Griffith University

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2024 · 2024-01

Sediment Drilling Facility for environmental and genetic archives. This Sediment Drilling Facility for Environmental and Genetic Archives combines versatile augers with new field spectrometers that will enable sediment extraction and rapid, in situ measurements from coastal, lake and riverine environments. The facility includes a compact geotechnical drill rig, a portable power auger with hydraulic extraction unit, a vibracorer with motorised pontoon, laser induced breakdown spectrometer and magnetic susceptibility. With access co-ordinated through the Queensland Geochronology Alliance, the new facility will enable university researchers unprecedented access to field equipment required to address questions about changing ecology, landscape and climate on recent and geological timescales. Field of research: 3709 - Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience This facility will contribute to our understanding of climate and environmental change in Australia and neighbouring Pacific islands by enabling the reconstruction of environmental records from sedimentary archives contained in lakes, swamps and floodplains. In the past, extracting long sediment cores from terrestrial environments required professional drillers at significant cost. This new infrastructure aims to provide inexpensive, mobile coring rigs with state-of-the-art field spectrometers that make possible efficient data collection relating to changes in catchment erosion, changing ecology, the occurrence of natural hazards, and fluctuations in rainfall and temperature. Such information is vital for the development of effective management strategies, and enables better management outcomes for culturally, environmentally and economically important landscapes including the tropical savanna, semiarid rangelands, wetlands, and the Great Barrier Reef. These projects provide critical data required for Australian national climate models, which are used to predict seasonal rainfall for agriculture and disaster planning in the light of recent and projected anthropogenic warming. More broadly, long records of climate change and variability are critical to answer the arguments of climate sceptics that greenhouse warming is within the range of natural variability.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2024 · 2024-01

A paradigm shift for predictions of freshwater harmful cyanobacteria blooms. This project aims to advance model predictions to generate novel insights into the triggers of freshwater harmful cyanobacteria blooms. Current models are poorly adapted for this purpose because they fail to account for antecedent environmental forcing. The project is expected to create new knowledge of cyanobacteria dynamics from simulating the adaptive responses of individual cyanobacteria cells, colonies or filaments to temperature, light and nutrient history. Three field studies will be used to validate a new individual based model. The outcomes of this project will be valuable for managing freshwater ecosystems that are increasingly subject to blooms in a warming climate, and for testing suitable mitigation and control strategies. Field of research: 3103 - Ecology Harmful cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) blooms are aggregations of photosynthetic bacteria, some toxic, that impact water quality and treatment, recreation, and economic returns from water. In Australia, measures to combat blooms and treat drinking water cost tens of millions of dollars each year. Indirect costs also result in loss of opportunity, biodiversity and ecosystem services. Environmental change and extreme weather events associated with global warming are increasing occurrences of blooms. The current generation of predictive models does not include the variety of species and strains causing the blooms and their adaptive responses to key environmental stimuli like water temperature, nutrients and light. This project will provide a new generation of model that is 'fit for purpose' and targeted at species and strain level, including physiological responses. More accurate predictions of blooms will provide benefits for water security and water quality, increasing knowledge of the antecedent conditions that trigger blooms and providing a model tailored to test management strategies. Our connectedness with cyanobacteria research leaders globally, and the water industry and policy makers in Australia, will maximise the usefulness, relevance and translation of the model for management outcomes. The project aligns with the National Water Reform Agenda goals to have a coordinated, strategic and trusted scientific approach to tackle water challenges in Australia.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2024 · 2024-01

Cultivating digital music making in regional Australia. The project aims to examine effective methods of aligning local infrastructure and online resources to support digital music creators and their communities in regional Australia. It will promote digital creative industries and augment existing investments in regional art institutions and digital fabrication infrastructure. The project collaborates with regional digital artists to share their skills and expertise, with the goal of improving coordination of resources and infrastructure for the growth of regional digital creatives and engagement with their communities. Knowledge outcomes will assist governments in optimising the delivery of creative services and resources in regional Australia. Field of research: 4410 - Sociology Developing digital creative practices in regional Australia is important for driving innovation and community wellbeing in the 21st century. Yet these vital outcomes rely on the effective utilisation of regional infrastructure and online networks which currently are not well utilised by digital artists. This project will produce new knowledge about how material and social resources in regional areas are best coordinated to develop and diversify technology-based creative arts practices, in particular digital music makers who bridge creative arts and digital technologies. The project fills gaps in our understanding about productive connections between physical and online infrastructure for supporting digital workers in the creative industries. The project will provide the evidence base needed to build the capacities of policy makers and citizens about ways creative pursuits can be expanded through better utilisation of available resources. This knowledge will be useful for practitioners, local councils, regional development bodies, and regional arts funders as they develop policies and support strategies to be more responsive to emerging digital arts practices. Two strategies will be used to facilitate this: first, the project findings will be collated on a project website designed to read a wider public; second, the project findings will be distilled into an accessible toolkit document containing guidelines to assist development and sustainability of regional creative scenes.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2024 · 2024-01

