Australian National University

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Uncovering an evolutionary advanced mechanism of gene expression control. This project aims to uncover a new mechanism that activates gene expression in mammals, which involves unexpected connections between the core components of chromosomes and essential enzymatic machines required for the expression of genes. This project will generate new knowledge on the poorly understood process of how the extensive genomic information of multicellular organisms is selectively chosen to enable the expression of only the required subset of genes. This will revolutionise our understanding of the mechanisms of gene control thereby shaping the field in the future. Significantly, this will allow new ways to manipulate gene expression that will impact biotechnology by providing new efficient ways to produce proteins or RNA. Field of research: 3105 - Genetics Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is one of the most common psychiatric disorders, affecting around 3 million Australians at some point in their life. A traumatic event can lead to permanent changes in the area of the brain linked to stress, which can have a devastating impact on how people cope with everyday life. One possible way to better treat PTSD is by looking at these changes in the brain, specifically the way certain genes associated with this condition are regulated. This project uses cutting-edge technologies in genomics, biochemistry and structural biology to better understand how living cells regulate expression of individual genes, a concept that is essential to the mental and physical health of all Australians. The knowledge generated from this project will inform psychiatrists and clinicians about how gene expression underpins certain health conditions, helping them to develop new, safe ways to treat PTSD at a molecular level. This will benefit Australians living with PTSD, especially those who have not responded to existing treatment.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Valuing Torres Strait Knowledge through Sustainable Digital Returns. This project aims to address the sustainable return of archival materials by utilising a case study of scholarship about Torres Strait society and culture created fifty years ago by Japanese researchers. The project expects to generate new knowledge in the area of research accountability by utilising an extensive fieldwork approach to foreground Torres Strait Islander perspectives. Expected outcomes include the co-creation of high-quality digital resources and new analysis of the Japanese research and Torres Strait Islander agency in shaping research. Benefits include advances in digital methodologies for sustainable community engagement, inter-generational knowledge transfer, and grounded insights into respectful research relationships. Field of research: 4501 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Culture, Language and History Indigenous peoples have long called for the return of archival research materials yet much remains inaccessible. This project aims to provide much-needed guidance to ensure returns are long-lasting and in line with First Nations priorities and protocols. To achieve these aims, the project team will work closely with Torres Strait Islander Elders and young people, communities and organisations to re-publish and digitise a unique body of Japanese research about Torres Strait society and culture that was created fifty years ago. The project expects to boost understanding of an important period in Australia’s Torres Strait history and the central role that Torres Strait Islanders play in shaping research. The project will benefit Torres Strait Islanders and other First Nations peoples by building a model for the enduring digital return of cultural materials, further community research capacity, enable intergenerational knowledge transfer and enhance cultural and educational relationships internationally.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Genome evolution & adaptation of the multinuclear wheat stripe rust fungus. Animals and plants package their genomes into a single nucleus within each cell. In contrast, millions of fungal species accommodate multiple nuclei containing individual haploid genomes. It is currently unknown what the evolutionary implications are for this unusual genome division into multiple nuclei. Here we explore the evolutionary consequences of genome division into multiple nuclei for the first time by applying cutting edge genome biology tools and algorithms. The economically significant study system is the devastating wheat stripe rust fungus. This pathogen costs Australian farmers over $100 million a year. New understanding is expected to lead to better disease management, reduced fungicide applications, and increased yields. Field of research: 3102 - Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Wheat is Australia's largest crop, valued at around $10 billion per year. If disease takes hold, however, Australian farmers can lose up to $100 million due to increased disease control costs and wheat losses. This makes wheat disease prevention a critical problem to solve. This project will contribute to its prevention by applying cutting-edge genomic analyses to understand how the wheat stripe rust fungus – a disease that can cause up to 60% yield loss - causes disease in wheat. By passing this knowledge onto Rural Development Corporations and other specialists who advise farmers, industry partners and government, our findings will be quickly adopted by the Australian farming community and leading to better disease monitoring and breeding strategies to reduce disease in crops. Through these outcomes, this research will contribute to reducing the impact of disease, benefiting both farmers and the Australian economy, and advancing the Government's target to grow the agricultural sector to $100 billion by 2030.