Queensland University of Technology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Sustainable Mathematical Foundations: STEM-enriched Modelling . This longitudinal project aims to generate new knowledge on how sustainable, innovative mathematics learning can be fostered through STEM-enriched mathematical modelling across the early grades. Featuring interdisciplinary processes, including engineering and science, novel modelling sequences will prompt children to adapt their existing ways of mathematical thinking to develop conceptual innovations in solving future-oriented problems. New theoretical and empirical frameworks are expected to transform our outmoded problem experiences to ones that challenge all children to reach their mathematical potential. Professional learning, informed by international collaboration, is expected to transcend existing teacher development modes. Field of research: 1302 - Curriculum and Pedagogy Preparing our young students for an increasingly challenging world requires sustainable and innovative learning, where students engage in future-oriented problems, generate sophisticated disciplinary concepts, and retain and apply their learning to unanticipated problems. This project introduces a new and timely approach to advancing the mathematics achievements of young learners through STEM-enriched mathematical modelling. Creating opportunities for all students to experience success irrespective of their school achievement levels, the project will target the national goal of excellence and equity in the education of young Australians. Substantial educational, social, and policy benefits will be produced. Outcomes will include curriculum resources that capitalise on young learners’ talents, data that inform policy decisions on developing more equitable mathematics and STEM learning, and strong foundations for future success in the changing realm of work.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Coach My Ride: Mentorable Interfaces to support Older Australians' Mobility. This project aims to co-design new interfaces to support older Australians to collaboratively learn the use of automated vehicles. We will seek to understand the needs, expectations, and challenges of urban and rural residents, and the peer support strategies they deploy to learn technology. Mobility is key to the wellbeing of older people, but automated vehicles that are too complex will fail to deliver their promise of independent ageing. Outcomes will be a new theory of collaborative learning and new mentorable interfaces to allow older adults to mentor each other to access and use new mobility solutions. This will contribute to narrow the digital and mobility gap improving the independence, safety and wellbeing of ageing Australians. Field of research: 0806 - Information Systems Automated vehicles are expected to support the mobility of older adults who cannot drive anymore, yet those technologies are currently not designed with older users in mind. This project will expand our capabilities to design and deploy new user interfaces for automated mobility, co-created with older drivers to meet their needs, and considering both urban and rural dwellers to fit the unique Australian context. Older Australians will benefit from this project with improved access to automated mobility, increasing their independence, safety, and wellbeing. The broader society will benefit by advancing Australia’s infrastructure readiness and self-sufficiency towards future ‘mobility as a service’. The project will achieve this by conducting co-design led research with older Australians to understand their needs and expectations for automated vehicles, and their strategies to learn and teach each other new technologies. With this new knowledge the project will create ‘mentorable interfaces’ for automated vehicles and novel theories on how to design more accessible automated systems.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Food System Shocks: Managing Transitions to Future Food Security. Recent food system shocks such as bushfires, floods, drought, and the impact of Covid-19 on the harvesting and distribution of agricultural products, are having profound on-farm impacts. Farmers, as land managers, are on the front line of navigating these major disruptions whilst also maintaining continuity of supply that supports Australia's national and regional food security. Situating the farmer as the 'expert' of managing and accommodating shocks, this project will co-produce a range of evidence-based transition and innovation scenarios for the horticultural industry to enhance future preparedness for shocks and support rural livelihoods. Field of research: 1608 - Sociology The Australian agriculture sector is not only the predominant source of sustenance and nutrition for the Australian population, but also generates 13% of national merchandise export earnings. As such, the security of Australia’s food system is crucial. Food system shocks, such as drought, fires and the Covid-19 pandemic, have the potential to undermine Australia’s food production. Disruption to the food system compromises export markets, access to food domestically and presents a threat to domestic harmony, as recently evidenced in panic buying. This research produces multiple benefits for Australia by working with horticulturalists experiencing food system shocks to develop practical, evidence-based knowledge that can guide sustainability transitions in the face of complex challenges. Research outputs can contribute to future policy development.