The role of protein glycosylation in erythropoiesis . This project aims to understand how the sugar code of key-signalling proteins influences the development of red blood cells. This project expects to generate new fundamental knowledge in the area of stem cell signalling by innovative integration of biological and computational molecular characterisation techniques. The expected outcomes of this project include the development of novel workflows to study key regulators of cell development and the generation of new knowledge in stem cell signalling that will find applications in transforming stem cell therapies and associated research for future applications such as the laboratory manufacturing of red blood cells to close the availability gap for transfusion purposes. Field of research: 3101 - Biochemistry and Cell Biology The research team recently identified that for the development of red blood cells in culture the use of specific molecules delivers five times larger cell numbers with overall improved health status. To date key-aspects of stem cell signalling to direct development into the desired cell types are still not fully understood. Such a fundamental understanding, however, is imperative to 1) ensure the safety of such treatments and 2) optimise the production to deliver a maximum of product for therapeutic applications. This project addresses this research gap. The outcomes will have benefit for stem cell therapy research and future therapeutic applications that are promising to deliver game-changing solutions for the treatment of diseases of societal and financial impact, such as cardiovascular diseases or cancer. Conservative estimates predict these to cost the Australian economy an excess of $300 billion in healthcare costs and productivity losses within the next 10 years, which can be significantly lowered by novel stem cell therapies. The outcomes will have direct translational impact for the ex-vivo manufacturing of red blood cells. The adoption of the developed strategies and research outcomes will allow the team to engage with national and international academic and industrial stakeholders in stem cell therapy to further strengthen Australia’s world-leading role in this novel area of stem cell research to develop novel strategies for the treatment and disease management.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2024 · 2024-01

Privacy-Aware and Personalised Explanation Overlays for Recommender Systems. AI-powered recommender systems provide recommendations for daily lives, but they need to be legally interpretable and explainable. This project aims to transform existing black-box recommender models into transparent and trustworthy decision-support systems. The resulting tools will offer granular, explorable rationales for the recommendations in real time, creating greater public confidence while advancing the field. The expected outcomes include graph embedding methods for capturing real-world relationships in all their messiness and complexity. The anticipated contributions include impartial and accountable recommender models that are resistant to adversarial attacks and that slow the spread of misinformation. Field of research: 4605 - Data Management and Data Science This project responds to the federal government’s newly established Artificial Intelligence Ethics Framework to address the public’s lack of trust in AI-based decision-making tools. It creates new open-source frameworks capable of transforming existing ‘black-box’ predictive models into tools that provide transparent and trustworthy insights for empowering human decision-making. Concerns over AI bias and opacity in automated decision-making have caused Australian businesses to lag behind their global counterparts in AI adoption. By delivering a system that adds explainability to online platforms, this project will strengthen Australia’s competencies in advanced manufacturing and commercial activities, as well as establish translation pathways for industries that need AI decision-making such as transportation, e-health, e-commerce, and media & communication. To realise such a transformation, this project leverages the established advisory board of interdisciplinary specialists from university commercialisation offices and stakeholder organisations.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2024 · 2024-01

Is New Guinea the missing link for understanding Australia’s rainforests? This project aims to understand the extent to which the animals in Australia have shared histories with animals from the islands of Melanesia, and especially New Guinea. Key outcomes will be identification of hotspots of unique and high evolutionary diversity across both regions, and understanding of whether New Guinea has been an overall refuge or source for rainforest animals as Australia became more arid over the last 20 million years. Expected benefits include addressing fundamental gaps in our knowledge of the history of both the Australian continent and its resident biota such as when landbridges first formed with New Guinea, and the identification of priority areas for conservation investment in both Australian and Melanesia. Field of research: 3104 - Evolutionary Biology This project seeks to fill a key gap in our knowledge of Australia's richest terrestrial biomes - specifically to what extent is the rainforest biota of Australia shared and linked with that on islands to the north of Australia, and especially New Guinea – the world’s largest, highest and most biodiversity-rich tropical island. To address this knowledge gap we will undertake the first comprehensive integrated analyses of patterns of shared animal diversity and dispersal across these two historically linked, but currently disjunct landmasses. Analyses of dispersal patterns will refine the development and implementation of new methods for co-estimating patterns of evolution across distantly related groups of animals and plants, and underpin the first comprehensive analysis and insights on when and how a smaller island like New Guinea may be able to function as a net source of biodiversity to a larger nearby continent like Australia. Synthetic analyses of the distribution of rainforest species across both regions will also lead to more accurate understanding of where hotspots of rainforest biodiversity are located, and thereby provide a spatial framework for collaborators in management agencies to maximise conservation return on investment across Australia and Melanesia, for example through initiatives to develop, accredit and support carbon-offset schemes.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2024 · 2024-01

