug development. Using a multi-disciplinary approach integrating GPCR signalling, trafficking and drug delivery, this research program aims to understand, and control, the molecular mechanisms that enable a single receptor to respond to different ligands to promote unique cellular processes. The anticipated outcomes include an enhanced capacity for understanding fundamental biology, and stronger national and international collaborations. It will provide significant benefits including expanded basic knowledge and advancement of drug delivery technology.. Scheme: ARC Future Fellowships. Field: 3214 - Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences. Lead: A/Prof Nicholas Veldhuis

Performing cold microwave measurements with warm diamonds. Detecting weak microwave signals at room temperature is an exceptionally difficult task, due to the excessive thermal microwave noise that exists all around us. At present, the best microwave receivers must be cooled to cryogenic temperatures, restricting their widespread use. This project aims to apply diamond-based quantum technologies to achieve unprecedented microwave signal detection sensitivities with a room-temperature setup, providing more accessible ultra-low noise detectors. The ability to measure weak microwave signals is crucial for a range of sectors and the results of this project are expected to have applications in defence (radar), space exploration (satellite communication), and fundamental research (spectroscopy).. Scheme: ARC Future Fellowships. Field: 5108 - Quantum Physics. Lead: A/Prof Jarryd Pla

Storytelling networks and community crises in ancient Greece. This project aims to investigate how communal crises impact storytelling through an analysis of Greek myth in antiquity (800BC-AD400). Using an innovative digital platform that structures mythic data as narrative networks, it expects to generate new knowledge about the impact of natural disasters, epidemics, migration and war and show how narratives work as strategies for resilience. The outcomes include a new method for modelling narrative networks against community disruption and revealing the preservative effects of social and cultural infrastructures. It will provide significant benefits, such as an improved understanding of how historical contingencies determine which stories survive, and better public access to research on Greek myth.. Scheme: ARC Future Fellowships. Field: 4303 - Historical Studies. Lead: Dr Greta Hawes

Uncovering a novel memory process mediating stimulus-based decisions. The project aims to describe how environmental stimuli influence choice between actions. The goal is to demonstrate that this influence recruits a novel form of memory characterised by a durable change in the expression of an opioid receptor. It will combine sophisticated behavioural tasks with modern genetic tools in rodents to identify the molecular, cellular and neural interactions underlying the acquisition, maintenance and retrieval of this memory. The project expects to provide new insights into the brain machinery promoting motivated behaviours and adaptive decision-making, and to extend knowledge about the physiological underpinnings of our memories. . Scheme: ARC Future Fellowships. Field: 5202 - Biological Psychology. Lead: Dr Vincent Laurent

2D vertical heterostructures for multi-functional energy applications. This project aims to develop multi-functional 2D vertical heterostructures for sustainable energy applications. A key challenge in fabricating 2D vertical heterostructures is the re-stacking of layered materials. This project will utilize edge-rich vertical graphene to unleash the full potential of 2D vertical heterostructures by combining the advantages of individual building blocks while mitigating the associated shortcomings. Expected outcomes will include improved electrochemical performance of materials and an integrated energy system utilizing these multi-functional materials to produce green hydrogen at low cost and high efficiency. The project should contribute largely to Australia’s transition to robust and affordable clean energy.. Scheme: ARC Future Fellowships. Field: 4004 - Chemical Engineering. Lead: Prof Zhaojun Han

Advanced Gas Diffusion Electrodes For Electrochemical Manufacturing. This project aims to develop electrochemical conversion technologies to convert carbon dioxide into globally needed chemicals. It targets the bottleneck issues in managing the gas-liquid-solid reaction sites and improving the conversion efficiency of reactor, through the synthesis of advanced electrode materials, understanding of mass transfer and the engineering design of an electrochemical reactor. The expected outcomes will promote carbon neutral goals, bridge the renewable energy storage and sustainable chemical manufacturing gap, thus addressing key challenges faced by Australia and the world.. Scheme: ARC Future Fellowships. Field: 4016 - Materials Engineering. Lead: Prof Lei Ge

Engineering nanomaterial interactions with the cell surface. This Fellowship aims to advance understanding of the endothelial cell surface, a key tissue barrier, and its interactions with nanomaterials. Enabled by cross-disciplinary collaboration, it expects to develop knowledge in matrix biology of the cell surface and materials as well as new methods to analyse their interactions. This is expected to unravel causal relationships between nanomaterial features and interactions at the cell surface which will be integrated to engineer optimised materials. This will address the current and critical challenges of nanomaterial technologies in the efficient and targeted interactions with cells with long-term benefits for the consumer, biotechnology and healthcare sectors.. Scheme: ARC Future Fellowships. Field: 4003 - Biomedical Engineering. Lead: Prof Megan Lord