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Ultra-Fast and Secure Terahertz Communications for 6G Wireless Systems. This project aims to develop new theories and signal processing solutions for the cutting-edge technology of terahertz communications to enable the revolutionary sixth-generation wireless systems, by exploring and optimising the inherent benefits of the terahertz band. Anticipated outcomes are new analytical tools and practical guidelines for designing ultra-fast and secure wireless transmission at an unprecedented speed up to terabits per second (Tbps). This enables various emerging applications, such as holographic telepresence, Tbps WiFi and Tbps wireless data centres, to drive transformation in the telecommunications sector, boost industry productivity and support our intelligent information society in the 2030s. Field of research: 4006 - Communications Engineering Sixth generation (6G) communication systems are predicted to contribute millions of dollars to Australia’s future economic growth and bring unparalleled benefits to many industry sectors, including healthcare and smart manufacturing. Realising 6G requires communication technologies at terahertz frequencies, which, globally, are undeveloped. This project addresses this need: it will develop new communication theories and algorithms at terahertz frequencies that will enable 6G to offer ultra-fast data transmission and highly secure connectivity that exceed 5G capability. The technologies we develop will be shared with and adopted by industry partners such as Telstra and National Instruments, and through that uptake, support industries such as healthcare to launch innovative applications, including allowing doctors to perform remote surgeries for patients living in isolated parts of Australia without easy access to surgical care. By doing so, this project will contribute to not only future national economic benefit but also improvements in the accessibility of healthcare to remote populations in Australia.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Australian Parliamentary Speech: How Deliberative? How Representative? . This project aims to assess the Australian Parliament’s representativeness and quality of debate from 1901-2020. It expects to generate new tools and knowledge about the development and workings of parliament using innovative quantitative text analysis methods. Expected outcomes include analysis of the relationship between representation (class, gender etc) and policy outcomes, an information-based measure of parliamentary speech and a standardised dataset of Hansard. This should provide significant benefits to the scholarly community by removing cost and time barriers and build capacity for international collaborations. The objective information generated can contribute to public discussion about the efficacy of parliamentary debate. Field of research: 4408 - Political Science Parliament is the central institution of democracy yet Australians have concerns about how Parliament operates, and how representative, deliberative and accountable it is. This project uses advanced text-analysis to evaluate the representativeness and changing quality of parliamentary debate since 1901. Through doing so, the project will develop recommendations for reform, a new database for MPs and librarians as well as training for journalists and policy researchers to help them analyse parliamentary processes and its representativeness. Creating an interactive web-based dashboard, and widely sharing a detailed report and public forums, the project will foster informed public engagement and provide a pathway for Parliamentary reforms. These translational tools will provide policy makers, journalists and citizens with the capacity to examine the workings of our Parliament which in turn will enable the uptake of reform options, and benefit Australians by meeting their growing demand for changes that strengthen our democracy.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

How do apicomplexan parasites steal amino acids from their hosts? The single-celled parasites that cause malaria and toxoplasmosis are adept at stealing nutrients from the host animals that they infect. How they do this is, however, poorly understood. This project seeks to identify the processes by which these parasites scavenge amino acids, an essential class of nutrient, from their hosts. Using innovative experimental approaches, the project aims to identify and characterise the parasite proteins that mediate the uptake of different amino acids into the parasite. The intended outcomes of the project are to provide comprehensive insights into a fundamental aspect of parasite biology, and inform strategies to treat the diseases caused by these parasites by cutting off their nutrient supply. Field of research: 3101 - Biochemistry and Cell Biology Australia’s livestock and poultry industries contribute roughly $AU25 billion to our economy each year. However, they are threatened by parasites called ‘apicomplexans’. Animal deaths and reduced livestock yields caused by apicomplexan infections lead to billions of dollars in economic losses in Australia and worldwide. There are few treatments available, and parasites are continually developing resistance to existing treatments. To address this problem, this project will examine how these parasites ‘steal’ nutrients from their animal host in order to survive and multiply. The new knowledge we uncover will lay the groundwork for drug and vaccine manufacturers to develop new and more effective anti-parasitic treatments designed to kill the parasites, and we will provide them with new insights about how parasites develop drug resistance. Use of such future drugs and vaccines by Australian livestock farmers will safeguard their economic livelihood and their contribution to the Australian economy.