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Trusted business processes. This project aims to use conceptual design, process modelling and co-design approaches to create a structured approach for the management of trust. With a focus on business processes, it is intended to develop research- informed methods in order to (1) identify and specify trust concerns and opportunities, (2) model these within a common process modelling language and (3) propose patterns for how to mitigate trust concerns and how to benefit from opportunities. If successful, this would lead to an operational, and world first, detailed trust methodology for organisations in all sectors. As a result, Australian customers would engage with business processes with reduced trust concerns and experience increased integrity and benevolence. Field of research: 0806 - Information Systems Advanced technologies, the provision of private data and an increased uptake of online transactions have amplified the role and importance of trust in our economy. However, right now the ability to design trusted business processes is limited due to the lack of a dedicated trust management discipline and trust design approaches. This is a severe concern as an absence of trust significantly constrains contemporary technologies. This research will develop research-informed methods to enable organisations to (1) identify trust concerns and opportunities (2) describe these in the context of their business processes and (3) provide guidance in the form of trust patterns to ensure that customer trust is secured and protected. Exemplary processes from the finance and retail sector will be used as case studies to create and validate the desired research outcomes. If successful, organisations deploying the outcomes will be able to ‘compete on trust’ and positively impact early customer engagement, loyalty, and advocacy.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Mitigating the risks of cyberattacks on cyber-physical power systems. Cyber threats are a pertinent issue facing power systems as part of national critical infrastructure. This project will develop a systematic theory to capture the dynamic risk propagation of cyberattacks on cyber-physical power systems. Focusing on the physical domain of cyber-physical power systems, the theory includes offline risk modelling with consideration of attack intentions for risk propagation of cyberattacks, an online risk assessment method to quantify the risk propagation of cyberattacks, and resilient control strategies to mitigate cyberattack risks. The outcomes will not only advance knowledge in cyber-physical security but also facilitate an accelerated adoption of the increasing renewable energy sources into the power grid. Field of research: 0906 - Electrical and Electronic Engineering Power systems are a significant part of national critical infrastructure. Australia’s main power grid has recently hit a record of over 50% renewable energy including wind and solar photovoltaic generations. The increasing integration of renewable energy sources comes with more interactions with data communication networks, making power systems more vulnerable than ever to cyberattacks. But the design of the security of power systems against cyberattacks is challenging due to the lack of a clear understanding of cyberattack risk propagation in cyber-physical power systems. This project contributes to the cyber-physical security of power systems. A breakthrough from this project on the security of cyber-physical power systems will facilitate an accelerated adoption of increasing renewable energy sources into the main power grid, enabling Australian power industries to reach the national strategic target of integrating renewable energy sources worth $50bn by 2050.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Responsible Urban Innovation with Local Government Artificial Intelligence. Artificial intelligence (AI) is not only becoming an integral part of urban services, but also impacting and shaping the future of cities and societies. However, the current AI practice has shown that urban innovation without responsibility generates more problems than it solves. Especially, the absence of a deep understanding of the costs, benefits, risks and impacts of deploying government AI systems creates negative externalities and serious concerns in the society. This project will generate new knowledge on the most appropriate approaches for local governments to engage with AI to achieve responsible urban innovation. The project outcomes will include responsible AI adoption and implementation pathways for Australian local governments. Field of research: 1205 - Urban and Regional Planning While innovative technologies—e.g., artificial intelligence (AI)—offer opportunities to alleviate urbanisation problems, if not utilised responsibly, they entail the risk of intensifying existing problems or creating new ones. This research will generate knowledge to assist local government authorities engaging with AI in a responsible way. This will contribute to the nation-wide deliberations on how local governments should adopt, deploy and manage AI systems to generate sustainable outcomes. The research will inform government policy, and influence industry to adopt responsible innovation focus. It will help in relieving the public concerns—e.g., privacy, bias, inequality, safety and security—on government AI systems. The results will propel Australian conditions and research to the forefront of academic and practice debates internationally. The research will feed into research-led teaching in an Australian university, and will contribute to the development of new early career and doctoral researchers to build a critical mass in responsible innovation, which is an in-demand skill of the Australian economy.