Temporal Graph Mining for Anomaly Detection. This project aims to develop new technologies to detect anomalous patterns from dynamic networked data. Anomalies in networked data are commonly seen but are often hidden within the complex interconnections of large-scale, heterogeneous, and dynamic data, rendering existing detection methods ineffective. This project expects to design novel temporal graph mining techniques to compress large-scale networks, unify heterogeneous information, and enable label-efficient anomaly detection. The performance will be assessed in social and business networks, with significant benefits to governments and businesses in many critical applications, including cyberbullying detection, malicious account detection, and cyber-attack detection. Field of research: 4605 - Data Management and Data Science Australians and Australian businesses are now facing a significant challenge – detecting abnormal activities over networked data (e.g., fraudulent behaviours and cyberattacks). The most recent incidents caused by anomaly behaviours (cyberattacks) cost Optus $140 million and $35 million for Medibank to cover data breaches. The best system to meet this challenge is graph-powered AI techniques, which can identify hidden patterns inside complex networks. However, because data are typically formed as networks, and they are dynamically expanding over time, existing systems are incapable of detecting and combating malicious activities. This project will develop a game-changing model for the accurate detection of anomalies from dynamic networks. Its immediate applications in cyberbullying, security fraud, and cyberattacks are urgent and vital for Australian companies, organisations, and governments. This project will deliver fundamental knowledge for understanding complex anomalies in the Australian private and public sectors. The tools developed will benefit Australian businesses by reducing the risk of financial loss by millions of dollars and will combat the social harms caused by activities like cyberbullying on social networks. To achieve this outcome, commercialisation and development of the resultant intellectual property will be explored with Australian industries.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2024 · 2024-01

Innovative Electrohydrodynamic Atomisation for Improved Nasal Drug Delivery. Inhalation offers high and rapid drug absorption into the bloodstream. This project aims to establish key technologies for a revolutionary system in inhaled nanomedicine delivery. The study will investigate the underlying physics of nanoparticles to create a world-first electrostatic nebuliser, enabling the more effective drug delivery. This technique is expected to overcome the current limitations by providing better control over the size and charge of delivered drugs. The outcomes of this project will benefit pharmaceutical companies in developing products with more efficient nasal delivery of advanced drugs, vaccines, and nanocariers, make it easier for doctors to prescribe, and benefit patients with more accurate dosages. Field of research: 4017 - Mechanical Engineering Inhalation provides quick delivery of nanomedicine to the lungs with high efficacy, second only to injection. However, current nebulising techniques have several limitations, including high drug loss, inadequate penetration of the respiratory system, and low efficacy. This study investigates the underlying physics of charged nanoparticles, to enable their manipulation and create a world-first electrostatic nebuliser device, allowing the more effective delivery of drugs through airways. The market for inhaled medical devices was valued at $27.6 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach $39.8 billion by 2025. This project will increase Australia’s participation in this high-value market and create highly skilled jobs in the field. The IP generated from this project will be licensed to pharmaceutical companies, providing them with commercial benefits. Adoption of this technology by pharmaceutical companies is also expected to benefit doctors through the ability to prescribe and deliver advanced drugs and vaccines more efficiently through patients’ narrow airways. Consumers are expected to benefit through less side effects from the more accurate delivery and dosage of these medicines. This project and its technology have clear salience with an identified national priority.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2024 · 2024-01

Voice and Belonging: Pathways to inclusion for new migrant communities. This project investigates the role of Australia's ethnic media in the humanitarian and refugee settlement experience, conceptualising media engagement as a key lens through which to foster a sense of belonging. The project expects to provide the first-ever national study of ethnic media, mapping the 'migrant mediasphere' with a focus on new humanitarian and refugee communities. Expected outcomes include conceptual advances about media engagement and public connection for new and emerging migrant communities, and media's place in the assemblage of humanitarian settlement services. Significant benefits emerge for humanitarian and refugee arrivals, for media trying to service these communities and for policymakers in urban and regional areas. Field of research: 4701 - Communication and Media Studies This research offers ways for humanitarian and refugee migrants to connect with their new home communities through engagement with Australia's migrant-led, ethnic media. There is significant evidence that media engagement leads to a stronger sense of belonging and inclusion for migrants, particularly those who have arrived on humanitarian and refugee visas. Official settlement services meet immediate housing, employment, school and training needs but evidence shows migrants from new and emerging communities face a swathe of other significant social and cultural challenges that these official services struggle to meet. This occurs in both urban and regional Australia, where a large number of Welcome Zones exist to bring humanitarian and refugee migrants to particular areas. The large and diverse ethnic media in Australia continues to try to find ways to engage with these new communities and to enhance their settlement experience, but pilot research for this project has discovered substantial gaps in current services. This project uses the Australian ethnic media sector as a focus to deliver migrant-led and community-led support to new humanitarian and refugee arrivals, through community-based media organisations. In doing this, the research adds a 'community connection' dimension to existing government-provided settlement services, investigating ways that local, community-based media can benefit our most vulnerable migrants -- those arriving on humanitarian and refugee visas.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2024 · 2024-01

