Griffith University

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Fusing wearables and advanced computational models for real world analysis. This project aims to solve a major technological problem: our inability to study human skeletal, muscular, and neural function in the real world. This project expects to, for the first time globally, integrate wearable sensors with neuromusculoskeletal computational models and artificial intelligence, and validate this technology. Expected project outcomes include an integrated system for future commercialisation and new understanding of how whole-body behavioural choices affect tissue mechanics during daily and sporting activities. Project outcomes should provide significant benefits, such as the ability to escape the laboratory to understand human performance for defence, sport, industrial, and health settings. Field of research: 1106 - Human Movement and Sports Science This project aims to generate rich novel scientific data and inaugurate a new era of human movement study by enabling modelling of human neuromusculoskeletal function in the real world. This project will benefit those who value mechanistic understanding of human motor function. As this project involves a step-change in wearable sensor technology, it will be of interest to many industry sectors including: defence, who plan, monitor, and evaluate training and missions; biomedical device companies, who evaluate human-device function in real world settings to optimise design; sporting clubs, where coaches monitor athlete work load to improve performance and reduce injury risk; and labour industries, who monitor how occupational activities stress human tissues to manage injury risk. The project technology will enable an individual to gain novel, powerful, and immediate understanding of neuromusculoskeletal dynamics of a specific individual during motor tasks with need to access a specialized laboratory. Further, the project outcomes will have excellent potential for future commercialization.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Engineering semitransparent perovskite solar cells for smart solar windows. This project aims to develop highly efficient and stable semitransparent perovskite solar cells for innovative smart solar windows. The key concept is to explore novel functionalisation strategies on emerging carbon and two-dimensional materials to fabricate semitransparent perovskite solar cells for self-powered smart photovoltaic windows. Expected outcomes of this project include not only placing Australia at the forefront of research in the fields of materials science and renewable energy, but also creating commercial opportunities in Australia. This project expects to have various benefits for Australians – through the development of a cutting-edge sustainable energy device and the establishment of strong international collaborations. Field of research: 0912 - Materials Engineering Australia receives much more solar radiation than any other continent on Earth, making it well-suited region for solar power. Developing advanced technologies to utilise Australia’s abundant resources is vital to a sustainable future of Australia. This project aims to develop high efficiency semitransparent perovskite solar cells for building-integrated smart photovoltaic windows. This new-generation window is expected to dynamically control the amount of sunlight and heat that can come inside our house whilst producing power, saving on energy cost and improving Australian’s life style. This project will generate new advanced knowledge in the fields of materials science, nanoscience and technology, and energy, enhancing Australia’s international profile in these fields. The commercial opportunities of the smart solar windows created from this project will lead to significant socioeconomic benefits for photovoltaic and building industries in Australia. The success of this project will have direct positive impact on the environmental issues by developing high efficiency renewable solar energy technologies.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Momentarily immobile: the futures of backpacking and seasonal farm workers. This project aims to examine the experiences of backpackers and seasonal migrants who live in communal hostel accommodation while doing farm work in regional Queensland. This project expects to generate new knowledge using ethnographic and arts-based methods on how backpackers navigate periods of being affixed to the one place while completing required farm work, and their contribution to the socio-cultural life of regional communities. Expected outcomes include greater understanding on the contributions of seasonal migrant labour, a public forum, recommendations for industry and governments, and an exhibition. This should provide significant benefits to encouraging post-pandemic growth back into regional communities and farming labour. Field of research: 1604 - Human Geography Australia continues to be a destination of choice for a ‘working holiday’ among young people, with backpackers making up the bulk of labour in Australia’s agricultural sector. However, there is little understanding of how young working holidaymakers and those temporary and seasonal migrants who toil alongside them survive their time in the intensive, and sometimes exploitative, conditions of farm work. There is a need to better understand what motivates working backpackers and other seasonal migrants to participate and remain in farm work. This project aims to deliver timely information on the experiences of working backpackers and how industries of accommodation and agriculture can better support them. This project seeks to build valuable knowledge that all stakeholders can use to grow and support a key player in Australia’s agricultural and tourism industries.