Western Sydney University

GrantConnect (Australian Government grants) · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Indigenous/Pasifika LGBTIQ+ wellbeing & the role of rights-based... Category: Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) Research

GrantConnect (Australian Government grants) · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Unlocking mycorrhizal signals to shape mycobiomes from roots to... Category: Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) Research

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Child-centred evidence to drive meaningful social change for children. Robust, child-centred evidence is needed to drive targeted policy and prompt action for children in Australia and the Pacific. A unique collaboration between ChildFund, Plan International Australia, Save the Children, UNICEF Australia, SNAICC, and child rights research leaders from 5 universities, this project will generate a toolkit to engage children in generating evidence about child rights issues (e.g. child-centred indicators; child storytelling tools), new data sets, and a sustainable implementation model. Toolkit adoption will drive increased civil society coordination and evidence-based policy and services. Key benefits will accrue to children, children’s services, and child welfare organisations nationally and across the region. Field of research: 4702 - Cultural Studies This project will conduct research with children in Australia and the Pacific, to generate much-needed new data sets and tools to guide urgent systemic change to realise children’s rights. The project will develop a child-centred, child rights data generation toolkit, data observatory, research translation guidance and industry training to empower child rights organisations to engage children in generating necessary evidence about their rights. Leading child rights organisations are committed to adopting this research, its outputs and capacity building program, which promise to strengthen sector collaboration, to minimise duplication, to maximise resources, and to drive child-centred, evidence-based systems strengthening targeting child rights. Promoting the Toolkit and training through partners’ networks will produce a stronger, more efficient civil society sector, yielding better outcomes for Australian children and reducing pressure on government services. Engaging children on issues of concern to them promises to build their trust in Australian democratic process. Evidence generated with children will support the Australian Government to address its priorities of health, food, environmental change and cybersecurity, as Government shifts to wellbeing-oriented policy and budgeting processes. Supporting Pacific nations to channel children’s perspectives into systemic change initiatives will ensure Australian Government investment in Pacific children genuinely impacts them.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Engaging Digital Objects. This project aims to improve digital accessibility of the Powerhouse Museum's collection using gamified online data collection and neurocomputational analysis methods. Our interdisciplinary approach will model how public users intuitively categorise objects in the online collection, enhancing the Powerhouse database with novel, user-relevant terms that improve search performance and enhance connectivity between objects. Outcomes include a more engaging online experience that benefits diverse audiences by enabling both visual and text-based exploration. Enhancing Powerhouse’s capacity to inspire audiences will contribute to an energised national science system essential for Australian wellbeing and the growth of a STEM-skilled workforce. Field of research: 5202 - Biological Psychology As the Powerhouse Museum establishes new roots in the rapidly growing and culturally diverse city of Parramatta, improving the online accessibility of the nation’s largest and most significant collection of science, technology, and design ingenuity for the broader Australian community is the next challenge on the horizon. In partnership with Powerhouse, this project will work directly with the public in a series of online studies to reveal how non-specialist audiences intuitively perceive and understand objects in the Powerhouse collection. Findings will enrich the museum’s database with new, user-relevant terminology to enhance online search and enable a more intuitive, visual exploration of the collection that benefits diverse viewers. Empowering the museum's mission to expand digital access to its valuable collection of cultural heritage is expected to particularly benefit those less able to visit physical Powerhouse premises (e.g., regional communities), invigorate economic potential in a new era of digital cultural experiences, and increase the museum’s capacity to inspire curiosity about science and related fields in a new generation of thinkers and innovators prepared to tackle the challenges of tomorrow.

GrantConnect (Australian Government grants) · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Unlocking mycorrhizal signals to shape mycobiomes from roots to... Category: Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) Research