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Embedding Enterprise Systems in IoT Fog Networks through Microservices. The project will enable automated re-engineering of enterprise systems, to allow them to reused in Internet-of-Things (IoT) applications. It will support efficient ways in which the core business logic of these large scale and monolithic systems can be extended into resource control and data sensing functions managed through the IoT. The project will develop a novel, fine-grained software architecture style suitable for localised IoT execution, through microservices executing autonomously on nodes of IoT fog networks. It will develop new techniques for automated discovery of microservices from enterprise systems and the verification of future-state system execution based on current-state behavioural and other properties such as security. Field of research: 0806 - Information Systems Enterprise systems are multi-million-dollar software solutions which manage business operations across all corporate sectors. However, the value of this software is being eroded rapidly by changes in computing technologies and disruptive digital solutions available on the Cloud and the Internet-of-Things. This project will help enterprises protect their investments, by providing automated support for reengineering and repurposing established systems, into the IoT, rather than developing new IoT enterprise systems from scratch. It will accelerate enterprise-grade solutions into the IoT. This will be critical for the key Australian sectors requiring that enterprise systems be embedded in IoT systems, according to a recent study by Australian Computer Society: mining, healthcare, agriculture manufacturing, supply chain resilience and construction. Not only will existing systems be reusable for new IoT microservices services through the new systems re-engineering approach and techniques produced by the project. New security vulnerabilities, including intrusions of customer privacy, will be detected and avoided.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

A more sound approach to the neurobiology of language. How does the brain attain spoken language? Current neurobiological models assume either implicitly or explicitly that there is no relationship between a word's sound and its meaning. Yet considerable evidence shows this strong assumption about the arbitrariness of language is invalid. This project will use a combination of behavioural, neuroimaging and computational studies to characterise how the brain processes statistical regularities in sound-to-meaning correspondences as probabilistic cues to attain spoken language. The outcome will be a better neural account of language comprehension and production. The benefit of this new account will be a stronger basis for assessment and treatment of developmental and acquired language impairments. Field of research: 1702 - Cognitive Sciences This project will enhance Australia’s knowledge-base, capability and technical innovation in investigating, modelling and manipulating the brain mechanisms involved in acquiring and processing spoken language. It will increase Australia's research standing internationally by leading collaborative research with colleagues in the United States of America. It will offer high quality Australian postgraduate training in the increasingly competitive field of neuroscience that attracts dedicated funding internationally, conducted in a world-class intellectually stimulating environment. The findings will inform future clinical research and improve the advice given to clinicians, patients and the broader Australian community about the nature of speech acquisition and production and associated impairments. The potential benefits include knowledge gain that might be used to provide better assessments of language impairments and support more effective and economical treatments of speech problems following brain disorders such as stroke or dementia.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Inorganic/organic Hybrids for flexible thermoelectric generators. Flexible thermoelectric generators can directly harvest electricity from body heat, offering a new technology for wearable electronics, but their unsatisfied performance limits their applications. This project aims to design high-efficient and mechanically robust flexible thermoelectric devices based on novel hybrids with quantum dots and conducting polymers as key components. The key breakthrough is to establish unique devices with record-high thermoelectric efficiency and to illustrate the underlying mechanisms for searching new-type flexible thermoelectrics. The expected outcomes will lead to innovative technology for energy conversion and advanced manufacturing and place Australia at the forefront of energy and manufacturing fields. Field of research: 1007 - Nanotechnology Flexible thermoelectric materials and generators are capable of high-efficiency energy conversion from body heat into useful electricity, which provides sustainable power supply for ever-growing portable electronics. This technology can also be used in personal heat management or local energy supply for miniature electronics. In this regard, the impact of this project will help to create new employment opportunities in the manufacturing, energy recovery, and power generation sectors, and generate tremendous economic and environmental benefits to society. The success of this project will provide novel technology for energy conversion and provide the technological solutions to enhance the sustainability and wellbeing of Australian Society. The project will significantly enhance the international impact and recognition of Australia in the development of renewable energy in addressing climate change and advanced manufacturing.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Next Generation Bridge Monitoring using Novel Synergic Identification. Over 70% of the bridges in Australia are made of prestressed concrete, yet many do not meet the requirements of current Australian Standards. This project aims to provide a cost-effective system for monitoring bridges in real time along with systems that track the prestressing force and rate of damage for ongoing health assessment and necessary repairs. The use of innovative engineering techniques, solving long standing problems of engineers, will enable the safe operation of bridges, which play a primary role in Australia’s national transport system. Improved methodology for turning tired infrastructure into ‘smart bridges’ will be developed and commissioned first in Australia and then applied internationally. Field of research: 0905 - Civil Engineering In the state of Queensland alone, bridge maintenance inspections cost approximately $20M per year. Traditional methods of inspection have