Applying digital archeology to rock art placement. Digital archaeology can be used answer fundamental questions about rock art that reflect key cognitive behaviour. This project aims to develop innovative digital archaeology techniques to allow for more data to be collected along with more sophisticated tools for analyses that leads to a more holistic interpretation of rock art. This project expects to generate a state-of-the-art detailed 3D record of Injalak Hill, a methodology that can be tested and replicated worldwide, and new techniques that advance rock art research. The benefits of this project are improving methods to manage cultural heritage, and exploring new ways for Indigenous communities to engage with their cultural heritage using digital products. Field of research: 4301 - Archaeology Rock art is a significant cultural heritage for Australia, but traditional methods of research have not been able to answer one of the fundamental questions everyone asks about rock art: why is it there? Digital archaeology can be used to expedite the collection, processing, and analysis of large amounts of data that will lead to new understandings of rock art placement and provide insight into the decision-making process of our ancestors. The resulting digital products can also be used to help communities engage and manage cultural heritage. For most in the Indigenous community of Gunbalanya, it will be first time for them to experience their rock art digitally, which provides new ways to access and interact with their cultural heritage. As physically reaching some sites is difficult for many Traditional Owners, particularly the elderly, the digital products of the rock art will be evocative and provide the opportunity for wider community discussions that may also lead to better interpretations of their art.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2024 · 2024-01

Designing and fabricating artificial blood cells for global shortages. This project aims to create the first biophysically accurate artificial blood cells through fabrication of novel synthetic particles that mimic the complex layers of red blood cells. Using innovative methods from engineering and biology, this project expects to advance biofabrication techniques for biosynthetic microparticles. Expected outcomes from this project include the development of a portable, cost-effective platform technology to immediately advance foundational understanding of cell membrane dynamics, interactions, and integrity. We anticipate that the new bioengineered blood product will provide significant future benefits for blood storage and transfusion, including potentially alleviating global blood shortages. Field of research: 4003 - Biomedical Engineering If an individual loses too much blood during traumatic injury or surgery, blood transfusion is required for survival. Internationally, blood availability is challenged by severe stock shortages. Given no Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) approved alternative exists for blood transfusion, there is an essential need to innovate a technical solution. This project aims to bioengineer the first mechanically accurate artificial blood with synthetic particles that mimic the many complex layers found in human blood cells. Using innovative methods, this project is expected to generate foundational advances in biological fabrication techniques and membrane biophysics, that will inform new discoveries of cell membrane dynamics, interactions, and integrity. This novel platform technology, and associated cost-effective manufacturing device, are expected to provide significant benefits to Australia’s biomedical industry. Following future clinical trials (outside the scope of this project), this discovery may help alleviate global blood shortages, thus addressing international health and economic priorities.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2024 · 2024-01

Beyond broadcasting: Community radio as a model community organisation. With 20,000 volunteers, almost six million weekly listeners, and 50 years of history, Australia has one of the most well-established community radio sectors in the world. Yet discussions about community radio are limited to debates about media. Community radio stations are diverse and community-engaged organisations, with much more to offer than just what's on air. This research aims to explore community radio as a model for successful, sustainable, and diverse community organisations. The findings of this project will help other community organisations improve their community connections and engagement, and articulate their value, which will contribute to re-engaging Australians in civic life. Field of research: 4701 - Communication and Media Studies Community life in Australia was already on the decline before the pandemic. While many community organisations are struggling with low volunteer numbers and community engagement, community radio stations are going from strength to strength. Australia's community radio sector is one of the best in the world - representing diverse communities on 450 services around the country, powered by the work of more than 20,000 volunteers. There is an urgent need to encourage everyday people to get out into their communities and reinvigorate public life through service and volunteering, and community radio offers a sustainable and diverse model for doing just that. There is a lot to learn about how community radio stations provide value to their volunteers and stakeholders, and how they maintain such diverse and engaged communities. Working closely with sector peak bodies, this research will produce a toolkit for community organisations to apply the learnings of community radio to their own work which will contribute to more connected, engaged, and diverse community organisations.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2024 · 2024-01