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Voices of Regional Australia: The linguistic patterning of local attachment. This project aims to investigate language and social dynamics among regional Australians, who, despite representing one third of the population, have been often neglected in the research to date. The project expects to generate new knowledge around regional attachment and the impact that has on speech patterns, adapting for the first time recently developed international metrics to the Australian context. Expected outcomes include a better understanding of models of language change across urban and rural areas, and a novel dataset recording the stories of regional Australians, and in particular, their experiences facing bushfire. This should provide significant benefits as a record of life, language and community in regional Australia. Field of research: 4704 - Linguistics Community belonging is central to the wellbeing of Australians, especially in times of crisis such as natural disasters. Language plays a key role in people’s connection to their community. With more Australians moving to regional areas, we need to know more about Australian English in regional Australia to understand community belonging better. Partnering with two regional communities in NSW and Victoria, this project will produce a collection of oral testimonials about regional Australians’ experience of bushfires. These stories will form an enduring record of both modern-day regional Australian English and the lived experiences of Australians as they respond to a natural disaster. Sharing these stories through public talks and community-led sessions, the project will help bushfire-affected communities to heal and build resilience, and showcase the diversity of Australian English in regional Australia. Doing so will support regional Australian communities, emergency response agencies and policy makers to better prepare for and manage disasters.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Locally structured polar-photofunctional materials for energy conversion. This project aims to develop a novel method to engineer local chemical structures for achieving the polarity in narrow bandgap oxides via advanced thin-film growth and ion beam irradiation techniques. The developed new polar-photofunctional materials will significantly improve opto-electro-mechanical coupling and energy conversion, facilitating uses in renewable energy harvesting and smart optomechanical devices. The project expects to advance material science through a new concept and innovative methodology, achieve properties forbidden/limited by conventional strategies and expand candidate pools for new generation multifunctional materials, significantly advancing Australia’s capacity in advanced manufacturing and industry. Field of research: 4018 - Nanotechnology The Government’s $1.3billion investment in its Modern Manufacturing Initiative has prioritised the clean energy sector for its competitive advantage and strategic importance to Australia. The sector, especially solar power, has grown almost 100-fold in the last decade. To meet demand, highly efficient and low-cost devices that harvest solar energy, called ‘solar cells’, are urgently required. The main materials used for solar cells cannot harvest solar energy, so they require complicated components which both increase manufacturing and disposal costs and limit the efficiency of power conversion. This project aims to solve this problem with a novel method to develop new materials that can efficiently convert solar energy. Our industry partners will directly integrate the materials we create not only in traditional solar panels but also in the cladding and windows of buildings. This uptake will contribute to boosting Australia’s global competitiveness in clean energy conversion and advanced manufacturing, benefitting Australia economically as well as environmentally through mass-scale clean energy use.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Advances in Peptide Synthesis: Exploiting Underutilised Functional Groups. The translation of therapeutically-relevant classes of peptides to the clinic is often limited by chemists' ability to synthesise these complex biomolecules efficiently and sustainably. This project aims to develop new tools for the preparation of designer peptides that are broadly inspired by an underutilised reactive group found in naturally-occurring peptide sequences. Expected outcomes encompass health and economic benefits for the Australian community, including: the first approach to a class of promising antibiotic peptide natural product analogues, the development of a mild electrochemical approach to peptide modification, and the production of a library of novel amino acids for incorporation into potential antibiotic leads. Field of research: 3404 - Medicinal and Biomolecular Chemistry Australia’s biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors rely on the discovery and preparation of ‘therapeutic molecules’ which are essential in fighting emerging diseases and helping overcome resistance to current treatments. Yet manufacturing therapeutic molecules is energy-intensive, expensive and often requires significant amounts of toxic chemicals. This project will explore new technologies to prepare therapeutic molecules, using more sustainable approaches in the preparation phase through the cutting-edge use of electrochemistry—an environmentally-conscious method in which small amounts of electricity, rather than a toxic reagent, produce the chemical reaction. These technologies are yet to be applied to drug discovery and therefore offer vast commercial potential for Australia’s growing biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors to use in new therapeutic treatments. By doing so, these industries will drive the development of sustainable chemical manufacturing in Australia, contributing to the national agenda for energy efficiency, and reducing the production costs of healthcare treatment for Australians.