proven to be ineffective as evidenced by recent bridge collapses in spite of regular inspections. Moreover, a large number of prestressed concrete bridge decks crossing stretches of water and valleys do not have any form of health monitoring system and hence the urgency of the proposed research. This project aims to develop an efficient and economical system for monitoring the structural health of prestressed concrete bridges – medium and long spans. It will effectively safeguard Australian transportation infrastructure and prevent bridge failures, and hence provide substantial socio-economic benefits. It will also provide valuable information on bridge loadings for future more economical, safer and smarter bridge designs. This project will update health monitoring of older bridges and ensure many more Structural Health Monitoring systems are installed in new bridges. It will also contribute to the restoration of public confidence in the engineering community.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Learning Robotic Navigation and Interaction from Object-based Semantic Maps. Our project aims to develop new learning algorithms that enable robots to perform high-complexity tasks that are currently impossible. Compared to existing methods that rely on low-level sensor data, we aim to achieve this by learning from a high-level graph representation of the environment that captures semantics, affordances, and geometry. The outcome would be robots capable of using human instructions to efficiently learn complex interaction and navigation behaviours that transfer to unseen environments. Our research should benefit new applications in domains of economic and societal importance that are currently too complex, unsafe, and uncertain for robot assistants, such as aged care, advanced manufacturing and domestic robotics. Field of research: 0801 - Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing This project will develop improved software algorithms and innovative mathematical models that will significantly advance robot learning from human instructions. Better, faster, more reliable, and more human centred robotic learning will unlock applications that are currently too hard, too complex, and too unsafe for robot assistants. This includes industries of economic and societal importance where robots collaborate closely with humans, such as manufacturing, mining, construction, logistics, retail, and also domestic aged care where smarter robots can drastically improve the likelihood of older people retaining their independent living for much longer. By advancing natural language-based teaching, we will make robotic technology more accessible to the Australian industry and lower the specialised knowledge required for a human to collaborate with a robot. This project will strengthen Australia's global reputation as a robotics powerhouse and provide an exciting training environment for the next generation of researchers and robotics engineers.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

A human-centric eXplainable Automated Vehicle. The aim is to create a computational model to address the inability of Automated Vehicles (AV), powered by Artificial intelligence, to self explain their behaviours. This project applies novel multidisciplinary methodologies in a real-world self-driving setting to formalise the essence of driving explanations. It explores the when, why and how a driver is seeking an explanation and what type of automated explanation is truly human-interpretable. Expected outcomes include the discovery of an acceptable, transparent and ethical explanation system that helps humans to understand the AVs decision making. This field will continue to rise in prominence and produce much-needed work to improve the widespread adoption of AVs. Field of research: 0806 - Information Systems Australia has the opportunity to transform the transport landscape and benefit from improved road safety and network efficiency, decreased pollution and mobility for all. Automated Vehicles (AV) are key to this transformation, but road users need to be able to better understand the AV’s decisions—based on Artificial Intelligence—to build trust and accept them. This multidisciplinary project investigates when, why and how AV’s driver is seeking an explanation and what type of explanation from the Artificial Intelligence system would be easy to understand, safe and ethical. Providing good explanations will help AVs to proliferate, so that the Australian community can reap the economic and social benefits. This project will also benefit Australian transport regulators by enabling them to future proof transport policies and road safety initiative spending. More broadly, this project will provide a consistent framework for the future design of human-centric explanation of Artificial Intelligence.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Optimisation of piezoelectric metamaterials: Towards robotic stress sensors. This project aims to design new piezoelectric material microstructures that can enhance the measurement of complex local stress states within robotic limbs. The project expects to generate new knowledge of the achievable properties of multi-poled piezoelectric materials and develop computational tools for the analysis and structural optimisation of such materials. The designed microstructures may revolutionise piezoelectric sensor technology. Expected outcomes include manufactured proof-of-concept sensors that enable measurement of local stress fields. This should provide significant benefits, such as improved future robot capability and reliability, and research training for next-generation Australian computational mathematicians. Field of research: 0102 - Applied Mathematics This project will develop the science to underpin the next-generation of piezoelectric transducers for sensing complex stress states within robotic limbs. Such sensors would allow more sensitive robotic control that prevents components from breaking under high stress. This will be particularly important for climbing robots, improving their reliability and therefore their utilisation in industry settings. To this end, we will explore the piezoelectric properties of a range of microstructures, and develop new computational tools for the structural optimisation of piezoelectric metamaterials that have piezoelectric properties not naturally achievable. We will develop proof-of-concept transducers and test them within climbing robots. The project will contribute to Australia's research priority in advanced manufacturing and will train the next generation of Australian computational mathematicians.