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Engineering micropatterned surfaces for cell mechanics and mechanobiology. This project aims to engineer a highly versatile micropatterned surface that can be used to culture and study cells. This project expects to generate a unique microtechnology, as well as new knowledge in surface science and cell mechanics by elucidating the relationship between controlled surface wettability and cell behaviour. The expected outcomes of this project include a low-cost and highly engineered tissue culture tool that controls cellular functions, revolutionising practices in stem cell engineering. The platform technology has a great potential for commercialisation and enhancing Australian research capacity through international and interdisciplinary collaborations and will directly benefit the Australian biotech industry. Field of research: 0913 - Mechanical Engineering We need to study cells in a 3D environment to understand the cell mechanics, which are central to tissue function, wound healing, embryonic development, and the formation and metastasis of cancer. While technologies for this exist, they often fail to grow cells and little is understood about their interaction with tissues at a cellular level. The proposed research will improve the cell culture platforms that are indispensable in biomedical industry by fabricating a highly versatile micropatterned surface. The project aims to generate knowledge of the microphysical properties of a silicon-carbide surface and its interaction with cells. The platform will be fabricated through an advanced manufacturing process using the latest advances in microtechnology. This aligns well with the advanced manufacturing research priority, and if successfully commercialised, has the potential to be used throughout the multi-billion-dollar biotech sector. The research enabled by this proposed platform could lead to significant advances in mechanobiology, leading to significant health benefits for the Australian community.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Colour change: Artistic/ritual responses to climate flux in Australasia . Art and ritual connect people socially and help them manage stress. Throughout human history, evidence for this is preserved by the collection and use of ochres (coloured earth minerals). Characterising ancient ochre records across Sunda, Wallacea and Sahul, this project aims to understand people’s use of art and ritual in the most climatically dynamic region on Earth. Furthering Australia's reputation for innovative archaeological science, expected outcomes will include the first large-scale interdisciplinary investigations into how art and ritual were used to help mediate climate flux, generating significant new narratives of past cultural resilience to benefit people currently grappling with climate vulnerabilities. Field of research: 2101 - Archaeology People living today have complex behaviours and social interactions that are evolutionarily unique. Understanding what drove these developments, and how they enabled us to migrate, settle and prosper in almost every part of the globe, are central questions in archaeological research. This project will expand our knowledge of the cultural resilience that has seen people thrive in the most climatically dynamic region on Earth: the Australasian monsoon domain. It will produce new insights into how populations, from the first human colonists to the recent cultural groups, used art and ritual to mitigate environmental stress. It will strengthen collaborations between researchers and indigenous stakeholders across the Asian Pacific region, empowering contemporary Aboriginal artists to deliver narratives of past cultural resilience that will be of timely benefit to people currently grappling with climate vulnerabilities.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Redefining success in marine ecosystem restoration. This project aims to improve evaluations of marine ecosystem restoration through the measurement of key animal health metrics, and automated monitoring using artificial intelligence. This project expects to generate unique knowledge about why ecosystem restoration succeeds or fails, and improve our understanding of how animal data can better inform future restoration projects. The expected outcomes will enhance our capacity to use new and efficient techniques to monitor and evaluate ecosystem restoration in a more ecologically valid way. Benefits include more effective ecosystem restoration, wildlife conservation, and the enhancement of ecosystem services including sustainable fishing and eco-tourism. Field of research: 0502 - Environmental Science and Management Restoration of degraded ecosystems is essential for a thriving planet. Commonwealth and state governments in Australia invest significant funding into the restoration of ecosystems, including the $100 million Environment Restoration Fund. However, restoration often fails, wasting valuable resources and missing prime opportunities to enhance biodiversity. This project can inform best practice to achieve the intended benefits of ecosystem restoration, contributing to the conservation of Australia’s unique wildlife, and supporting industries that rely on healthy, productive ecosystems such as fisheries and eco-tourism. This project will contribute to the Science and Research Priorities of Environmental Change and Soil and Water, and the National Marine Science Plan’s critical challenge of Biodiversity Conservation, by improving our capacity to respond and adapt to the impacts of environmental change, and developing solutions to maximise benefits from restoration efforts. Ultimately, the project will benefit Australia's environment, economy, and our society.