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Transborder Electricity Infrastructures and Geopolitics. The energy map is being redrawn. This project aims to understand how the extension of renewable electricity grids across national borders inflects geopolitics. Designed to sustain the planet, these grids catalyse and respond to changing configurations of world power. The project is significant for specifying how the energy transition spurs the emergence of large infrastructural systems that reorganise the spatial dynamics of globalisation. Intended outcomes include insights into how transborder grids shift regulatory frameworks to meet challenges facing populations, economies and environments. The expected benefit is knowledge relevant to government and industry stakeholders engaged at the interface of energy policy and foreign affairs. Field of research: 4702 - Cultural Studies Australia has ambitions to be a renewable energy superpower. Transmission of solar-generated electricity to Southeast Asia via undersea cable is part of this vision. The potential for such an initiative to deliver environmental, economic and social benefits for Australia and the region is significant. Yet fraught and fragile global conditions overshadow the realisation of this energy interconnection plan. The project addresses this volatile background by analysing how transborder renewable electricity infrastructures transform geopolitics. It investigates the Sun Cable proposal for renewable energy export from the Northern Territory to Singapore in relation to similar infrastructural undertakings in the Mediterranean and Northeast Asia. The research will benefit Australia by assuring that policy making to support the energy transition at the regional level is informed by international developments. Rather than treating the energy transition and geopolitics as separate concerns, the project highlights their mutual implication and fosters forward-thinking policy debate to enrich national perspectives on the geopolitics of energy. Findings and insights will be shared through regional stakeholder forums, a national summit on regulatory vulnerabilities and digital methods resulting in non-traditional research outputs accessible to wide audiences. Collaboration with parliamentary librarians will facilitate integrating new knowledge produced by the research into relevant briefings.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Synergising plant symbionts and silicon to mitigate heat stress in legumes. Australia faces accelerated temperature rises which adversely affect many plants. Legumes often become unproductive because their microbial symbionts, which turn nitrogen from air into plant-usable forms, do not tolerate high temperatures. This project aims to mitigate such heat stress by stimulating plant microbial symbionts with silicon supplementation. Recent research shows synergistic silicon-symbiont benefits, but the effects on soil microbial communities and soil nutrients are untested. The project offers a new mechanistic understanding of these processes, providing a sustainable adaptation to climate change via increased resilience of legumes to heat stress. This could confer significant benefits to soil health and crop productivity. Field of research: 4101 - Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Global warming may adversely affect many agroecosystems in Australia. Key agricultural crops like legumes can become unproductive because their symbiotic microbes cannot tolerate high temperatures. These symbionts turn atmospheric nitrogen into plant-available forms, improving soil nutrients and health. Recent breakthroughs show that supplying legumes with silicon, which is usually deficient in Australian agricultural soils, stimulates such symbiotic plant microbes. This project investigates how application of silicon and plant symbionts may mitigate the adverse impacts of higher temperatures in peas, with cascading benefits to wheat in crop rotations. To achieve this, the project addresses a key knowledge gap of how silicon-symbiont synergies affect soil microbial communities and soil nutrients, offering a new mechanistic understanding of these processes. This would inform safe supplementation strategies to improve the productivity and resilience of Australian legume-cereal systems. This has the potential to generate economic, environmental, and societal benefits to Australia, including reducing synthetic nitrogen fertiliser applications and greenhouse gas emissions, while increasing carbon-capture, soil health and crop productivity. The project will involve key stakeholders, including broadacre farmers and agronomists, to promote research outcomes beyond academia using demonstration plots and farmer events. This provides a clear route to translation, use and adoption.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

The legacy of coastal infrastructure: reclamations and seawalls. Positioning coastal reclamations and seawalls in Asia-Australia as artefacts of the Anthropocene, the project aims to highlight their historical role in the expansion of human habitat into the sea, provoking debate on the sustainability of human coastal terraforming practices and assisting the heritage field to reassess the significance of historic coastal infrastructure in the context of the current climate crisis. Examining the threat that sea level rise poses to reclaimed land that, over time, has been integrated into the terrain of everyday life in Sydney, Hong Kong, and Japan, the project will better equip the Australian public to understand the background to this threat, thus laying groundwork for enhanced climate resilience. Field of research: 4302 - Heritage, Archive and Museum Studies The project tells the story of how in the modern era humans in Asia-Australia have expanded their territory into the sea via the technology of coastal reclamation and seawall construction. Rather than presenting coastal reclamations and seawalls as part of the heritage of human progress, it shows them to be artefacts of the Anthropocene, infrastructural objects that have contributed to today’s environmental crisis. The project will generate what we term an ‘Anthropocene optic’ for heritage practice that encourages society to ‘own’ the negative ramifications of industrial-era technology and infrastructure, not to instil guilt about the past but rather to aid development of sustainable strategies for coastal living in Australia going forward. This alternative heritage optic will, for example, better equip people to engage in debates on strategies to manage the impact of sea level rise on the sandstone heritage seawalls of Sydney Harbour and the foreshore parks they protect. By meeting and engaging closely with heritage managers and museums and disseminating research results more broadly, including on social media platforms, it will not only build planetary consciousness among Australians but also climate resilience. In so doing, it will enhance Australia’s reputation as a global leader in heritage.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