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Local Remembering and National Forgetting: Memory Politics in Modern China. This project aims to explore the politics of local remembering and national forgetting, and their roles in shaping state-society relationships in modern China. The project expects to generate new insights into key narratives of China’s recent past, and how they are recast by local museums to counter official discourses that elevate certain memories and suppress others. Expected outcomes include enhancing theoretical and empirical knowledge of the roles of heritage and memory in China’s contemporary cultural politics. Significant benefits to Australia will include new knowledge towards a more nuanced and multidimensional understanding of China’s priorities in cultural politics, especially in the Asia-Pacific region. Field of research: 4302 - Heritage, Archive and Museum Studies Australia’s relationship with China is facing significant geopolitical tension. In order to navigate its relationship with China more effectively to improve our economic and political relations, Australia needs a stronger understanding of Chinese cultural politics. This project will investigate how the Chinese state uses stories about its past to justify its national identity and Chinese interests internationally. Through an analysis of historical narratives in three prominent cultural institutions, the project will expand knowledge of how China constructs the past for social and political ends. Policy-targeted workshops through collaborations with cultural institutions in Canberra will help support the uptake of the project’s findings within the Australian foreign affairs community, which will lead to greater operational knowledge and management of China’s geopolitical behaviour. Long term political and economic benefits to Australians include a change in dominant public stereotypes and presumptions about China; improved national capacity to build cultural sensitivity; and improved international relations.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

A Unified Theory of 'If's. This project aims to develop a unified theory of ‘if’s. Our understanding of an uncertain and risky world requires hypothetical reasoning involving ‘if’s. They are significant theoretically: in science, history, politics, economics, psychology, computer science, linguistics, and philosophy. They are significant practically: in our planning, decision-making, policy priorities, legal judgments, environmental and medical interventions. Yet we lack a comprehensive, readily implementable theory of ‘if’s. The project expects to provide such a theory, based on probability, improving on approaches from philosophy and linguistics, and benefitting both these fields. It also promises significant benefits for artificial intelligence/machine learning. Field of research: 5003 - Philosophy Smart decisions and risk-management in politics, law, environment, technology, and medicine are crucial to Australia’s well-being, and they all rely on hypothetical reasoning involving ‘ifs’. For example, we give someone a particular COVID vaccine. If we gave them another type of vaccine, would it protect them better? Yet we lack a general understanding of ‘if’s of the kind needed to evaluate and improve such reasoning. Through interdisciplinary collaboration and workshops, this project will develop and disseminate a straightforward and implementable account of hypothetical reasoning, based on probabilities. It will offer tools that can be applied to machine learning, and to artificial intelligence more broadly, and that can inform agencies working on them. By improving the foundations of hypothetical reasoning, and thus decision-making and risk-management, the project has the potential to provide extensive benefits for governments and everyday Australians—from programming driverless cars to effectively responding to climate change and influencing medical interventions that best protect our community.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Measuring the seismic pulse of the Earth using fibre optics . Distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) is a newly emerging passive seismic technique that converts telecommunication fibre-optic cables (dark fibres) into thousands of individual ground motion sensors. This project aims to harness DAS and the big data arising from it to develop unprecedented high-resolution images of the Earth’s structure, detect micro-seismicity, and thereby relate geological observations to Earth processes. Outcomes of this powerful technique include fine-scale seismic imaging of the Earth’s subsurface as the best proxy for geological processes and geochemistry. Benefits include transforming exploration of mineral resources, water, changes in subsurface structure, as well as geohazard assessments for Australia and worldwide. Field of research: 3706 - Geophysics Seismic observations are critical for understanding many aspects of Earth processes and structure, however these observations are limited by the cost and nature of deploying traditional seismometers. Utilising fibre-optic cables can greatly increase the number of observations and decrease the cost of the experiments. Results from this project will provide technological advances that will change passive sensing capabilities using existing infrastructure. The economic, environmental and social benefits include: Contributions to resource exploration and recovery Monitor environmental changes in the subsurface and determining aquifer properties Provide hazard assessment by determining earthquake occurrence and location Generate high-resolution Earth models that are essential for estimating ground shaking, locating faults and studying environmental processes Contribute to global security via nuclear test monitoring Applicable for use of existing, extensive telecommunication cables (like NBN) across Australia and offshore The project aligns with the SRPs of Resources, Soil and Water and Environmental Change.