The Australian Research Council (ARC) announced
grants totalling AU$333.5 million for 859 research projects on November 10. This
includes:
- AU$225.6
million for 594 projects funded through the ARC Discovery Projects scheme - AU$70.9
million for 197 new research projects to be undertaken as part of the
ARC Discovery Early Career
Researcher Award (DECRA)
scheme - AU$28.6
million in funding for 50 new collaborative research infrastructure
projects to be undertaken as part of the ARC Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities (LIEF)
scheme under the National Competitive Grants Program - AU $7.2 million for 13 new research projects through
the ARC Discovery Indigenous scheme - AU$1.15
million for five research projects under the Australian Research Council
Linkage Learned Academies Special
Projects (LASP) scheme
The Discovery Projects scheme provides funding to support
excellent basic and applied research projects to be undertaken by individual
researchers or research teams.
The Discovery Projects to commence in 2018 include AU$443,270
for a project led by Professor Kylie Catchpole at The Australian National
University to improve solar cell stability under operating conditions for
future large-scale production of cheap, clean electricity; AU$350,231 for a
project led by Dr Mihye Won at Curtin University to develop a comprehensive
analytical framework to identify and nurture scientific creativity in high
school students so they can successfully address complex future challenges; and
AU$312,298 for a project led by Professor Willy Susilo at the University of
Wollongong to improve control of encrypted outsourced data—critical to cloud
computing—for more practical, secure data storage.
The Discovery
Projects for funding commencing in 2019 scheme is now open for
proposals.
The DECRA scheme supports early-career researchers by
providing the time and resources to focus on advancing their research, and the
opportunities to build important connections and knowledge.
The DECRA awardees include Dr. Mohsen Asadnia from Macquarie
University, who will lead a project to develop a miniaturised cochlear implant
using advanced microfabrication techniques, to enable low-cost production for
commercialisation; Dr. Gemma Read from the University of the Sunshine Coast
will lead a project to address potential safety risks arising from the
introduction of advanced autonomous vehicles, to prevent new types of road
crash events; and a project led by Dr. Cagatay Goncu from Monash University to
present visual information in the form of audio and tactile technologies to
allow for the authoring, reading and storing of tactile electronic books for
people with visual impairment.
The LIEF scheme
provides critical funding for research infrastructure, equipment and
facilities—the tools to allow eligible organisations to support their research.
Awarded projects include a AU$435,279 to create a fabrication
facility for production of novel portable, wearable and stretchable biomedical
devices to monitor health conditions in a non-invasive way and an AU$1.3 million
project to link open data, knowledge and collaborations on existing research
infrastructure projects to develop ‘next generation’ tools to support decisions
on important public policy issues. Another project involves a major detector
upgrade of the 3000 square kilometre Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina,
used in international scientific collaboration involving Australian researchers.