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Agents of Disinformation: The Rise of Counterfeit Election Observers. This project investigates the rise of “counterfeit” election observers as agents of disinformation. Using four case studies and four qualitative methods, it identifies how autocratic regimes entice partisan individuals to imitate genuine international observers. The expected project outcome is an explanation for the origins, features and impact of counterfeit election observers that is practically applicable to our foreign affairs and national intelligence communities as well as genuine observation organisations. The knowledge gained from this project will not only help defend Australia from malign disinformation, but advance its interest in the promotion of good governance and stronger democratic institutions everywhere. Field of research: 1606 - Political Science The emergence of “counterfeit” election observers threatens Australia’s foreign policy objectives and national security initiatives. A counterfeit election observer is a partisan individual who deceptively imitates a genuine election observer for the purpose of validating an election held by an autocratic regime. By producing and spreading disinformation, they reduce citizen awareness about the poor integrity of elections; undermine the validity of opposition complaints about the integrity of elections; and decrease the leverage that genuine observation organisations rely upon to improve the integrity of elections. Through an investigation of this novel strategy, the proposed project will equip Australia’s foreign affairs and national intelligence communities - and those of our overseas allies - with a critical new capability, while also deliver new information to the genuine election observation organisations advocating for clean elections around the world.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Glycan-based prebiotic approaches to increase food safety in Australia. Since the launch of the first Australian Animal Sector National Antimicrobial Resistance Plan (2018) several approaches have been suggested to reduce the use antibiotics in agriculture, however no alternatives to antibiotics have been suggested or trialled. In this proposal we aim to develop a novel glycan-based prebiotic strategy to reduce Campylobacter jejuni colonisation in chicken and poultry by disrupting important glycan-glycan interactions. Outcomes of this proposal is a cost-effective antibiotic- and vaccine-independent animal feed supplement strategy that will decrease the risk of human food-borne illness and therefore promoting food safety and public health in Australia. Field of research: 0601 - Biochemistry and Cell Biology This project aims to reduce contamination of chicken meat with Campylobacter jejuni, a human pathogen that causes approximately 4.0 million food-borne illness each year costing the Australian society $1.25 billion. We suggest disrupting an emerging class of biomolecular interactions that are responsible for the colonisation of chicken meat with this C. jejuni. Our research project will not only pave the way to significantly decrease food borne illness promoting better food safety practices within Australia but also forms the basis for an excellent multidisciplinary research environment providing high quality training to the next generation of structural chemists, microbiologists and glycoscientists that are necessary to drive Australia's emerging biotechnology and biomedical sectors; thus providing economic, commercial and societal benefits.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

China’s Law-Based Governance Revolution under Xi Jinping . To sustain its unmitigated power, the Chinese Communist Party is transforming its legal ideology and governance focus to make politico-legal institutions more capable of supervising and moulding people’s behaviour and beliefs. This project aims to examine how this transformation is constructed by key institutions and digested into public policy and legal decision-making guidelines. It expects to generate new knowledge on how Xi Jinping-era legal ideology guides policy and decision-making in China. The expected outcomes include an enhanced conceptual and empirical understanding of politico-legal change in China. This project has significant implications for Australia given China’s increasingly assertive role in international governance. Field of research: 1699 - Other Studies In Human Society Australia’s national interests are served by better understanding changes to China’s governance system. Understanding changes in law-based governance is a major challenge and policy concern with broad-ranging social, economic and security implications. This project examines how China’s new ‘Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law’ ideology is being built into legal propaganda, scholarly thought and judicial guidelines, shaping the parameters of decision-making in the legal system. China says that it intends to promote this new governance system worldwide to compete with conventional liberal ideas on the rule of law. Australia’s economic and geo-strategic position in the contemporary world make maintaining deep knowledge of China strategically crucial, as China transitions towards great power status in the 21st century. This project contributes to national interest as it can help inform Australian government policy makers on how to best respond to the Chinese government’s new governance system underpinned by ideology that challenges western-liberal approaches to law and governance.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Advanced chemical recycling of mixed plastics for monomer recovery. This project aims to develop innovative catalytic routes to the chemical recycling of mixed plastics for recovery of their molecular building blocks. Plastic pollution poses a significant threat to the Australian ecosystem. Efficient recycling technologies are urgently needed as Australia only recycles ~4% of its 3.4 million tons of mixed waste plastics. This project expects to design highly efficient catalysts for the stepwise breakdown of mixed polyolefin plastics into monomers for the subsequent manufacturing of virgin plastics in a circular economy, and to elucidate fundamental underpinning reaction mechanisms. Outcomes will stimulate the Australian waste plastic recycling industry, and minimise plastic accumulation in the environment. Field of research: 0904 - Chemical Engineering Plastic waste