International virus regulation: a novel legal framework. COVID-19 highlighted the fragmented and poorly defined state of international virus regulation. This project aims to investigate the range of international institutions, structures, laws and stakeholders that regulate virus samples and viral genetic sequence data. The project expects to generate a comprehensive understanding of the international legal landscape and will recommend reforms to create a cohesive approach to international virus regulation. Expected outcomes include a robust legal framework to help stakeholders navigate the complex web of international laws about viruses. Benefits include improved access to viruses and viral genetic sequence data for scientists and the more equitable dissemination of the results of virus R&D. Field of research: 4803 - International and Comparative Law Viruses are not simply a threat to public health, they are also vital inputs to scientific research that aims to address some of Australia’s most pressing problems in food security, medicine and environmental management. The international rules around who can access virus samples and for what purposes are poorly understood and unsuited to the modern scientific research and development landscape. This project will develop a complete picture of how transactions with viruses are regulated at the international level and will use that information to develop international legal reforms and regulatory tools for policy and decision-makers. This research will also provide practical advice to help Australian scientists navigate a complex legal landscape when accessing and utilising viruses. This project will contribute to the development of more harmonious laws about viruses and ensure that Australian scientists can secure access to important virus samples and associated genetic sequence data to conduct scientific research important to Australia's interests, without the fear of infringing the laws of other countries.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2024 · 2024-01

Harnessing creative heritage for migrant wellbeing in museums and libraries. This project investigates the use of novel cultural heritage preservation methods to support migrant wellbeing in Australian museums and libraries. Subject to forced migration, Ukrainian, Afghani, and Sri Lankan communities will re-story their lived experiences through music, engaging audiences and enhancing the relevance of case study collections for increasingly multicultural societies. The project will generate evidence on the impact of creative heritage methods on migrant wellbeing and produce an evidenced-based framework. Significant community benefits include increased public access to at-risk cultural heritage. The project’s reframing of heritage practice can assist industry in the pivot to future-focused heritage management. Field of research: 4302 - Heritage, Archive and Museum Studies Australia has become home to many diverse migrant groups forced to leave their homelands with significant implications for their wellbeing. This project seeks to improve the wellbeing of Ukrainian, Sri Lankan and Afghani communities in Australia by involving them in migration collections at Queensland Museum and State Library of Queensland. Participants will use heritage objects and community stories as the inspiration for new music using a process of ‘creative heritage’. Performances by migrant groups will amplify untold stories and invite new audiences to connect within museum and library spaces. The research will measure the impact on migrant wellbeing and produce a framework so other heritage institutions can apply this new method. By strengthening the voices of underrepresented communities within national heritage stories, this project will assist in maintaining the future relevance of Australian heritage collections. In trialling immersive tools, this project will help position Australia as a leader in creative solutions to present and future challenges faced by a rapidly changing heritage sector.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2024 · 2024-01