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Self-assembled supramolecular cages for guest binding and catalysis. This project aims to construct a family of supramolecular metal-containing cage-shaped molecules that possess specialised binding pockets with unique chemical properties that mimic enzymes. Many existing cage molecules contain well-defined three dimensional cavities reminiscent of enzymes' active sites. However, unlike natural systems they do not contain "active" metals with free coordination sites, and this limits their catalytic ability. This project aims to prepare a large family of robust organic cages quickly and easily, and subsequently incorporate metals containing free active sites that point into the cage cavity. It is expected that this will deliver strong and selective guest binding, and efficient and selective catalysis. Field of research: 3403 - Macromolecular and Materials Chemistry Australia’s chemical industry contributes $11.6b to annual GDP, however it is a major producer of waste and consumer of energy. Fortunately, it is possible to make our chemical manufacturing industry more energy efficient and environmentally sustainable using catalysts. Catalysts are a type of molecule that lowers the energy barrier for chemical processes, dramatically reducing energy costs and decreasing waste production. There is an urgent need for more effective catalysts to further reduce energy costs and improve sustainability. Natural catalysts are unrivalled in terms of their efficiency and so this project aims to use a new approach to develop high performance catalysts shaped like hollow cages that are inspired by those in nature. It is expected that this work will lead to more efficient chemical manufacturing processes, with significantly reduced waste production. Implementation of these advances by the Australian chemical industry will achieve significant cost and energy savings and a lower environmental impact.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

New carbon phases synthesized under extreme conditions. This project aims to address one of the major fundamental puzzles in carbon science; how to experimentally synthesize new phases of carbon predicted by theory. This could be approached via a combination of high pressure and high-energy ion irradiation to transform novel nano-carbon precursors. The expected outcomes include new phases of carbon with unexplored properties, an understanding of the pathways for synthesis of carbon materials, and new computational tools to understand nano-carbon materials under extreme conditions. This should provide benefits for industries seeking advanced materials for modern manufacturing. Field of research: 5104 - Condensed Matter Physics Australia’s mining industry is a major contributor to the national economy and one of the world’s largest exporters. Mining minerals involves the use of drills that become blunt over time, costing the industry both time and money to replace. One potential solution is to design stronger materials that can mine hard rocks without blunting as quickly. Carbon is a promising element for this task and there many new and useful carbon materials that cannot yet be made in the laboratory. This project will use high pressure and advanced experimental techniques to discover how to make new forms of carbon materials. Shared with resource technology manufacturers who will make future drilling technology, our discovery will help industry to reduce the time and cost involved in changing blunt drill components. This will benefit Australia a producer of advanced materials and contribute to the Australian Government’s $1.3b Modern Manufacturing Initiative, which has prioritised resource technology innovation for its strategic importance to Australia’s economic growth and comparative advantage.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Boron Nitrogen Isostere-Doped Organometallics for Molecular Electronics. The challenge of connecting two or more metals by a single chain of carbon atoms attracts intense study, thereby mimicking electronic circuitry at the molecular level. BN-Isosteric compounds involve selectively replacing (doping) carbon atoms with the elements boron (B) and nitrogen (N). These unprecedented materials should emulate and likely exceed the properties of all-carbon systems. This project aims to design and synthesise the first molecular BN-isosteric carbon-wire materials including examples based on metal-carbon multiple bonding. Expected outcomes beyond their isolation include high-level interrogation of the structure-function behaviour of their electrical and optical properties relevant to the technologies that will emerge. Field of research: 3402 - Inorganic Chemistry Australia’s Quantum Technology Roadmap relies on our advanced manufacturing industry creating increasingly small components for electronic devices that are capable of high-volume information storage and high-speed transmission. The industry’s ability to push these limits depends on discoveries in molecular science, in particular, using unique materials to study molecular scale electronics. This project will design and develop new methods to create unprecedented, man-made materials. These will constitute new, high value-added materials for electro-optical, data storage and sensing applications including in future environmental detection of pollutants in the atmosphere. Shared with manufacturers in the form of immediate technology transfer, this project will enable the development of advanced onshore capabilities in the design, manufacture and commercial exploitation of these new materials, placing Australia at the forefront of this critical area of future technology demand.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Living with Smallpox in Early Modern Britain (c.1580–1780 CE). This project aims to examine how people in the past made sense of an acute infectious disease, including its long-term effects on individuals and their communities. Using traditional techniques and digital tools, it anticipates reconstructing how the experiences of the majority – who survived – were shaped by their socio-cultural circumstances, and tracing how those experiences changed over time, particularly in relation to advances in medical technology and public health. Expected outcomes include insight into historical responses to pandemics, as well as enhanced knowledge of the emergence of modern techniques for regulating public health, with benefits for our understanding of similar challenges in the present day. Field of research: 4303 - Historical Studies Australia continues to grapple with the global COVID pandemic, with the impacts on individuals and society likely to linger for years to come. History offers important insights into how we might best respond to this next phase of the pandemic. Using archival research, this project will explore how smallpox, an acute infectious disease, impacted communities at different points in history. Through a series of public lectures, podcasts, and a book, the project will increase decision-makers’ and the general public’s understanding of how people experience and respond to large-scale health crises, and how social status, gender, age, ethnicity, and political allegiance affect those experiences and responses - including attitudes to vaccination. Access to such critical knowledge will help to inform and guide Australia’s current and future public health responses, which in turn will support improved health outcomes for the Australian community in the post-COVID era.