Printed Infrared Quantum Dot Photodetectors and Large-scale Image Sensors . Detectors operating in shortwave infrared region are critical in civil and military applications. This project aims to demonstrate revolutionary low-cost and high performing shorwave infrared lead sulfide quantum dot photodetectors and large-scale image sensors with compatible structures for the potential applications on complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor readout integrated circuits through fully printing. Expected outcomes of this project included the new understandings of surface passivation, interfacial engineering and device design. The shortwave technologies developed in this project will be highly prospective for commercialization in the near future, which would bring Australia’s shortwave technologies to a new stage. . Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4009 - Electronics, Sensors and Digital Hardware. Lead: Dr Long Hu

Cryo-electron microscopy determination of G protein-coupled receptor states. This project aims to address fundamental knowledge gaps in understanding of the molecular mechanisms of peptide hormone G protein-coupled receptor activation. This will be achieved through cryo-electron microscopy determination of the structure and dynamics of key intermediate states in activation. Novel biochemical approaches will be applied to capture these states, using as exemplar the glucagon receptor that has a broad range of pharmacological tools to facilitate isolation of distinct functional states. The knowledge gained from these studies will advance fundamental understanding of physiologically important receptor activation and efficacy, while the approaches developed will enable similar investigation of other receptor classes.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 3101 - Biochemistry and Cell Biology. Lead: Dr Xin Zhang

Earth’s mid-life crisis: recipe for a habitable planet? This project aims to establish the state and nature of the physical Earth systems (climate, topography, geography, erosion, carbon cycle, oxygen cycle) during the Neoproterozoic Era that made our planet habitable to complex life. By analysing these systems together, fundamental drivers and contributions to making a habitable planet will be untangled. Expected outcomes include the first ever series of climate models of this time period, as well a series of digital reconstructions of the physical systems themselves. Sedimentary hosted ore deposits, such as copper and cobalt, are formed partly as a function of erosion and climate, allowing us to provide a mechanistic driver to their formation, and consequently exploration.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 3704 - Geoinformatics. Lead: Dr Andrew Merdith

Investigating the responses of Australian native bees to climatic warming. This project aims to investigate changes to native bee cognition, morphology, and pollination capability in response to climatic warming. Using emerging experimental methods for behavioural testing and state-of-the-art 3D modelling of museum specimens, the project expects to identify which species are likely to experience change under future climate scenarios. This project expects to determine if increased temperatures cause pollination deficits through impaired bee cognition and changed morphology. The knowledge gained in this project will allow us to identify vulnerable species and develop strategies across agriculture, government, and community sectors to support pollination and inform conservation priorities.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 3109 - Zoology. Lead: Dr Scarlett Howard

Boron nitride nanosheets for low energy consumption self-cooling devices. This project aims to investigate the thermal transport mechanism of strained two-dimensional materials for self-cooling thermal management. It expects to generate new knowledge about their unique thermal properties, guiding the use of waste heat generated in electronics for self-cooling. Expected outcomes include a novel energy-effective thermal management strategy and enhanced capacity to engineer thermal transport in two-dimensional materials that will be deployed in miniaturised and high-density electronics to overcome overheating problems. This will provide significant benefits to the economy and the environment, such as reduced cost, energy consumption and CO2 emissions in thermal management technologies. . Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4018 - Nanotechnology. Lead: Dr Qiran Cai

Chimeric molecules for precision protein modification. This project aims to address fundamental questions on how natural modifications of proteins cause functional changes inside cells. The project expects to generate new knowledge in the areas of organic chemistry and chemical biology through the development of a synthetic platform for the discovery of a novel class of chimeric molecules that can trigger precise modifications of proteins. Expected outcomes include a detailed understanding of how specific modifications modulate protein and cellular function. Significant benefits of this interdisciplinary project include access to a new class of molecules for basic research that may also find use for cell engineering applications within the growing biotechnology sector in Australia.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 3404 - Medicinal and Biomolecular Chemistry. Lead: Dr Xuyu Liu

Addressing the Crisis of Local Visual News in Regional and Remote Australia. This project aims to measure the volume and quality of visual content on regional news platforms by diverse publishers in eight key geographic areas. It is the first in Australia to examine the full cycle from production through presentation to consumption for local visual news in a regional context. Expected project outcomes include enhanced relationships between journalists and communities, stronger regional news ecosystems, and a more representative local visual news product. These outcomes boost the academic understanding of an understudied area, help regional Australia, including regional Indigenous Australia, see itself in the journalism that is produced in the regions, and provide commercial benefits to hard-hit news providers.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4701 - Communication and Media Studies. Lead: Dr T.J. Thomson

Using metacognitive self-evaluation to improve knowledge transfer. The knowledge and skills developed in the classroom often do not transfer to the workplace or even to other subjects at school. This project aims to evaluate how the transfer of knowledge can be enhanced by prompting students to evaluate and reflect on their performance in specific ways. The project will identify how different students respond to self-evaluation and how self-evaluation can most effectively be designed and applied in the classroom. Newly developed self-evaluation prompts will be implemented in a computerised and adaptive way so that self-evaluation is tailored to a particular student. This project should provide a scalable and cost-effective way to help students apply what they learn in a more flexible and efficient way. . Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 5201 - Applied and Developmental Psychology. Lead: Dr Kit Double

