Australian National University

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Why are biodiversity hotspots found where they are? This project aims to develop a method to study how evolution within species shapes the broad-scale distribution of unique biological diversity across landscapes and continents. The distribution of biological diversity is strikingly uneven, with much diversity found only in small ‘hotspots’. What factors determine the locations of these hotspots of endemism? This project aims to answer this question by using three biologically diverse areas as test cases. It plans to use a new model to simulate processes of evolution over time, including range shifts, niche evolution, isolation and extinction, to determine how dynamics of divergence evolving within species contribute to broad-scale patterns of diversity. The project intends to improve understanding and management of biodiversity. Field of research: 0603 - Evolutionary Biology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Ultra-Porous Devices by Synergistic Aerosol and Atomic Layer Depositions. The project aspires to develop a scalable low-cost approach for the synthesis and integration of ultra-porous films in nanodevices. The project intends to deposit atomic layers onto aerogel-like nanoparticle networks, self-assembled by thermophoresis of flame-made aerosols. This would increase the atomically-deposited layer mass by several hundred-fold per cycle and result in ultra-porous films with electrochemically active surface areas. It is intended that the project will demonstrate the fabrication of solid–gas, solid–liquid and solid–solid nanointerfaces, which will be applicable to key emerging technologies such as wearable medical diagnostics. Field of research: 0912 - Materials Engineering

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Aristotle's Australia: Civic Republicanism from Federation to the Apology. This project seeks to examine the impact of civic republican ideas in Australia. It will be argued that civic republicanism represents a unique understanding of freedom and that these ideas have shaped the national consciousness. Can the cult of White Australia, the conscription debates, the campaigns for women’s and Indigenous rights be better understood through the prism of civic republicanism? Building on significant revisionist works, this project plans to examine key moments in Australia's democratic evolution and suggest that an Aristotelian concept of virtue, in opposition to both liberalism and conservatism, has been a crucial defining factor. This project aims to broaden our understanding of Australian history and the principles that shape our democracy. Field of research: 2103 - Historical Studies

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Does shared group membership increase social risk-taking? This project aims to develop a social identity model of social risk-taking to inform the development of more effective public safety communications. Replying to a fraudulent email, investing in a pyramid scheme, or having unprotected sex – why do such behaviours persist when people know that they are dangerous? This project proposes that people evaluate risk by using shared group membership as a psychological proxy for ‘safe’. It is proposed that people may be less likely to see other people as a source of potential harm when they are from the same social group. This project may have implications for policy and practice in the areas of policing, internet security, crowd management and disease control. Field of research: 1701 - Psychology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Hexagonal boron nitride for deep ultraviolet device applications. This project plans to investigate the growth of an alternative material, hexagonal boron nitride, for use in high performance deep-ultraviolet (UV) light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Deep-UV LEDs are robust and highly portable devices that replace traditional mercury/deuterium-based UV sources, and have applications in water or air sterilisation, photo-dermal therapy, covert communication and bio-chemical agent identification. However, despite major worldwide effort in the development of aluminium gallium nitride deep-UV LEDs, their efficiency is still extremely low. Understanding the fundamental growth, doping and alloying mechanisms of hexagonal boron nitride will allow us to engineer its properties and create high-efficiency devices. Field of research: 0912 - Materials Engineering

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Historical pest genomes inform debate about how rapid evolution proceeds. This project plans to compare the genomes of archived and contemporary specimens to discover how two key Australian pest moths have adapted to insecticides, aiding prediction of how they may respond in the future. Agricultural pest species are often capable of rapid adaptation to insecticides, resulting in widespread genetic resistance. Does this resistance build on existing genetic variation, or are fresh mutations used to produce a fast adaptive response? How do adaptive strategies differ among key Australian pests? This project aims to answer these questions and advance understanding of mechanisms that underpin rapid evolution to improve approaches toward pest management and agricultural protection. Field of research: 0604 - Genetics