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Non-Canonical Amino Acids for Protein Analysis and Peptide Inhibitors. This interdisciplinary project aims to establish new tools to experimentally confirm 3D structure predictions of proteins that are otherwise difficult to study. A combination of innovative biochemistry, modern spectroscopy, and high-performance computing will be applied to study protein-protein and protein-ligand interactions. The project expects to generate new techniques and to test them on established drug targets. Expected outcomes include new tools which quickly inform medicinal chemists how drugs interact with their targets and how they can be improved. The developed tools should provide significant benefit to many researchers by accelerating the early stage of drug discovery, and support Australia’s fast growing biotechnology sector. Field of research: 3101 - Biochemistry and Cell Biology Drugs are specialised, high value-add materials. However, new drugs are expensive to develop in the pharmaceutical industries and over the last decade the Therapeutic Goods Administration approved only approximately 40 new drugs per year for use in Australia. This project aims to accelerate the early stage of drug discovery. It will use innovative biochemistry, modern magnetic spectroscopy and high performance computing to develop new methods which quickly inform medicinal chemists how drug candidates interact with their targets and how they can be pharmacologically improved. Early stage drug discovery is primarily conducted in small biotech companies. This project will support Australia’s fast growing biotechnology sector by accelerating the rate with which these companies can secure intellectual property.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Beyond Directional Motivated Reasoning: Social Identity and Partisan Truth. This project aims to develop and test a new model of psychological processes by which people come to understand information as true or not. This project expects to generate advances in knowledge about how different groups produce opposing understandings of the world ("partisan truth"), despite equally rational and unbiased psychological processes. Expected outcomes include the development of a single framework to explain current piecemeal findings, expanding the analysis to current and socially-urgent partisan debates over truth (eg, vaccine hesitancy). Significant benefits include advancing knowledge and the development of guidelines to aid policy-makers and educators in the ultimate reduction of social discord caused by partisan truth. Field of research: 5205 - Social and Personality Psychology Australians have been affected by unprecedented climate events, especially floods and bushfires. However, in an era of disinformation and denial of science, we have seen the rise of polarised beliefs within the community about the reality of climate change. Taken to an extreme, this denial of facts can risk Australian lives and divide communities. This project confronts the challenge of inaccurate and inflexible “partisan truths” by studying Australians’ beliefs, social relations and psychological biases. Through social research and community consultation, evidence-based interventions will be developed to enhance decision making and reduce polarisation of beliefs over critical issues like climate change. This will be achieved via web-based educational tools and guidelines for government, non-government and community organisations to implement positive change. These interventions will benefit current and future generations of Australians to overcome the dangers of misinformation that inhibit civil debate, divide communities, and lead to policies and practices that place Australian lives and property at risk.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

The use of nudges as a local government environmental policy instrument. This project aims to design and rigorously test a range of behavioural nudges to improve the environmental behaviour of residents in the ACT, with a focus on adoption of low carbon technologies and the use of public transport. In partnership with the ACT Government, the proposal leverages recent research on cognitive biases to develop novel interventions and evaluate their effects via randomised controlled trials. Expected outcomes include new concepts for citizen-government interactions; advanced knowledge in public policy and behavioural economics; a new statistical programming tool; new methods to optimise policy and practice; and positive environmental and economic impacts for local governments and individuals. Field of research: 3801 - Applied Economics Behavioural insights (BI) teams globally have started to apply BI to public policy, combining insights from psychology and economics to study how individuals make decisions in the real world. While various federal government departments are trailblazing in this domain, relatively little is known about how BI can be applied to public policy challenges in local government settings. This timely project in partnership with the ACT Government focusses on how nudges may help community members make environmentally friendly decisions, such as adopting low carbon technologies or using public transport. The project features the design of novel interventions and evaluation of their effects through rigorous randomised controlled trials. The findings, delivered in tailored formats to meet stakeholder needs, are expected to guide the implementation of targeted, low-cost environmental policy interventions for local governments across Australia. The project would deliver environmental benefits by nudging citizens to reduce their carbon footprint whilst simultaneously promoting efficiency savings for local governments.