Understanding Philosophical Progress. This project aims to develop the first unified account of progress in science and philosophy, by extending the noetic account of scientific progress into an account of philosophical progress. According to this account, progress consists in increased understanding, i.e., in grasping how something depends on, or fails to depend on, something else. Developing a unified account will shed light on the nature of intellectual progress quite generally, as well substantially advancing meta-philosophical debates about (i) the prevalence of philosophical progress; (ii) whether, and the ways in which, expert disagreement would undermine progress; and (iii) which philosophical methodologies promote progress.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 5003 - Philosophy. Lead: Dr James Norton

Understanding drivers and deterrents of Australia's illicit tobacco market. As Australia implements policies that reduce the availability and affordability of tobacco, demand for illicit tobacco is likely to grow. This research aims to generate new knowledge about the drivers and deterrents of demand for illicit tobacco through three inter-related projects. Expected outcomes include a comprehensive understanding of factors influencing Australians’ demand for illicit tobacco, and expert-informed policy recommendations to reduce demand for and deter use of illicit tobacco. With no substantive Australian research on this topic for more than 15 years, this research will be essential to reduce the impacts of the illicit tobacco market, including substantial losses in tax revenue and the funding of organised crime.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4407 - Policy and Administration. Lead: Dr Cheneal Puljevic

Detecting Key Concepts from Low-Quality Data for Better Decision. The project aims to develop data analytics techniques that aid better decision making in high-stake scenarios when data are less-trustable. While data-aided decision making has been widely used, less-trustable data may significantly distort the decisions made and hurt people impacted by these decisions. The outcome of this project expects to be a series of techniques covering data understanding and enhancement, model development and fitting, and novelty detection, to reduce the damage of less-trustable data. The research expects to benefit the people and companies impacted by data-aided decision making in cybersecurity, healthcare and financial fraud detection, providing risk-control services.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4605 - Data Management and Data Science. Lead: Dr Miao Xu

Scalable and Lightweight On-Device Recommender Systems. This project aims to address the resource-intensive and non-resilient nature of existing cloud-based personalised recommendation services. This project expects to generate new knowledge in the intersection of on-device machine learning and recommender systems. The expected outcomes include a novel auto-deployment platform that can efficiently customise a model for each user device's configuration, supporting on-device recommendation and model updates with tiny computational footprints. The benefits of these outcomes will position Australia at the forefront of AI and give numerous businesses the tools needed to deploy innovative business systems with a secure and cost-effective advantage.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4605 - Data Management and Data Science. Lead: Dr Tong Chen

The prevalence and impact of digital alcohol exposure. This project aims to use artificial intelligence to quantify the amount of alcohol people are exposed to in digital media (e.g., social media, streaming videos) in their daily lives and the effect alcohol exposure has on alcohol use. Expected outcomes for this project include a quantification of the amount of alcohol exposure in digital media and the impact it has on drinking and a development of a protocol to test exposure. Significant benefits are expected for policy makers aiming to reduce exposure and the public wanting to avoid exposure to limit the harm of alcohol. . Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 5201 - Applied and Developmental Psychology. Lead: Dr Benjamin Riordan

How does morality influence adaptation to climate change? This project aims to understand how morality influences adaptation to climate change in the Great Barrier Reef region. This project expects to generate new knowledge in the critical area of climate change adaptation, using an interdisciplinary approach. Expected outcomes include empirical insights into the connection between morality and adaptation, international collaborations, theory development, and refined methods to help identify leverage points for incorporating morality into climate change decision-making. This should provide significant benefits, including a basis for policy-making in Australia and globally, that supports effective and just adaptation to climate change in ways that sustain livelihoods and respect local values.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4406 - Human Geography. Lead: Dr Jacqueline Lau

Re-igniting 'artistic vibrancy' in the Australian opera ecosystem. This project aims to advance new methodologies for re-establishing 'artistic vibrancy' (a factor found to be lacking by the National Opera Review in 2014-16) within operatic practice in Australia. The project expects to generate new knowledge of vital, but hidden musical processes, using interdisciplinary approaches in order to rebalance and recalibrate the opera ecosystem. Expected outcomes include the revitalisation of operatic practice and the establishment of clear parameters for responsible opera curation. Benefits include an enhanced awareness of artistic vibrancy within opera, and the creation of new practices, which will be of significant cultural and artistic benefit to the wider Australian community.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 3603 - Music. Lead: Dr Stephen Mould

Measuring and predicting sea spray spume droplets in the field. Sea spray spume droplets modulate heat and moisture fluxes between the ocean and atmosphere. These fluxes are a major source of uncertainty in extreme weather forecasting models due to a lack of reliable field measurement techniques. This project aims to develop a novel measurement technique to measure sea spray and generate new knowledge on the magnitude and nature of sea spray spume production. Expected outcomes include novel tools, a baseline dataset of sea spray field observations and predictive capabilities. Providing critical information to forecast extreme weather and tropical cyclones, this research will improve accuracy of coastal weather hazard prediction providing many social and economic benefits for Australia and other nations.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 4015 - Maritime Engineering. Lead: Dr Joey Voermans