In-depth Investigation of Lithium Dendrite Formation Processes. Battery failure is mainly derived from uncontrollable lithium dendrite formation. This project aims to investigate fundamental lithium dendrite formation mechanism by utilizing a novel in-situ transmission electron microscopy cell. This project expects to build a new set up which is capable of simultaneous in-situ electrical and nanomechanical measurements of lithium dendrite growth. This project aims to reveal how lithium dendrite growth is affected by different surface modifications on the commercial graphite electrodes. The success of the project will lead to a fundamental understanding of the lithium dendrite formation mechanism, enabling the construction of significantly safer batteries. Field of research: 4004 - Chemical Engineering The lithium ion battery is the most important energy storage system dominating the commercial market and used in products ranging from mobile phones to solar energy storage. However, its further deployment is impeded by safety issues derived from its uncontrollable lithium dendrite formation. This project overcomes this technological challenge by developing a new experimental set-up to enable an enhanced fundamental understanding of the lithium dendrite formation process through simultaneous in-situ electrical and nanomechanical measurements. The success of the project will lead to a suite of new safer battery designs. This project directly addresses the Australian Government Science and Research Priorities: Energy - New clean energy sources and storage technologies that are efficient, cost-effective and reliable. The cutting-edge science and enabling technology developed through this project will provide solid benefits to Australian clean energy and chemical engineering industries.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Safety and robustness of tall timber buildings under extreme dynamic events. This project aims to develop innovative and robust structural connections in tall mass timber buildings by characterising their mechanical behaviour under dynamic loads induced by extreme events like earthquakes or progressive collapse. This project expects to generate new knowledge in the safe, economic, and efficient design of mass timber buildings. Expected outcomes of this project include enhanced robustness design guidelines for the engineering community. This should lead to significant benefits, such as contributing to uptake of viable low-cost timber housing solutions in response to population growth and contributing to net zero emissions in Australia by 2050, and transition to safer and resilient infrastructure in urban development. Field of research: 4005 - Civil Engineering The current design of tall mass timber buildings poses uncertainties relating to their structural robustness level and their ability to resist dynamic loads induced by extreme events such as earthquakes, explosions, vehicle impacts, and climate related natural disasters like cyclones. This project aims to develop innovative and robust structural connections for mass timber buildings to transition to resilient infrastructure in urban development. This project will address critical knowledge gap in the safe and efficient design of future tall mass timber buildings. Expected outcomes include enhanced robustness design guidelines for the engineering community, new building standards and novel connections, enabling safer design and resilient buildings to support the UNs’ Sustainable Development Goals, thus providing significant environmental, social, economic and commercial benefit to the Australian community. Project outcomes will also facilitate the Government towards providing low-cost housing solutions to address Australia’s rapidly growing population while simultaneously achieving net zero emissions by 2050.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Violent offenders in the night-time economy: Building the evidence. Alcohol-related violence in entertainment precincts is a significant community safety problem. This project aims to improve knowledge on individuals that are violent in entertainment precincts. It is expected to be the first study globally to use linked data to develop multi-system informed offending trajectories of violent offenders in these settings, examine the impact of patrons bans on offending trajectories, and apply situational action theory to alcohol-related violence. Results are expected to inform a critical knowledge gap and assist in the development of targeted violence preventive responses which reduce harm and make communities safer. Field of research: 4402 - Criminology Addressing alcohol-related violence in the night-time economy is a significant crime and public health problem of national priority. This program of research is expected to have significant societal and economic benefits; improving knowledge on offenders that are violent in late-night entertainment settings and identifying opportune times over the life course for effective intervention and prevention. It will also provide critical knowledge on the impact of patron bans (an existing targeted response) on offending behaviour. This program of research responds to national priorities. It is expected to advance the priorities of the Commonwealth Government's 2018 National Crime Prevention Framework, responding to the need to reduce alcohol-related violence and improve safety for young people. It is also expected to advance the coordinated Commonwealth, State and Territory Governments' 2019-2028 National Alcohol Strategy by responding to the need to improve community safety and amenity.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Assessing the impacts of droughts and water extraction on groundwater. This project aims to develop a novel framework that uses big data from satellites to assess the impacts of droughts and water extraction on groundwater resources in Australia, currently poorly understood and difficult to monitor. This project expects to generate new insights into the mechanisms driving changes in groundwater availability and identify risks from sustained groundwater extraction. Expected outcomes include a new national capability to assess and monitor groundwater resources from space and providing data for government, farmers, communities and traditional owners to better prepare for future droughts, increase disaster preparedness, and sustainably manage groundwater resources in a changing climate. Field of research: 4104 - Environmental Management More than 50% of the world’s largest aquifers are showing rapid declines in groundwater storage, jeopardising global food and water security and ecosystems’ sustainability. Still, the impacts of drought and water extraction on Australia’s groundwater resources are poorly understood and difficult to monitor, threatening national water security and drought resilience. This project will enable unprecedented ways of harnessing big data from satellites to assess groundwater status, improving the capability of water resource management agencies to monitor water availability and sustainably manage these critical resources. This will help farmers and communities to reduce adverse outcomes from drought by enabling earlier access to meaningful data to inform production decisions. The project will further operationalise the use of this data for environmental monitoring that could readily be incorporated into the workflows of existing online water monitoring platforms, generating publicly accessible groundwater information and contributing to expanding global markets for Australian satellite-based monitoring.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Plant community responses to fire regime: the role of plant–soil feedbacks. We need to know how different prescribed burning regimes set the stage for long-term changes in plant community composition, diversity, and flammability. This project aims to reveal how plant community dynamics under different fire scenarios can be predicted based on contemporary interactions between plants and soil micro-organisms. This innovative approach to fire ecology integrates soil biology and plant ecophysiology with sophisticated experiments and novel modelling techniques. Expected outcomes include a much-needed mechanistic framework for early detection of major ecological changes under novel fire regimes, with direct benefits for land managers and the long-term conservation of Australia’s iconic vegetation. Field of research: 4102 - Ecological Applications Prescribed burning is one of the main approaches to wildfire risk reduction in Australia. The wrong prescribed burning regime could lead to losses of plant diversity and enhanced plant community flammability over the long-term, but we have limited ability to predict such consequences. As such, we have no way of knowing whether current or future prescribed burning practices will ultimately prove counterproductive. A clear solution to this problem lies in the intense interactions between plants and soil micro-organisms that ultimately drive long-term plant community dynamics. This project will use knowledge of these interactions to build a novel framework for predicting long-term responses of Australian plant communities to various prescribed fire scenarios. Project findings will have application in the design of ecologically sustainable fire regimes that effectively mitigate wildfire risk over the long-term, thus benefitting land and fire managers and supporting the conservation of Australia’s rich and unique natural heritage.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Quantifying thermal environmental impact on office productivity. This project aims to quantify thermal environmental impacts on office productivity. It expects to firmly dismiss the prevailing misbelief that an indoor temperature of 22 °C leads to maximum workplace productivity, and create a paradigm shift in building management practice in commercial buildings. Expected outcomes of this project include a novel productivity metric, a standard measurement protocol for assessing thermal environmental impacts on office productivity, and world first indoor thermal environmental control guidelines tailored to diverse cognitive activities in the workplaces of different industries. This should provide cost-effective solutions to reduce building energy use while maintaining optimum workforce productivity. Field of research: 3302 - Building A typical office building’s heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system accounts for 40% of its energy consumption. In developed countries, like Australia, much of this energy is used wastefully to over-cool these buildings in the mistaken belief that this optimises the productivity of those working in them. Combining laboratory experiments with field tests in offices, this project will develop tools to quantify the impact of indoor temperature on occupant productivity and provide a new technical guide for facilities managers to control thermal environments better suited to different job activities in commercial buildings. The aim is to have these guides adopted by The Green Lease Handbook and various building energy rating tools widely used for evaluating building performance. This will save building operational energy, costs and significantly reduce CO2 emissions, delivering substantial economic and environmental benefits in line with various UN Sustainable Development Goals.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Enhancing Australian biodiscovery molecule generation, storage and access. The project aims to establish the Australian Biodiscovery Network with the following integrated infrastructure: sample processing robotics and storage to enhance national biomolecule curation and access at Compounds Australia and automated LC/MS to increase natural product extraction at NatureBank at Griffith Uni; a robotic colony picker to expand the Uni Queensland Microbes Australia library; a protein purification system to facilitate pathogen biologic discovery at James Cook Uni; live cell imaging to enable biodiscovery for aquaculture at Uni Sunshine Coast. This infrastructure will enhance biodiscovery capacity of QLD universities and benefit hundreds of researchers nationally across health, aquaculture, agriculture and food security. Field of research: 4103 - Environmental Biotechnology Australia is one of only 17 mega-diverse countries in the world and is renowned for the uniqueness of its animals, plants, marine organisms and microorganisms (e.g., 85% of our flowering species are endemic to Australia). Natural products are chemical compounds or substances produced by living organisms and are an important source of products for animal and human health (e.g., 40% of medicines are derived from natural products), agriculture, aquaculture, food and food security. This LIEF project will improve Australia's capacity in natural product research by enhancing infrastructure that allows natural products to be discovered and produced, safely stored, easily distributed to researchers in Australia and globally and investigated for potential use as new drugs, biologics, natural medicines, food additives, native foods and for any other application. The new research infrastructure will provide a step change in our capability in natural product research and enhance significant national assets including Compounds Australia, NatureBank and Microbes Australia.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Towards Robust Hydrogen Electrode for High-Rate Alkaline Electrolysis. This project aims to develop robust, efficient porous hybrid hydrogen electrodes for electrochemical hydrogen production in anion exchange membrane water electrolyser. anion exchange membrane water electrolyser powered by renewable energy has emerged as a key avenue towards clean hydrogen with zero carbon footprint. However, the electrochemical turnover on the hydrogen electrode has been significantly hindered by the sluggish reaction kinetics in alkaline solution. The project is expected to generate cost-effective hydrogen electrodes for hydrogen electrolyzers, advanced knowledge in the electrode material engineering, electrochemical reaction mechanistic insights, and eventually promoted development of disruptive electrolysis technology. Field of research: 4018 - Nanotechnology Greener energy systems are essential to Australia achieving net-zero emission targets to mitigate global warming, while still fulfilling increasing energy demands. A new means to achieve these goals comes from using renewable (solar and wind) generated electricity to split water into green hydrogen and oxygen. This approach has enormous potential, but some technological challenges are constraining 1. production efficiency, through large energy losses at the splitting-reaction surface, i.e. the hydrogen electrode, and 2. the durability of the electrode. This project aims to design and engineer efficient, reliable and cost-effective hydrogen electrodes. The outcome of this project will be the proof of concept for novel hydrogen electrodes that achieve high-rate, stable water splitting, ready to advance to prototyping in conjunction with Australian industry. This project will make a significant contribution to the development of cost effective and clean hydrogen production and driving both environmental and economic benefits.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