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Averting Disaster: New Ways to Assess Bushfire Risk and Building Integrity. This project aims to develop a new method of assessing bushfire risk and building integrity using drone-based advanced technologies and computational fluid dynamics based heat transfer modelling for buildings located in bushfire prone areas. This coupled approach will enable the evaluation of bushfire effects on buildings and provide pre-bushfire condition/risk assessments, and site-specific cost-effective remedial actions to reduce or eliminate bushfire damage and mitigate the risks pre-bushfire season. The new method will be applied to three selected buildings through which further enhancements and validations can be achieved. This project will showcase how the selected buildings and their components can be made bushfire safe. Field of research: 0905 - Civil Engineering Black summer bushfire 2019/20 have shown the disastrous consequences of bushfires, resulting in significant loss of lives and properties. This project proposes an innovative and highly efficient approach of using advanced drone-based technologies and numerical modelling to conduct bushfire risk and building integrity assessments of buildings. By identifying vulnerable building elements and weaker building design features, it will provide retrofitting strategies and site-specific bushfire safe solutions pre-bushfire season. The developed assessment method can be used by building owners, local councils and state government agencies to undertake pre-bushfire assessments of buildings. When used widely, it will significantly increase the proportion of buildings in bushfire prone areas with enhanced bushfire resistance. Ultimately, this project will change our collective approach to bushfire preparedness – saving homes, lives and livelihoods and will contribute to the Australian government’s goal of increasing the building and community resilience against future extreme and more frequent bushfire events.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Ancestral state reconstruction and the evolution of Australian marsupials. This project aims to investigate the diversification and evolvability of Australian marsupials, by enabling genomes, ecology and 3D skeletal shape to synergistically inform evolutionary inference. This project expects to generate new knowledge of the processes that have promoted and maintained marsupial biodiversity, by tracing their evolution across a fossil gap that spans half of their history. Expected outcomes of this project include improved methods for merging fossils into the tree of life and for reconstructing the ecology and morphology of ancestors on phylogenetic trees. This should provide significant benefits, such as a coherent evolutionary context for informing research on marsupial biology, ecology and conservation. Field of research: 0603 - Evolutionary Biology Marsupials, such as kangaroos and koalas are an integral part of Australia’s national and international identity. This project aims to integrate genomes, ecology and 3D skeletal shape to identify mechanisms that have shaped marsupial biodiversity. The research falls within National Research Priority, Environmental Change, under the Practical Research Challenge: Options for responding and adapting to the impacts of environmental change on biological systems, urban and rural communities and industry. Methods we are developing connect evolvability among species to climate processes and biotic interactions, and can augment efforts to predict adaptive responses in natural, agricultural and epidemiological systems. Our research linking diet genomics and morphometrics realizes the interdisciplinary scope of the National Resource Infrastructure Roadmap focus area, Complex Biology, which seeks increased collaboration across genomics, proteomics, metabolomics and bioinformatics. Anticipated benefits include a more accurate evolutionary context for informing future research on marsupials and other native biota.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

A Concurrent Multiscale Model for Improved Prediction of Drying Process. This project aims to develop an innovative multiscale model for food drying, which integrates spatial and temporal nonlinear behaviours at different scales. The proposed unifying theory will capture dynamic micro level features and upscale them to macro level features through a concurrent bridging scheme. As cellular elements critically govern the drying process, the fundamental understanding captured through this theory will lead to more accurate prediction of drying kinetics, deformation and quality changes, and hence the development of efficient drying systems. This project will overcome a longstanding research problem and position Australia at the forefront in world drying research to reap substantial economic benefits for Australia. Field of research: 0908 - Food Sciences Food processing is the largest manufacturing industry in Australia with an annual turnover of A$131 billion. While drying is a major process used in the food industry, it is a lengthy highly energy-intensive process, and if not properly designed, results in significant quality deterioration. These problems have yet to be solved as the fundamental knowledge of the drying process is not well understood. This project aims to radically advance the body of food drying knowledge and resolve a long overdue food engineering problem by developing the first multiscale model for accurate prediction of transport, deformation and quality changes. The project also aims to provide food scientists with reliable predictive tools to supplement experiments, thereby increasing their understanding of cellular changes during food processing and enabling the exploration of new approaches to ensure better food quality at minimum energy and time expenses. This modelling framework can be extended to other important engineering processes such as biomedical engineering and pharmaceutical industries, timber drying and sludge drying.