is composed of diverse chemical compounds that render its recycling costly and inefficient. Past practice of exporting plastic waste is now banned, and the majority of such waste is now sent to landfill resulting in significant costs and negative environmental impact to land and aquatic ecosystems. In this project, plastic waste will be recycled through chemical transformation to produce building blocks for new plastics production. This technology aims to enable Australia to transition towards a circular economy and the creation/expansion of a domestic waste plastic processing industry. As a result, a new supply chain for plastic waste will become available, opening up jobs in the advanced manufacturing sector, product distribution and application. Environmental benefits include controlled plastic recycling with significantly reduced carbon dioxide emissions, and a significant reduction in plastic waste leakage into remote Australian coastlines.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Chemical probes to dissect the cell cycle of globally important parasites . This project aims to develop new reagents, called chemical probes, to visualise key biological events in globally important pathogens. We will use innovative chemistry to modify the building blocks of DNA and provide researchers with essential tools to 'see' DNA synthesis in order to study growth and replication of pathogens in combination with microscopy. This project expects to support a major technical advance that will address important gaps in our understanding of many pathogens (e.g. those that cause malaria and tuberculosis), at both the cellular and molecular levels. This should provide significant benefits by enabling researchers worldwide to identify new intervention opportunities that target unique aspects of pathogen biology. Field of research: 0304 - Medicinal and Biomolecular Chemistry This project strengthens the important interface between chemistry and biology, vital for development of new chemical probes to tackle global problems, extend our understanding of the living world, improve the quality of biological research data and more rapidly advance translational projects. New chemical probes will be developed for imaging, manipulating, and tracking key molecules in important human pathogens (e.g. those that cause malaria and tuberculosis), so that researchers can better understand their replication, life cycle and impact on humans and the environment. The project outcomes will provide a unique resource for collaborative knowledge creation in the biotechnology sector, with potential for enabling future economic growth. Specifically, the project will generate IP with potential for development into commercial products (e.g. chemical probe reagent kits to be used by researchers worldwide), building beyond the opportunity of Australian research investment to create and supply knowledge for commercialisation elsewhere.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Bioengineering self-assembly of innovative core-shell nanomaterials . This project aims to generate new knowledge in nanoscale bioengineering. It expects to develop a disruptive platform technology for design and manufacture of advanced nanomaterials to provide solutions for unmet needs in industry. It will explore an innovative bioengineering concept that merges biopolymer synthesis with virus-like particle self-assembly to produce innovative tunable core-shell nanomaterials. Expected outcomes are the development of advanced techniques for design and manufacture of innovate nanomaterials with enhanced stability and performance. This innovative platform technology for precision engineering of high-performance nanomaterials should provide significant benefits for biotechnological and agricultural industries. Field of research: 1007 - Nanotechnology This project will generate innovative high-performance hybrid materials with enormous potential for commercial translation in Australian advanced manufacturing and biotechnology sectors. Merging two cutting-edge technologies through advanced bioengineering will lead to new smart materials with enhanced properties. The broad applications of these cost-effective materials will be demonstrated as veterinary vaccines and nanoreactors (enabling precise, efficient control of chemical reactions) for use by chemical and pharmaceutical industries. In addition, we will harness this capability to study structure and function of biological molecules entrapped within these smart materials to create innovative biomedical research tools. The project will build multidisciplinary sovereign capability and capacity in bioengineering, bioprocess development and materials science. These outcomes align with the needs of Australia’s growing life sciences industry ($8.67 billion projected revenue in 2021), in particular the biomanufacturing and animal health sectors, contributing significant economic and health benefits.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Innovation in police gender equity management: Looking back, moving forward. This project aims to investigate gender equity recruitment and career support policies in all nine Australian and New Zealand policing agencies. A wide range of equity initiatives that have been implemented across police agencies will be examined, along with affirmative action measures including recent 50/50 male/female recruitment targets. The project expects to generate an advanced best practice model that can be used by domestic and international police agencies. This will allow police organisations to better manage equity issues and support a more inclusive and representative workforce. The benefits of this project are significant, they range from stronger police-community relations through to better service delivery by police. Field of research: 1602 - Criminology This study is unique in advancing knowledge of and evaluating contemporary efforts to significantly enhance the involvement of women in Australian and New Zealand policing through recruitment