A next-generation whole parasite bovine Babesia vaccine. . In Australia, Babesia parasites cause most of the severe and often fatal cases of cattle-tick fever, a globally significant tick-borne disease. It can be prevented by a live-attenuated parasite vaccine which has critical limitations of a 4-day shelf-life and risk of severe disease if administered to adult cattle. This project aims to evaluate in cattle a novel whole parasite Babesia bovis vaccine that cannot cause disease and can be preserved as an off-the-shelf product without losing efficacy. The expected outcome is a significantly improved vaccine for a major infectious disease that affects primary food production. As the disease imposes a major economic burden, it will have great benefit for the Australian livestock industry. Field of research: 3003 - Animal Production Cattle tick fever results in substantial economic losses to the Australian cattle and dairy industries. While the current live, attenuated vaccine is generally effective, it has several limitations including a 4-day shelf-life and risk of severe disease if administered to adult animals. This project will enable evaluation of an effective next-generation vaccine that addresses these issues. This is advantageous to Australian livestock producers as it can be administered with minimal risk and the extended shelf-life would enable easy deployment in regional areas. The outcome of this project will have great national benefit for the Australian livestock industry, in the form of an improved vaccine for an infectious disease that affects primary food production and imposes a great economic burden. It is anticipated that an improved vaccine will have major economic benefits by boosting productivity of the livestock industry. The data generated in this project will enable meaningful engagement with veterinary pharma companies and this will inform further development of this vaccine and its adoption into practice.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