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Passive biofiltration processes for nitrogen removal from polluted waters. Traditional urban wastewater treatment is energy and resource demanding. By combining principles of Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) with advanced pollutant removal processes, we will create necessary knowledge to underpin development of novel sustainable urban water treatment systems. This project aims to understand and utilise Simultaneous Nitrification, Anammox and Denitrification (SNAD) processes within passive plant-soil-based biofilters for cost-effective removal of nitrogen from a range of polluted urban water sources. The project will open a potential for a new technological advancements in urban water management, while simultaneously providing benefits to the environment and community through greening and waterway protection. Field of research: 0905 - Civil Engineering The project will underpin development of the next generation of sustainable water technologies; we will deliver necessary knowledge for advancement of plant-soil-based water filters for cost-effective treatment of polluted waters in urban environments. The project will deliver benefit to Australia by providing evidence and tools to manage contamination in the environment before it reaches waterways, while simultaneously promoting urban greening and a healthier environment for our communities to enjoy. Through a better understanding of nitrogen pollution pathways in plant-soil-based water treatment systems, we will develop novel processes for contamination removal from urban polluted waters (sewage, greywater, and stormwater). The project will ultimately provide economic benefit via more efficient treatment systems, contributing to heathy communities, by creating pathways for adoption of low-cost and low-energy water treatment systems in urban environment, that can be used to partially replace the current high-energy-demand facilities.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Academic Entrepreneurship in Australian Universities. ITRHs & ITTCs are a major funding sources to mentor future graduates that drive growth and innovation in today’s economy. However, changes based on evidence based research are needed to ensure that they are adapted to the task of creating entrepreneurial thinking, stimulating business creation and exploiting ideas in society. Multiple-case studies are generally regarded as more robust than single-case studies, providing the observation and analysis of a phenomenon in several settings. In order to satisfy the requirements of the replication strategy we analyze all funded ITRHs & ITTCs from 2012 to 2024. Field of research: 1503 - Business and Management A important governmental scheme designed to foster innovation through academic entrepreneurship is the Industrial Transformation Research Program (ITRP). To date, academic entrepreneurship outcomes associated with this major program have not been systematically analysed. Here we hypothesize that the ITRP which “ supports university-based researchers and industry to work together to find solutions to a range of issues facing Australian industries” could be an excellent tool to stimulate entrepreneurship in Australian universities. The ITRP offers funds awarded through two schemes: Industrial Transformation Research Hubs (ITRH), and Industrial Transformation Training Centres (ITTC). These research hubs and training centres should foster collaborative research, bringing researchers and industry together to share their skills and expertise to solve problems and develop new products, processes and services that will transform Australian industries. We systematically evaluate all funded ITRPs and ITRHs with respect to facilitating academic entrepreneurship based on innovation and new scientific knowledge.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

DynaMix-FM, dynamic mixed reality environment for future mobility. This project aims to establish a new future mobility research facility, named DynaMix-FM, at the Royal Automobile Club of Queensland (RACQ) Mobility Centre of Excellence in Mt Cotton, Queensland. The proposed facility includes an automated vehicle, remote control and supervision equipment. It will support research on new generations of connected and automated transport systems to anticipate the challenges of future transport systems. This future mobility proving ground will provide an innovative framework that integrates the physical testing environment with a digital testing environment, allowing them to be used together to enable the best attributes of each to be applied to solve important issues identified by the transport community. Field of research: 0913 - Mechanical Engineering Automated vehicles are key to the future of Australia’s transport. This project will establish an innovative future mobility research facility that will accelerate prototyping and testing of automated vehicles for urban applications and remote operation. The facility integrates an advanced mixed-reality and digital twin framework to simulate complex city environments. It enables sophisticated testing within the variability and unpredictability of these environments, including interactions with pedestrians and cyclists. This facility will benefit researchers, regulators and industry by creating a state-of-the-art testbed where future mobility challenges can be identified and resolved safely and efficiently. It will enable end-users across government and logistics, insurance and supply chain sectors to boost their knowledge and competitiveness, enhancing the mobility innovation capabilities of Australian industry and positioning Australia at the forefront of transport research and development internationally.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