3D Printing of Recycled Thermoplastic Polymer Nanocomposites. This project aims to develop a novel 3D printing technology, Fused Granular Fabrication, to integrate innovative nanotechnology and high-performance 3D printed nanocomposites using recycled plastic reinforced with carbon nanoadditives. It will focus on fabrication, testing, characterisation, modelling, optimal design, and optimal 3D printing for the enhancement of material properties using nanoadditives. This project will deliver sustainable manufacturing solutions for the urgent and critical plastic waste management issue for the nation and the world. The 3D-printed nanocomposites developed with superior mechanical, thermal and electrical properties could be widely used in primary industries such as aerospace, automotive and electronics. Field of research: 4014 - Manufacturing Engineering This project will develop an innovative 3D printing method, Fused Granular Fabrication, to effectively print high-performance nanocomposites using recycled plastic, polylactic acid (PLA), noting the tonnes of waste created and the associated environmental and economic impacts. It addresses one of Australian Science and Research Priorities – Advanced Manufacturing. The research will generate a sustainable manufacturing solution for plastic waste management and deliver high-performance recycled materials. It will maximise plastic waste recycling and reuse, contributing to the circular economy and Net Zero. In addition, the high performance of the materials will be achieved through the applications of novel carbon nanoadditives and nanotechnology. The completion of this project will significantly contribute to one of the Strategic Research Priorities – Lifting Productivity and Economic Growth for Maximising Australia’s Competitive Advantage in Critical Sectors. The expected research findings will enhance our knowledge in the development of innovative additive manufacturing technology for designing and fabricating high-performance and high-quality carbon nanoadditive reinforced composite materials. It will also further reinforce Australia’s existing world-recognised strengths in production, innovation and excellence in material and manufacturing industries and benefit Australia’s internationally competitive position in the exciting new areas of advanced nanocomposite materials.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Disability and Digital Citizenship . This project investigates people with disability’s full participation in the digital age by advancing a new conceptualization of digital citizenship. Via a co-designed benchmark Australian study, the project generates knowledge on how people with disability experience digital technology, barriers encountered and how to address inequities. Expected outcomes include an evidence base on the nature and state-of-play of disability digital citizenship, and resources to support embedding of inclusive design in future technology. The project’s benefits should help optimise national digital policy, and strengthen national research capabilities in the emerging area of inclusive and accessible technology. Field of research: 4701 - Communication and Media Studies Twenty per cent of Australians identify as having a disability. Digital technology is essential for this group to fully participate in Australian society. Yet there is limited knowledge on what digital citizenship looks like and means, especially in the face of new technology such as AI. The research will provide a holistic evidence base on Australians with disability’s use of digital technology – their experiences, requirements, and attitudes towards digital technology systems, arrangements, and future plans. The research will provide new knowledge for federal and state policymakers and agencies (such as NDIA) concerned with inclusive digital technology, communication and information. The research findings will be translated via user-friendly resources (social media, workshops, annual forums, reports and policy briefs). The project outcomes, created with people with disability, will be shared with key disability and consumer organizations to build a robust roadmap to full digital citizenship of people with disability. These findings will ensure Australia can extend access to digital life in line with the Australian Disability Strategy 2021-2031, the recommendations of the disability royal commission and our obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Hybrid nanoreinforced recycled concrete for sustainable building. This project aims to develop a durable recycled concrete using nanotechnology that can store and release thermal energy in response to temperature changes. This research will unveil fundamental insights into producing defect-free few-layer graphene dispersion from graphite and will explore hybrid nano-reinforcing effect on properties of phase change material-infused recycled concrete to address critical issues of poor bonding, porous microstructure and low thermal performance. The expected outcome is to develop a sustainable building material that can significantly reduce energy demand for heating and cooling in buildings, contributing to a net-zero emissions future and cost savings in the construction industry. Field of research: 3302 - Building As global energy consumption continues to rapidly rise, so does the urgency of reducing reliance on energy-inefficient traditional heating and cooling methods in buildings. This project aims to bridge gaps in Australia's construction sector through innovative integration of phase change material with recycled aggregate, reinforced by graphene and calcium carbonate hybrid nanofillers for ultra-high-strength concrete with superior thermal energy storage capabilities. The proposed innovation enables the production of valuable and sustainable concrete for modern building applications. This endeavour will additionally: (1) advance deep understanding of chemistry associated with phase change material; and (2) establish novel design principles for hybrid non-reinforcement of phase change material integrated recycled concrete, leveraging the complementary properties of graphene and calcium carbonate. The energy savings achieved using the proposed concrete will not only bring economic benefits but also contribute to environmental preservation by recycling waste and reducing carbon emissions. Deploying cutting-edge innovation in EnergyPlus modelling and life cycle assessment will undoubtedly widen the dissemination and application of this project, which drives scientific advancements and effectively addresses multifaceted societal challenges for the future.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