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Ultrashort pulse laser for ultra-hard machine tools processing. This project aims to develop an advanced high-precision ultrashort pulse laser technique for shaping and sharpening cutting tools. It expects to generate new knowledge and new technology in machine tool fabrication using an innovative approach for processing ultra-hard materials. The expected outcome is progressive machining capabilities with higher throughput, significantly reduced production time and costs, and increased tool accuracy and life. This should provide significant economic and safety benefits for the advanced manufacturing industry, enabling production of high-performance products across cutting-edge industries including defence, aerospace, medical tools, automotive, and clean-energy technologies. Field of research: 4014 - Manufacturing Engineering Australians rely on machine tools such as drills and cutters as they produce all objects in our everyday lives. The lifetime and accuracy of these tools are crucial to the performance and cost of the finished products. After long periods of use, however, these tools become blunt and require frequent resharpening or replacement. This project will use the unique capabilities of newly available high-power lasers to develop an innovative laser-cutting technique that will accurately shape and sharpen ultra-hard tools. This advanced method will produce more accurate, durable and robust machine tools, substantially increasing machining precision and tool life span, while also significantly reducing production time and costs. Australia’s manufacturing industry and tradesmen will benefit from stronger, cost-effective, and longer-lasting tools, enabling them to make an immense range of products across diverse industries without constant maintenance issues. By introducing this advanced and reliable technique into the industry, the project will reinforce and grow Australia’s manufacturing capabilities.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Promoting Child and Carer Wellbeing and Placement Stability in Kinship Care. Kinship care is the fastest growing out-of-home care placement in Australia, yet least supported. This project aims to implement and evaluate an attachment and trauma-based program for kinship carers, explore its suitability for cultural adaptation for Indigenous families and co-design practical resources to promote program sustainability and trauma-informed practice. This project is Australia’s first randomised trial of a tailored program for kinship carers and expects to generate vital knowledge on evidence-based support. Via implementing an innovative program for kinship carers in statutory child protection, this project should build capacity for research-based practice and benefit family wellbeing and placement outcomes in kinship care. Field of research: 5203 - Clinical and Health Psychology Of the 46,200 children living in out-of-home care in Australia in 2021 due to child safety concerns, most (54%) were placed with relatives in ‘kinship care’. Demand for kinship carers is rapidly rising, yet they receive very little tailored support in managing child behaviour problems and family strain. These stressors can impede children’s recovery from family adversity and cause placement breakdowns. This project partners with statutory child protection in NSW and ACT to trial and evaluate an innovative parent program addressing unique needs of kinship carers, and co-develop practical resources to improve frontline staff practice with these families. Project outcomes include increased capacity in child protection services to provide evidence-based and sustainable therapeutic support for kinship care families, and new insight into how the program may be culturally adapted for kinship carers of Indigenous children. Such outcomes are expected to benefit wellbeing and placement stability in Australian kinship care, and enable broad-scale delivery of an effective support system for families in out-of-home care.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Surveillance and sampling to maintain absence of pests and diseases. This project aims to develop empirically validated statistical and mathematical methods for industry and government to deliver more efficient biosecurity surveillance programs. The project endeavours to enhance biosecurity at the border and within Australia, while minimising the costs and burden of testing. Expected project outcomes include effective surveillance and sampling for high-priority threats, accessible software for decision-makers, and generalisable approaches to address rapidly increasing biosecurity risks. Significant benefits include maintaining absence of key pathogens and pests in Australia. Field of research: 4905 - Statistics Biosecurity surveillance at our border is critical to minimise and mitigate threats to Australia. Threats include disease vectors, plant, animal, and human pathogens. This project aims to develop robust statistical and mathematical methods to support effective and efficient surveillance of high-priority threats, with flexibility to apply these methods to newly emerged risks. Outcomes include new evidence and accessible decision support tools for policy makers to inform biosecurity within Australia and testing of imported consignments of goods. Partnership with the Department of Agriculture ensures practical solutions to Australia’s agricultural and food sector, with findings directly applicable to reduction of biosecurity risks. Significant benefits include maintaining absence of key pathogens and pests in Australia, enabling industry to benefit from disease-free status.