High-speed impact fractures and the global origins of projectile technology. It is often argued that complex projectile technology emerged and spread out of Africa with Homo sapiens, but this hypothesis remains untested. Recent research shows certain tip fractures and usewear/residues on stone points may be diagnostic of high-speed projectile impacts, facilitating identification of early complex projectiles. This project aims to use controlled ballistic experiments to generate diagnostic markers of high-speed impacts, test these against ethnographic collections, and analyse archaeological points on four continents. The should provide significant benefits in understanding the origins of complex projectiles, their role in human dispersal, inter-species competition and reasons for early appearance in Australia. Field of research: 4301 - Archaeology The origins of complex projectiles (bows and arrows and spear throwers) is one of the great leaps forward in the evolution of human technology. It is assumed that our ancestors had developed such technology by the time they spread out of Africa 60-80,000 years ago. However, archaeologists have been unable to determine whether this was the case or not, because organic components like wood do not survive over time. This project will identify damage to preserved stone projectile weapon tips to trace the origins and spread of high-speed projectile weaponry around the world. This will test whether complex projectiles facilitated human expansion out of Africa and the colonisation of Australia 65,000 years ago. The project will determine whether our species had a competitive technological edge over archaic humans that facilitated our success and their demise. The research will fill a critical knowledge gap, and benefit Australia culturally in understanding the technology of our human ancestors as well as the First Australians, who also developed the oldest known axe and seed grinding technologies worldwide.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Biomass-derived Carbon Dots Enable Flexible, On-Demand Hydrogen Delivery . Methanol is a promising liquid hydrogen carrier for long distance H2 transportation and exportation, because it is rich in hydrogen content, cheap, recyclable between methanol-formaldehyde and easier to manufacture from renewable resources including biomass waste. The critical bottleneck in adopting methanol as the carrier is the demanding dehydrogenation process. The project aims to create a new class of photocatalyst based on biomass-derived carbon nanodots grown on transition metal (di)chalcogenide nanosheets that can effectively enable a light-controlled methanol H2 release of desired quantity. The key outcomes will be a new class of photocatalysts and flexible, on-demand hydrogen delivery technology for liquid hydrogen carriers. Field of research: 4004 - Chemical Engineering Hydrogen (H2) is a vital energy solution for reducing carbon emissions. Australia is on track to be a major H2 producer, able to generate export income of up to $10bn pa by 2040. However, long-distance transport of liquefied H2 is still economically unviable due to the very low temperatures required. Stable “carrier” materials are needed. Methanol stands out as a cost-effective liquid H2 carrier that is able to hold and then release H2 without emitting carbon and which can be used with current transport infrastructure and storage methods. Further, Australia produces over 130 mega tonnes of biomass (animal and plant) waste pa. Utilising this waste to produce methanol is cost effective and reduces its negative environmental impact. The missing piece is an on-demand, room-temperature H2 release process. This project aims to develop a new technology platform to enable controlled H2 release from methanol as required at the site of use and at room temperature. This platform and its commercial development through the hydrogen industry will advance Australia as a key global player in the green hydrogen industry.