targets, targeted advertising and associated organisational inclusion strategies. The study also has a forward focus, it will produce valuable practical, best practice lessons to drive future management of equity issues in policing in Australia and internationally, and other occupations with strong traditions of gender discrimination. Police organisations should be representative of the communities that they serve and gender representation is associated with a number of critical organisational performance indicators. Research demonstrates that greater representation of women police has a transformative effect on police agencies, it improves service delivery, victim support, and reduces corruption and excessive force. Beyond domestic policing, gender representativeness is a key pillar in Australia's police policies in providing a more gender inclusive service in international peacemaking and capacity building missions.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Understanding the Antipodean 'Fair Go'. There is bipartisan support for the 'fair go' in Australia and New Zealand, but what does the fair go actually mean? This project aims to generate new knowledge about the role of the fair go in political debate and policy making. It will examine the values that have been historically connected to the fair go. It will assess how the public and politicians currently understand the fair go and will investigate how the fair go has influenced public policies. Expected outcomes include the first systematic analysis of one of the most pervasive and enduring social and political ideas in Australia and New Zealand. This will give policymakers a better understanding of citizens’ values and will build knowledge about how values shape public policies. Field of research: 1605 - Policy and Administration The 'fair go' is a recurring theme in Australia and New Zealand, but what does it actually mean to Australians, New Zealanders and their elected representatives? Has the meaning of the fair go changed throughout history? What does the fair go mean in specific policy areas? This project will be the first to systemically investigate how Australians, New Zealanders and their national parliamentarians have understood the concept of the fair go, as well as how the notion has been used in public policy debates. The study will make a substantial contribution to knowledge about how values and ideas shape public policy in our region. It will also reveal the degree to which our values have shifted as a result of the changes wrought by COVID-19. Given the pervasiveness of the fair go in Antipodean political and social discourse, this project will help to clarify key values that make up our culture and identity.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Heisenberg-limited lasers: building the revolution. The project aims to design and build a revolutionary new type of laser based on the ground-breaking 2020 Nature Physics paper by the two Chief Investigators. The significance of this work is that it overturns 60 years of theory about the limits to laser coherence, by applying 21st century quantum theory and quantum technology to the problem. This project expects to greatly advance the theory and, by instigating a collaboration with world-leading experimentalists working with superconducting quantum devices, to demonstrate a laser with coherence beyond what was thought possible. Benefits of the project should flow from the manifold applications for highly coherent radiation, including scaling up superconducting quantum computing. Field of research: 0206 - Quantum Physics Laser have countless applications in science, medicine, and every day technologies, with a market in excess of 15 billion AUD per year. For many of these applications, the crucial difference between lasers and traditional sources of light is the coherence of the light beam. Since even before lasers were created, scientists thought they knew the limit to how coherent a laser could be. But research published in 2020 by the two Principal Investigators showed that by using quantum technology it should be possible to make the coherence much greater than was previously thought possible. This grant will build on that revolution to move the theory towards reality. In conjunction with world-leading quantum experimentalists, we aim to realise a laser with coherence beyond what was thought possible. The work will make use of the same technology that has already realised a quantum computer more powerful than any conventional computer. Our new class of lasers will have applications in scaling up such quantum computers, to the benefit of Australia's economy.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Uncovering Antarctica’s Secret Chemical Voyagers for Expedited Regulation. This project aims to strengthen global chemical policy by rapidly identifying chemicals that demonstrate environmental persistence and mobility, two requisite risk criteria for regulatory action. It will take the novel approach of applying powerful non-target chemical screening approaches to Antarctic environmental media, leveraging the remoteness of Antarctica to derive unambiguous evidence against the key risk criteria. Research will uncover a new catalogue of proven persistent and mobile chemicals, and further assess their ubiquity and biomagnification potential in the Antarctic system. Project findings will be directly disseminated to policymakers, facilitating expedited regulatory decision-making for improved Planetary Health outcomes. Field of research: 0399 - Other Chemical Sciences Globally, 136 million new chemicals were registered between 2002-2019. Major adverse public health outcomes have been linked to the complex chemical mixtures that now fill our environment. Policies that limit or prevent emissions of hazardous chemicals are society’s main defense against harmful chemical exposure. A a lack of information regarding individual chemical risk is the greatest impediment to generating an effective chemical policy framework. This project seeks to rapidly expand the catalogue of known chemicals exhibiting the risk criteria of environmental persistence and mobility. Environmental transport of chemicals to Antarctica is conditional on these chemical properties. As such, confident detection in Antarctic environmental media provides the unambiguous evidence required for regulatory decision-making. This is a policy-relevant project that will equip regulators with the scientific basis for expedited policy action, with specific reference to the Stockholm Convention on POPs, the Australian Industrial Chemicals Introduction Scheme, and The Madrid Protocol of the Antarctic Treaty System.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