The origins and development of human analogical reasoning. Effective learning depends critically on the ability to perceive and combine abstract representations. This project aims to reveal how our impressive capacity for analogical reasoning emerges during the first years of life. Our interdisciplinary approach will generate new knowledge about nascent analogical abilities in preverbal infants, clarify how language supports this emerging capacity, and reveal how neural markers of analogy change across the lifespan. Expected outcomes are a comprehensive picture of individual differences in early learning abilities that can support improved learning opportunities and interventions, and novel paradigms that transfer to species-comparison studies exploring the unique aspects of human cognition. Field of research: 5201 - Applied and Developmental Psychology The cornerstone of higher reasoning is our ability to perceive relations between objects, events, or ideas, and to compare those relations across situations. We use this ability – termed analogical reasoning – every day, for example, you read a map by mentally aligning the image on your phone with real-life landmarks and streets as you navigate. Since analogical reasoning is the vital foundation for effective learning, particularly in mathematics and science, clarifying how analogical abilities emerge and develop is key to understanding why some children learn more readily than others. This project brings a new, interdisciplinary approach to understanding analogical abilities in early childhood, which will generate new knowledge about nascent abilities in preverbal infants, clarify how language supports this emerging capacity in preschoolers, and reveal how neural markers of analogy change across the lifespan. These findings are poised to advance our understanding of fundamental learning processes that make human cognition unique. Research outcomes will empower parents and educators with evidence-based insights about how children develop and how best to support their learning in this critical period (Priority Focus Area #2, The Early Years Strategy 2024-2034). This benefits Australia by helping to support positive outcomes across children’s future health, wellbeing, educational achievement and productivity.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Revealing Universal and Cultural Origins of Music-Induced Affect. Across almost all human cultures, music has a remarkable capacity to communicate different affects (emotions and feelings). However it is unknown which, if any, associations between music-acoustical features and affects are universal, and which are cultural. In a music cognition field-research program of unprecedented scope, we aim to estimate how tones in melodic, polyphonic, harmonic, and rhythmic contexts influence affective responses, and the extent to which these effects are mediated by cultural mechanisms (familiarity and association). The findings will have profound implications for the use of sound and music in therapeutic applications and will help identify ways to bridge cultural divides through intercultural musical appreciation. Field of research: 3603 - Music In almost every human culture, music has a remarkable capacity for communicating emotions and feelings. However, it is unknown how and to what extent this is due to the music itself or to its cultural uses and associations. Through applied research in several international communities engaged in a wide variety of music, this project aims to understand how humans use music to communicate with each other at a fundamental level. Outcomes include a deeper knowledge of how human brains process and respond to different types of music and sound, according to their acoustic properties and typical uses in cultural contexts such as celebration, mourning, lullabies, and religion. By sharing results and algorithms with music psychologists, therapists, educators, and streaming platforms, this project will enable the following social, cultural and economic benefits for Australia: – The development of more effective and reliable forms of music for health and well-being, including in aged care and mental health contexts (annual cost of mental illness in Australia is $60 billion). – Fostering social cohesion and intercultural empathy and respect in Australia through music (annual cost of racism in Australia is $38 billion due to health impacts). – Enhancing distribution and sales of intercultural music in Australia and worldwide.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Understanding the mastery of multiple languages and dialects . This project will provide a unifying theory of how subsequent languages are acquired after mastering two languages or dialects. We will use an approach encompassing corpus, computational, psycho- and socio- linguistics. Expected outcomes include a deep understanding of how multilingual and multidialect mastery proceeds, how these are represented in the brain, and how they manifest in communicative contexts. Benefits include evidence-based knowledge for the advancement and consolidation of a) multilingual programs in all educational settings, b) multilingual speech recognition and synthesis and artificial intelligence, and c) linguistic and social integration in multicultural societies in Australia and worldwide. Field of research: 4704 - Linguistics Despite Australia’s multicultural and linguistic diversity, learners continue to miss out on the known academic, cognitive, economic, psychological, and social benefits of multilingualism. Just 9% of year 12 students complete language studies, leading some to refer to Australia as a “graveyard for languages” stuck in a “monolingual mindset”. To reverse this worrying trend, this project aims to unravel the mystery of language control in polyglots: people who master three or more languages. Innovative computational and experimental approaches will be used to simulate and predict polyglot strategies, followed by novel experiments to validate the model, resulting in a new theoretical and computational model of how multilinguals harness knowledge from languages by seamlessly controlling them. The research team will disseminate findings to language advocacy and education policy stakeholders to influence implementation of language learning in all preschools and primary schools nationwide and expand it at high school level. These policy changes would turbocharge language learning in young Australians and align Australia with other countries. Additionally, by driving improvements to existing technologies like Duolingo and automatic speech recognition, the project’s outcomes can facilitate more effective communication across multilingual boundaries in Australia and worldwide to confer the lifelong cognitive, health, social and lifestyle advantages inherent to multilingualism.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