A cyclic ion-mobility mass spectrometer for resolving molecular isomers. Both our fundamental understanding of the natural world and our ability to shape new functional materials depends on our ability to assign molecular structure. Rapid assignment of molecular structures within complex biological or synthetic mixtures and, particularly, the differentiation between closely related structures (i.e., isomers) is a frontier challenge for chemists and biologists alike. The requested infrastructure directly addresses this challenge by making next-generation (cyclic) ion-mobility mass spectrometry available to Australian researchers for the first time. This new capability will drive biomolecular discovery across both plant and animal kingdoms, and accelerate advances in materials science. Field of research: 0301 - Analytical Chemistry The requested infrastructure represents a fundamentally new capability for Australian researchers to accelerate the discovery of new biomolecules and functional materials. Research to be supported by this infrastructure seeks to uncover the complex interactions between lipids, proteins and glycans (sugars) that underpin cellular biology. Fundamental discoveries will translate to future applications in human and animal health (including diagnosis and treatment of disease) and plant biology that will advance Australia's biotechnology and agricultural sectors. The accelerated discovery of new, functional materials will have benefits for the environment, through minimising waste and the introduction of smart materials with programmed degradation, and the economy through value adding to Australia's traditional strengths in raw materials production. The instrumentation requested in this proposal will provide unique opportunities for advanced training of the next generation of scientists to power the emerging knowledge economy.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

A platform for upscaled demonstration of emerging photovoltaic materials. This project aims to establish a platform composed of a suite of essential facilities including a slot-die coater, integrated electroluminescence/photoluminescence/Infrared imaging system, module level solar simulator, climate chamber and an outdoor solar cell test bed, enabling upscaled fabrication and assessment of the commercial feasibility of promising materials for photovoltaics (PV) and other applications. The proposed research infrastructure bridges the critical gap between laboratory research and commercialisation. The expected outcomes of commercially viable high value-add materials will enhance manufacturing capability of Australia in the area of advanced materials and clean energy technologies, generating economic benefits. Field of research: 0912 - Materials Engineering Making solar electricity more efficient, affordable and reliable is one of the grand challenges in 21st century to address the global issue of climate changes and the increasing demand for energy in society. The proposed research infrastructure offers unique capabilities for demonstration of upscaled fabrication and performance assessment of emerging high value materials for photovoltaics and other applications that promise to deliver cost-effective clean energy in the future. The research infrastructure are urgently needed in the Australian material science communities to push these new materials toward commercialisation, generating direct economic benefits. This project aligns with two of the national Science and Technology Priority Area including “Advanced Manufacturing” and “Energy”, through addressing Practical Research Challenge of “Cutting-edge technologies that will de-risk, scale up and add value to Australian manufacture products” and “New Clean sources and storage technologies that are efficient, cost-effective and reliable” respectively.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Innovative Soft-computing for Condition Assessment of Large Infrastructure. Health conditions of large infrastructure, such as bridges, have been difficult to determine due to their large scales, associated incomplete data and high uncertainties in measurement and system identification. This project will develop an innovative condition assessment method based on the advancements in structural dynamics analysis, multi-objective topology and soft-computing techniques, for reliably evaluating the health conditions of large infrastructure. The outcomes will enhance the current practices in infrastructure asset management to deliver timely retrofitting and extended life cycle. The development will provide benefits to Australia by enhancing operational efficiency and preventing catastrophic failure of infrastructure. Field of research: 0905 - Civil Engineering This project will enhance the safety of Australian infrastructure by assisting infrastructure asset owners with more informed maintenance plans. This will also increase productivity for freight transport-dependent industries, who rely on the condition of road and bridge systems. Safety of other infrastructure such as buildings and energy plants will also allow effective operations, towards contributing to higher productivity. Commercial benefits of the project can include soft-computing tools for structural condition assessment, which bring excellent export opportunities for Australian infrastructure management industry. In addition, research outcomes will enable engineers to transform the routine-based maintenance practice to a condition-based maintenance framework through condition assessment results of infrastructure. This transition will help reduce hazardous waste generated from maintenance, prevent carbon emissions due to structural collapse and reconstruction, increase public safety and extend life cycle of aging infrastructure, including national iconic buildings and bridges.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2021 · 2021-01