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Biofilms in two-dimensional turbulent flows:effects on Lagrangian transport. This project aims to investigate how surface biofilms affect flows at the ocean surface. Great stretches of the ocean surface are covered by an organic microlayer called biofilm. Flows at the ocean surface are a crucial part of climate machinery, and biofilms have profound, largely unexplored effects on these flows. There is no fundamental understanding of how biofilms affect fluid motion. This project aims to use laboratory models and new measurement techniques to study and quantify the impact of biofilms on turbulent transport. Understanding these effects is important in a time of climate change and this knowledge may also help address environmental issues related to spreading of pollutants and flow control at the ocean surface. Field of research: 0203 - Classical Physics

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

The Effects of Energy Subsidy Reform: The Case of Indonesia. This project plans to analyse and quantify the effects of energy subsidy reductions on environmental, transport, health, socioeconomic and industrial outcomes. Using econometric methods, the project aims to assess recent reductions in subsidies for fuel and electricity in Indonesia. Energy subsidies have been a large drain on many governments’ budgets and are often thought to bring perverse effects. The project may provide a blueprint for the design of future reforms in Indonesia and elsewhere, with the goal of addressing serious issues such as air pollution and traffic congestion while avoiding adverse consequences for the poor. The project also aims to assist budget forecasting and guide economic models on the effects of fiscal settings for energy. Field of research: 1402 - Applied Economics

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Regulating gene delivery with light. This project seeks to deliver the capacity to remotely deliver molecules into specific cells without the need for invasive or viral procedures. Individual genetic predisposition to disease forms a key part of personalised medicine that requires the accurate delivery of drugs or genes. This project aims to develop a new multimodality microscopy that can investigate and optimise light delivery of macromolecules into living cells at high specificity and across a multitude of cells. The expected outcome of this project is a new form of in vivo molecular delivery system using light. Field of research: 0903 - Biomedical Engineering

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

How do effector proteins from necrotrophic fungi cause disease in plants? This project aims to develop new knowledge to support the development of strategies to protect wheat from necrotrophic fungi. Crop losses caused by plant diseases are a significant economic, environmental and social challenge in a world facing increased demands on food, fibre and biofuels. Parastagonospora nodorum is an economically important necrotrophic fungal pathogen of wheat. During infection, P. nodorum uses effector proteins to target sensitivity gene products in wheat. This process, known as necrotrophic effector-triggered susceptibility, results in plant cell death and disease. This project aims to investigate the structural basis of necrotrophic effector-triggered susceptibility in the P. nodorum – wheat pathosystem. Field of research: 0601 - Biochemistry and Cell Biology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Maintaining and enhancing merit-based access to the NCI National Facility. Maintaining and enhancing merit-based access to the national computational infrastructure facility: This project aims to ensure that Australian researchers have access to the integrated high-performance computing and data environments they need. Australia’s national computational infrastructure (NCI) is the national, high-end research computing facility, providing researchers in universities, government science agencies and industry with world-class, integrated, high-performance services. These services enable high-impact, data-intensive computational research in all fields of science and technology. This project would continue merit-based access to NCI at the current level, ensuring ongoing international competitiveness of Australian research. Field of research: 0401 - Atmospheric Sciences

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Understanding and controlling of photoferroelectricity for photoenergy uses. The project seeks to develop high performance photoferroelectric materials for a wide range of photoenergy conversion technologies like photovoltaics and photocatalytics. For the past 50 years, ferroelectric photovoltaics have only been an academic curiosity due to their low energy conversion efficiency relative to the popular semiconductor photovoltaics. This project aims to unlock the potential of ferroelectric photovoltaics by introducing an ion co-substitution, which is coupled with electron-pinning, into promising ferroelectric materials and investigating the resultant photo-excited electronic and electrical properties. It is anticipated that the outcomes from this proposed project will provide a solution for optimal ferroelectric visible light absorption to achieve high power conversion efficiency in ferroelectric materials for practical photoenergy applications. Field of research: 0912 - Materials Engineering