The impact of immigrant theatre artists on Australian culture 1919-1949. Using an innovative mixed-methods research design, this project aims to investigate the lives and impact of immigrant theatre artists working in Australia from 1919 to 1949, focusing on the influential Latvian "power couple" Dolia and Rosa Ribush. After 1918, increased migration flows led numbers of foreign artists to come to Australia. These have been studied individually but never as a network, so their contribution to Australian culture has been greatly undervalued. Benefits of the project include better understanding of the way Australian theatre has been creatively shaped by diverse patterns of immigration. Expected outcomes include new knowledge of a major period of development in the place, operation and value of Australian culture. Field of research: 1904 - Performing Arts and Creative Writing The years 1919-1949 were a crucial time in the development of Australian political, intellectual and artistic life, and the role and contribution of immigrant artists was a key reason for this. This project will enhance Australian national identity, social cohesion and community well-being by improving understanding of how Australian culture was (and still is) influenced by diverse creative arts practices and values. It will enrich the relationship with Australian artists of diverse backgrounds today by showing how mutually respectful and fruitful ties existed between immigrant artists and local Australian artists in the interwar, war and reconstruction period, facilitating better cross-cultural collaboration in contemporary arts projects. It will fill an important gap in the national narrative that can be drawn on for educational and policy purposes by those responsible for managing arts events, programs and institutions in the socially and culturally diverse country that is Australia now.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Nano optoelectronic coupling: towards an ultrasensitive sensing technology. This project aims to elucidate ultrasensitive mechanical and thermal sensing effects that are tens of thousands of times better than conventional sensing technologies. This is achieved through controlling interactions between photons and electrons at the interface of two semiconductors. Outcomes of this project include scientific breakthroughs that are expected to revolutionise and disrupt the established sensing technologies. Microscopic low power mechanical and thermal sensors with ultra-high sensitivity have great value to enhance safety, security, and productivity of industry and society. The project is expected to generate new knowledge and place Australia as the world leader in physical sensing and create a new industry. Field of research: 0913 - Mechanical Engineering Mechanical and thermal sensors are pivotal for safety, security and productivity of Australian industry and society. However, even state-of-the-art sensing technologies still face key obstacles in achieving sufficient sensitivity for high precision applications with reasonable cost, small size, light weight and low power consumption. The current limit of sensing performance is attributed to the conventional design approach, which is based on the inherent properties of sensor materials. This project aims to develop an unprecedented highly sensitive, low power and low-cost sensing technology, which is capable of measuring mechanical and thermal variables with accuracies thousands of times better than conventional sensors. The project will deliver an Australian made competitive sensing platform technology for applications including smart cities, natural disaster mitigation, and defense. The commercial translation of this technology will create new jobs and provide Australia with great economic benefits and international reputation.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Parenting in an unsteady world across nations. Overinvolved and overcontrolling parenting seems to be on the rise as families are confronted with an unsteady world. This project aims to investigate how overparenting affects youth's achievements and well-being as they transition out of secondary school, and will isolate societal and cultural determinants of overparenting. This project will generate new knowledge on family influences on youth's progress, and will substantially contribute to an existing multinational study to identify macro social-cultural determinants of overcontrolling parenting. Expected outcomes are the generation of new knowledge relevant to family policy and practice within Australia, growth in cross-national collaborations, and new theories and methods. Field of research: 1701 - Psychology This research identifies how societal pressures can influence parenting practices, producing parental worries, overcontrolling behaviours and burnout, and in turn, how parents' behaviours affect youth's educational, vocational, relationship, and mental health progress post-secondary school. This knowledge can be translated into policies and practices for parents and youth in an unsteady world. When families are strong, the benefits extend across all sectors - economic, social, commercial, and cultural. Families also provide support for the next generation of active, engaged, healthy, and productive members of society. Yet, parents are not immune to the impact of stressors faced within their homes, their communities, their nation, and around the world. One outcome is parent worries and overprotection of children, which can be counterproductive to youth's optimal development, even when parents have the best intentions. We must keep pace to understand the contemporary pressures on parents and their impacts on parenting and youth to provide updated science-based information to support parents and families.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