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Improving Australian iron ore comminution for green steel production. Decarbonisation of the iron ore and steel industry will involve the design of new mineral processing approaches to make the Australian iron ore amenable to green steel production. Energy-efficient ore crushing for optimal ore grades production is key to the development and economics of green steel. This fellowship project, with embedded industry experts, aims at better understanding the fragmentation mechanics of Pilbara iron ore. It will exploit micro-computed tomography coupled with advanced mechanical testing to offer transformative characterisation methods of ore comminution. The project outcomes will help develop new technologies and optimal production paths to realise a higher-grade iron ore needed for a decarbonised steel industry. Field of research: 4019 - Resources Engineering and Extractive Metallurgy Iron and steelmaking produce 8% of the world’s carbon emissions. Decarbonising the industry, or “making green steel”, requires the production of higher-grade ore products with minimal contaminants. Iron ore is Australia’s largest source of export revenue, valued at more than $100 billion each year; Australian iron ore producers now face the challenge of developing new ore product to support green steel production. Rooted in this industrial challenge, this project will use advanced instruments and X-ray tomography - a technology using X-rays to see inside iron ore - to better understand how crushing, grinding and separating iron ore from contaminants can produce high-grade ore that is compatible with green steel production. We will integrate the new knowledge and co-design technology in the project with our embedded industry-based operational experts, who will act as technology transfer partners and implement the technology into Australian business operations at commercial scale. This real-world uptake of our research will contribute to advancing Australia’s position as the preferred supplier of green-ready iron ore products to the global market, and to maintaining the iron ore industry’s contribution to the Australian economy in a decarbonised future.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Multi material 3D Printing. This project aims to further develop a new 3D printing technique commercialised by an Australian start-up company. Current electronics manufacturing is extremely capital intensive, slow and restrictive in 3D design. The 3D printing method proposed in this application will disrupt the current advanced manufacturing eco system; creating unique methods to unlock advances in diverse markets for example, photovoltaics, printed circuit boards and sensors. The expected outcomes of this project are to create new commercial opportunities for the next generation of 3D printed electronics. This will provide significant benefits, creating unique capability to manufacture devices in 3D - faster, cheaper and with reduced reliance on global supply chains. Field of research: 3403 - Macromolecular and Materials Chemistry Electronics manufacturing is an expensive and wasteful process that Australia usually outsources offshore. However, outsourcing often leaves local manufacturers vulnerable to supply chain disruptions. This project aims to revolutionise Australia’s local electronics manufacturing industry by developing a new 3D printing technology, or ‘additive manufacturing’. Additive manufacturing promises reduced waste, cost and time by making it possible to manufacture electronics on benchtops, eliminating existing geographical and supply chain constraints. For these reasons, additive manufacturing represents the future of electronics manufacturing worldwide. This project will develop new chemistry to create a set of commercially viable inks for use in electronics manufacturing. Through our start-up company Spark 3D, the project will develop this new electronics 3D printing technology for industry application. Adoption of this 3D printing technology across the sector in the future will benefit the local industry through a more sustainable manufacturing future including a flexibility to diversify their markets for example into photovoltaics, printed circuit boards and sensors. In doing so, this project will support Australia to become a leader in the field of electronics manufacturing and boost its sovereign capability to produce the electronics demanded by Australian consumers and businesses in the future.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Overcoming Violence and Building Peace in Conditions of Complexity in PNG . The project is an investigation of the drivers and inhibitors of three inter-related forms of violence in Papua New Guinea - tribal fighting, sorcery accusation related violence and family and sexual violence. The harm caused by these forms of violence is systemic and ongoing, with widespread negative impacts for women, men and children across multiple dimensions of social and economic development. The project will produce new knowledge about how violence and peace-making initiatives emerge, connect, spread and disperse, and generate new conceptual models to better analyse the dynamics of violence and peace across time and space. These theoretical insights will inform better violence prevention initiatives for Papua New Guinea and beyond. Field of research: 4804 - Law In Context Violence in Papua New Guinea (PNG) is an ongoing and widespread threat to the security of its citizens, particularly women and children, and the nation’s development. As a close neighbour and ally, Australia is keen to prevent violence in all forms in PNG to ensure its future economic and political development. This project will develop new frameworks to better identify what causes and prevents violence, to help inform the development of key interventions. Focusing on the most common types of violence - sorcery accusation related violence, tribal fighting, and family and sexual violence - the project will help Australia’s aid programs to gain a deeper understanding of violence and in turn, design more effective violence prevention programs and build peace among at-risk communities. Australia can also learn lessons about violence prevention and peace-building from PNG. Doing so will benefit current and future generations of PNG citizens, advance Australia’s national interest in PNG’s economic, political and social development, and improve our own violence prevention strategies for a safer Australia for all.