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Developing a complete understanding of nuclear fission. This project aims to develop a reliable predictive model of nuclear fission. Nuclear fission is an important process in fundamental physics and technologies spanning energy, medicine and materials science. It was recently found that fission still holds many secrets, since existing models fail to describe new fission measurements for nuclei lighter than the well-known uranium region. This project plans to exploit world-leading Australian research equipment to map out unknown fission characteristics in large regions of the nuclear chart, providing a complete microscopic understanding of nuclear fission. This is designed to lead to the first predictive model applicable to the entire nuclear chart, including nuclei of astrophysical importance. Field of research: 0202 - Atomic, Molecular, Nuclear, Particle and Plasma Physics

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Political Engagement Among the Young: The 2016-19 Australian Election Study. This project seeks to understand the declining level of political engagement among the young, with a view to developing measures that will help to re-invigorate their political participation. One of the greatest challenges to democracy in Australia and internationally is to understand the lack of political engagement among the young. Young people today are less likely to vote, to join a political party, or to engage in interest groups than at any time since democratisation. The 2016–19 Australian Election Study is designed to address this question by surveying a representative sample of voters in the 2016 and 2019 elections. The project is also designed to add to an unbroken series of post-election national opinion surveys which have monitored trends in Australian political behaviour since 1987. Field of research: 1606 - Political Science

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Advancing Genocide Forecasting: New Definition, Methods, and Forecasts. The project intends to develop a new method of forecasting to improve the international community’s and Australia's ability to anticipate and prevent genocide. The project is designed to build on work in the Atrocity Forecasting Project since 2009, and to bring together political science and computer science. To address well-known problems the project plans to reconceptualise genocide as extreme targeted mass killing, increasing definitional clarity and data reliability. Combining a better concept with cutting-edge computer science forecasting approaches, the project aims to produce new annual forecasts, pushing accuracy further. Expected project outcomes will provide new understanding and a better tool for genocide prevention. Field of research: 1606 - Political Science

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

First-order reversal curve diagrams & quantitative environmental magnetism. The project intends to enable full quantitative separation of magnetic mineral mixtures in natural materials to unlock details of important environmental processes. Most efforts to understand ancient variations of Earth’s magnetic field using palaeomagnetism, or climate change using environmental magnetism, are complicated by the presence of mixed assemblages of magnetic rock-forming minerals. Understanding the recording of palaeomagnetic information or decoding environmental processes requires separate quantification of each mineral component. The main aim of the project is to develop a method to unmix the magnetic components present in environmental and geological materials. The proposed approach is expected to unlock a new quantitative era in rock magnetism, and to have impacts in physics as well as Earth science. Field of research: 0404 - Geophysics

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Sensing a complex world: Infinite dimensional observer theory for robots. This project aims to develop the foundational theory and design paradigms to support the new generation of sensor systems crucial to enabling widespread robotic automation in unstructured environments such as mining, agriculture and urban transport. Modern dense robotic sensor modalities such as CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) sensors, LIDAR and dense acoustic arrays are best modelled as a fine grid of measurements from an infinite dimensional dynamical system. The project plans to develop infinite dimensional invariant observer theory to formulate implementable algorithms that run in real-time on embedded hardware, providing detailed information that enables robots to undertake tasks that are presently impossible with state-of-the-art sparse sensing paradigms. Field of research: 0102 - Applied Mathematics

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Frontiers of Risk Modelling: Dependence and Extremes of Levy Processes. This project plans to continue an ongoing theoretical study into continuous-time stochastic processes, concentrating on developing tools for the further analysis and understanding of extremal and multivariate phenomena with applications to portfolio analysis, value-at risk calculations and complex financial instruments, with particular emphasis on practical applications of the methodologies in the insurance and finance industries. Expected outcomes would be of direct interest to these industries as well as having significant mathematical interest. Field of research: 0104 - Statistics

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Evolution and functional impact of gene silencing by hairpin derived RNAs. This project aims to study RNA-mediated gene silencing in genome evolution. RNA interference (RNAi) has been widely used as an experimental tool since its Nobel Prize-winning discovery in 1998, but little is known about endogenous RNAi or its evolution. This project uses bioinformatics, high-throughput sequencing and molecular approaches to study hpRNAs, a class of small interfering RNAs, their adaptive evolution across fly species and vertebrates, and their functional effect on testis morphogenesis and distortion of female/male sex-ratio. The project also studies splicing-dependent small RNAs and miRNA-target interaction. This research could have applications from animal development to human pathology. Field of research: 0604 - Genetics