The politics of expertise during COVID-19. Experts play a crucial role during crises. This project aims to examine how four governments (Australia, Sweden, United Kingdom and United States) have incorporated public health expertise into their decision making during COVID-19. These countries have similar economic resources, liberal democratic institutions, health system capacities and pandemic preparedness. Yet, their governments responded differently to COVID-19. We will conduct a comparative study of how governments managed disagreements between experts and how they integrated diverse expert views into pandemic decision making processes. The research will advance our understanding of the role of experts during crises and help inform governments response to future pandemics. Field of research: 1606 - Political Science This project serves Australia’s national interest in ensuring domestic health security and promoting international cooperation in crisis response. COVID-19 has highlighted the extraordinary costs of pandemics for public health, the domestic economy, international trade, travel and public trust in institutions. It has also exposed Australia’s vulnerability to external health threats. The Australian Government has expressed an ongoing political and financial commitment to international collaboration in health emergency response. This project will enhance Australia’s preparedness for future health emergencies and build Australian research and expertise in the areas of health security, global health and crisis management. It will deliver a publicly accessible evidence-base for the optimal design of expert advisory systems during health crises to increase health emergency preparedness activities at global, national and community levels.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Early art, culture and occupation along the northern route to Australia. This project aims to uncover archaeological evidence for early humans in Indonesia's northern island chain (from Borneo to West Papua). This poorly known region harbours the world's earliest known figurative cave art (>45,500 years old), and it is also the most likely maritime route used by modern humans during the initial peopling of Australia ~65,000 years ago. The project aims to use cave excavations and rock art dating to fill the 20,000 year gap between the earliest known archaeological evidence from these islands and the oldest human site in Australia. Expected outcomes include new insight into the ancient past of Indonesia and a greatly improved understanding of the art and cultural lifeways of the ancestors of the First Australians. Field of research: 2101 - Archaeology This project, set in Indonesia, aims to uncover archaeological evidence for the initial movements of people from the edge of 'ice age' Asia (present-day Borneo) to Australia's northern coastline as early as 65,000 years ago. Our team of Australian and Indonesian researchers will use modern science to trace the pathways of these first seafaring colonists and reveal new insight into how the human story in Australia began. Knowledge generated by this research will benefit Australia in two ways. First, our project will increase awareness and recognition within Australian society of the deeply ancient historical connection between Australia's Indigenous people and our most important northern neighbour: Indonesia. Second, cutting-edge dating technology developed for this project will highlight the global significance of Indonesia's early cave art (already under consideration for UNESCO World Heritage status); in so doing it will provide new opportunities for local communities to develop business enterprises focused on cultural heritage tourism, thus contributing to the long-term stability of Indonesian society.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Microfluidics with core-shell beads: handling liquids like solids. Reducing waste of consumables in chemical reactions promises to solve environmental problems as well as enable novel applications in space. This project aims to establish a revolutionary fluid handling technology that lowers waste in the labs and in satellites. The project deciphers the fundamental physics behind our recent discovery of encapsulating a tiny liquid content in a solid shell, allowing for handling liquid samples like solid particles. Examples of the benefit of this project are more precise detection of bacteria on earth and compact reactors in space. The research outcomes are instrumental for promoting a clean environment, good health, and creating new business opportunities, particularly in space industry, for Australians. Field of research: 0913 - Mechanical Engineering The fluid handling technology developed from this project will have direct commercial application to Australian industry while providing environmental and health benefits for Australians. Successful project outcomes will advance discussions with an Australian biotechnology company to further develop this intellectual property and implement the technology within their laboratory instrumentation to improve the detection of viral infections. The technology can also be utilised within water quality monitoring tools for the rapid determination of the microbiological quality of water and specifically the origin of faecal pollution. In addition to the environmental benefit of reducing plastic waste from laboratories, the technology is expected to enable the emerging sector of space chemistry.  Thus, this project has significant potential to create economic benefit through the commercialisation of enhanced Australian products in the health and space industries, and environmental benefit by reducing the costs associated with managing water resources and reducing plastic waste.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