Scalable and Robust Bayesian Inference for Implicit Statistical Models. This project aims to develop the next generation of efficient methods for fitting complex simulation-based statistical models to data. Practitioners and scientists are interested in such implicit models to enable discoveries, produce accurate predictions and inform decisions under uncertainty. However, the associated computational cost has restricted researchers to implicit models that must have a small number of parameters and be well specified, impeding scientific progress. This project will develop new computational methods and algorithms for implicit models that scale to high dimensions and are robust to misspecification. Benefits will arise from the more routine use of implicit models in epidemiology, biology, ecology and other fields. Field of research: 0104 - Statistics Calibrated statistical models can advance scientific understanding, facilitate decision making and generate predictions. For example, calibrated models are useful for weather forecasting, assessing financial risk, understanding biological systems, computing risks for invasive species, and so on. However, the ubiquitous use of oversimplified statistical models can have severe consequences, in terms of inaccurate predictions and suboptimal decisions. This project will develop innovative and principled statistical methods to significantly increase the scalability and robustness of statistical inference for computationally expensive simulation-based models, referred to as implicit models. The new methods will generate economic, commercial and environmental benefits for Australia by facilitating the widespread use of realistic models in many disciplines such as biology, ecology, finance and the environment. This project contributes to increasing capability in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, which is at the core of the governments science agenda as outlined in the National Science Statement.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2021 · 2021-01

Counting a Sixth Mass Extinction. This project aims to investigate how values shape conservation science and policy by utilizing a feminist philosophy of science approach. This project expects to generate new biodiversity assessments by adjusting the cultural lenses through which species are counted and conservation status is assigned. Expected outcomes of this project include the creation of an interactive global biodiversity map, in which data changes when values change, which will reveal biodiversity trends, species, conservation risks and opportunities that currently remain outside conservation attention. This should provide significant benefits to biodiversity, by opening space for diverse values to broaden the scope of conservation science, ethics, and policy. Field of research: 2203 - Philosophy Australia is losing species at the rate of a mass extinction – and – the number of species in Australia is increasing. These statements are both factually correct although they contradict, because values shape biodiversity science. This project will unlock entrenched limitations in conservation science by applying diverse perspectives to biodiversity data. Using data visualisation and digital interactivity technologies, this project will create an open-access interactive mapping tool which applies cultural values to reveal hidden aspects of biodiversity and new conservation opportunities. This tool will highlight how each worldview reveals distinct biodiversity trends, risks and opportunities. By combining different cultural worldviews, this project will generate new policy directions that are less costly, more effective, and less socially controversial than current approaches. Conservation science and policy benefit biodiversity most when the values that inform them are diverse. This project will enable Australian society to embrace a vision of conservation that reflects and celebrates its diverse values.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2021 · 2021-01

International Tax in the Digital Age: A Blueprint for Allocating Profits. This project aims to investigate tax avoidance by multinational enterprises in the age of the digital economy. It addresses the difficult problem of determining the location in which profits are made. The project expects to generate new knowledge in international tax by developing a blueprint for allocating profits of multinational enterprises between jurisdictions that aligns with profit making activity and reduces international tax avoidance. A systematic structure for allocating profits of multinational enterprises will address the important problem of tax base erosion caused by profit shifting. This will provide the significant benefit of developing a major tool in securing Australia’s revenue base in the digital age. Field of research: 1801 - Law Taxation, and the maintenance of a sustainable national system of government finance are important foundations for productivity and economic growth during fiscally challenging periods like the current economic climate.The project will contribute to the protection of Australia's tax base through a blueprint to tackle international tax avoidance by multinational enterprises. An alternative model for allocating profits in the digital era will be used as a benchmark for evaluating current rules and proposed modifications to those rules. It will inform national tax policy and allow Australia to play a central role in international efforts to counter profit shifting.The project will generate a substantial national benefit through domestic resource mobilisation, contributing directly to the Australian Government’s strategic research priorities by securing its revenue base through a tax regime that ensures economic well-being. Australia’s contribution to the debates in this field are important to outcomes globally and as they relate to Australia itself.