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Probabilistic modeling of human responses in complex interaction. The project aims to develop computational ability to reliably detect and hence act on implicit user preferences. It aims to develop techniques combining advanced non-intrusive sensor measures of conscious and non-conscious behaviour during interaction tasks to enable very high-level computerised support for human goal-seeking in complex data and design environments. It plans to use a user’s physiology and preference evaluation to capture their complex interaction with the data they view, probability models to accumulate information to identify their underlying preferences and extract relationships to find possible ‘hidden variables’ which may help explain and leverage the user's choices. Field of research: 0806 - Information Systems

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Tectonic drivers of extreme metamorphism in Eastern Indonesia. This project intends to investigate the tectonic drivers of (ultra-)high temperature metamorphism in eastern Indonesia. Subduction zones – where one of Earth's plates collapses beneath another – drive the formation of mountain belts and produce high pressure and high temperature metamorphic rocks. However, it is typically very difficult when investigating mature mountain belts to interpret how subduction was exactly involved. Eastern Indonesia is one of the few places where active subduction can be linked directly to recent mountain building. Better understanding of how complex subduction dynamics and how mountain belts form is intended to assist natural hazard assessment in earthquake-prone areas. Field of research: 0403 - Geology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Stellar populations in Globular Clusters: insights in to Galaxy assembly. This project aims to advance our knowledge of globular clusters. The study of the newly discovered generations of stars in globular clusters constitutes a modern branch of stellar and galactic astrophysics. The project plans to provide a chemical characterisation of the multiple stellar populations present in globular clusters, and explore the nature of these ancient stellar systems and their possible connection with dwarf galaxies. The outcome of this research may help us understand the formation mechanisms of the Milky Way and the contribution of globular clusters to the galactic halo assembly, and may open unexpected solutions for the ‘missing satellites problem’ – the lack of low-mass galaxies compared to the predictions of the Big Bang model. Field of research: 0201 - Astronomical and Space Sciences

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Ion regulation in Apicomplexan parasites. This project aims to determine how Apicomplexan parasites regulate their sodium and chloride levels to support the development of new parasite control measures. Apicomplexan parasites cause devastating animal and human diseases. Little is known about the physiology of these parasites, and options for controlling them are few. Apicomplexan parasites must precisely control their internal ion compositions in order to survive, but how they do so is not understood. Recent work has identified a unique Apicomplexan sodium transporter and revealed a number of chloride transporter candidates. Using a combination of molecular biology and physiological techniques, this project aims to characterise the Apicomplexan sodium transporter in detail and elucidate the molecular mechanisms of chloride transport. Field of research: 0601 - Biochemistry and Cell Biology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Eddy-resolving global ocean-sea ice modelling. Eddy-resolving global ocean-sea ice modelling. This project aims to develop a world-class global ocean-sea ice model framework through a nationwide consortium. The resulting high resolution models are expected to provide the foundation for the next decade of Australian ocean-sea ice modelling capacity. This research should lead to improved ocean and sea ice prediction, ocean reanalyses, and climate projections, enhancing Australia's capacity to predict the ocean state on timescales of days to decades. This is expected to yield efficiencies in shipping, marine search and rescue and naval operations, and increase the accuracy of projected future changes in climate, sea level, ocean ecosystems and the cryosphere. Field of research: 0405 - Oceanography

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Strategies for the detection of designer steroids in greyhounds. Strategies for the detection of designer steroids in greyhounds. This project aims to develop strategies to detect designer steroids in racing greyhounds to safeguard industry integrity and animal welfare. These strategies include in vivo and comparative in vitro studies of steroid metabolism, mass-spectrometric elucidation of metabolite structures, and synthesis of putative steroid metabolites with different stereochemistries and oxidation patterns as reference materials. This project will use major metabolites identified by these studies to develop analytical procedures to test for drug abuse at greyhound race meetings. The project will target twelve readily available designer steroid supplements that have significant risk of abuse. Field of research: 0305 - Organic Chemistry