The genetics of four ancient 'Kings' of Sahul and Sunda. This project aims to recover all the genetic information from four ancient humans. Two of these iconic specimens come from Australia and two from Malaysia. We will sequence the entire DNA (genomes) and proteins (proteome) of Mungo Man (Willandra), the Yidinji King (Cairns), the Deep Skull (Borneo) and the Bewah specimen (Malaysian Peninsula). This will provide a better understanding of the settlement of Australia and new knowledge about the ancient people of Australasia and their relationship to other human populations worldwide. The research will use cutting-edge methods of DNA and protein sequencing of ancient human material and will provide critical reference genomes / proteomes that will anchor future research. Field of research: 0604 - Genetics The history of our part of the world has been dominated by two giant continents that are now long gone: Sunda and Sahul. Sunda was an ancient extension of continental Asia that included Borneo, Sumatra and the Philippines. Sahul was the other ancient continent that gave rise to mainland Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea. Our understanding of the ancient people from these two continents has been hindered by a lack of comprehensive DNA and protein sequences from them. We propose to sequence the nuclear genomes, (the DNA from both parents) and the proteomes (the expressed proteins) of four of the ancient ‘Kings’ from Sahul and Sunda. These are the oldest Australian, Mungo Man; the mummified Yidinji King from the Cairns region; Bewah specimen, the oldest human remains unearthed from the Malay Peninsular and the “Deep Skull”, the oldest modern human that has been discovered in island South-East Asia. These genetic sequences will provide the necessary baseline information and will anchor future evolutionary and forensic studies of the early people of our region.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Lifting the burden of imprisonment: Creating safer and stronger communities. This project aims to identify how a reduction in imprisonment rates could benefit Australian communities and enhance their safety and wellbeing. It will link a range of statistical data sources on imprisonment, crime and community wellbeing. We will, for the first time, comprehensively demonstrate the impact of imprisonment on individuals and communities in Australia and beyond. Expected outcomes of this project include expansion and innovation of coercive mobility theory, novel integration of data, and a forecasting tool to assess the impact of imprisonment reduction on communities. This evidence will assist advocacy groups and policy makers seeking to address Australia’s burgeoning imprisonment rate. Field of research: 1602 - Criminology Australia imprisons twice as many people as it did 30 years ago, placing it well above average imprisonment rates in comparable OECD countries. Australia has one of the most expensive prison systems in the world. Policy makers, professionals and advocacy groups agree on the urgent need to downsize imprisonment. They call for a reduction of imprisonment’s economic and human costs, which are paid by vulnerable families and communities and hidden from public view. These costs are disproportionately paid by Indigenous people. This project will provide highly relevant information and robust evidence for policymaking in four key areas. We will (1) weigh the crime-preventing benefits of imprisonment against the burden of harmful consequences for communities; (2) demonstrate that considerable gains in community safety and wellbeing can be achieved solely by a reduction of members circulating in and out of prison; (3) identify conditions that break cycles of reoffending; and (4) identify communities severely affected by imprisonment for selective and targeted intervention.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Developing a novel carbon negative fertiliser . Food security is vital to support our growing population. However, our increasing reliance on intensive farming systems necessitates increased fertiliser use, leading to increased water pollution and soil degradation - threatening both the Australian environment and food security. Increasing carbon storage capacity by soil and decreasing fertiliser use are two of the primary pathways for restoring the bio-support capacity of soils and reducing farming footprints. This innovative and first-of-its-kind project aims to develop a cost-effective, carbon negative fertiliser that reduces fertiliser inputs and increases soil carbon storage Field of research: 0503 - Soil Sciences Intensive farming is rapidly increasing in Australia and synthetic fertilisers are becoming increasingly relied upon to support our food production, worth $2.9 billion/year in exports. While synthetic fertilisers have enabled dramatic improvements in agricultural productivity, they have significantly impacted soil fertility while contributing to the pollution of our marine ecosystems, such as the Great Barrier Reef. With Australia’s population expected to reach 35.9 million by 2050, there is an urgent and unmet need to develop new fertilisers capable of supporting increased food production on existing farmland while reducing the need for large amounts of fertilisers to improve soil health and decrease pollution of our water sources and oceans. This project will revolutionize farming systems in Australia by developing a carbon negative fertiliser that can be tailored for use in a range of farming systems. The fertiliser will be cost-effective, will be used to apply for government incentives (e.g. carbon credits), and will decrease off-site impacts of fertiliser leaching and reduce greenhouse gas emission.