A SCHOOL BASED VOCATIONAL MATERNAL-INFANT HEALTH EDUCATION PATHWAY. This project aims to implement and evaluate a new pathway into higher education Midwifery studies. A primary focus is Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander high school students. The project expects to create the first school-based vocational Health Service Assistant Certificate III in maternal-infant health offered in Australia. Expected outcomes are increased post-school enrolments in the Bachelor of Midwifery program and participation in the health workforce. This will provide significant benefits in providing a new strategy to address current midwifery workforce deficits, provide school leavers with work-ready qualifications, and address inequities in education and workforce participation for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Field of research: 4502 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Midwives attend, in one capacity or another, nearly all of the 300,000 births annually in Australia. They save lives and promote optimal and improved outcomes for childbearing women and babies, specifically redressing the disparate outcomes for Indigenous mothers and babies. There is a current deficit in the Australian midwifery workforce and an under-representation of Indigenous midwives in the workforce. Vocational education training (VET) provides an alternative career pathway that promotes employment post-school and success at a tertiary level. The Australian Government University Accord (2024) identifies that more vocational and university graduates are required to meet the future workforce needs. This is endorsed by the National Agreement on Closing the Gap Target 5, which prioritises education pathways for Aboriginal and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. School-based VET courses have successfully facilitated entry into nursing programs. However, a similar program does not exist for midwifery. This project addresses key knowledge gaps by establishing and evaluating new pathways for higher education midwifery studies through school-based health VET programs. It will address the current and looming midwifery workforce shortages and provide students with work-ready qualifications and foundational knowledge and clinical skills for tertiary midwifery studies. The proposed VET program promotes equity and is also scalable and translatable nationally.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Scope and ramifications of Indigenous language loss among PNG's youth. Papua New Guinea (PNG) is Australia’s closest neighbour, biggest recipient of Australian Aid, and a key strategic partner. Yet some Papua New Guineans think that Australia is falling behind East Asian nations in grasping PNG’s current needs. A massive societal change is underway in PNG, through which its youth appear to be rapidly abandoning its 600-800 Indigenous languages. This could have major ramifications for social cohesion in a country where language has traditionally been a major marker of group identity. We will assess the scope of Indigenous language loss among youth in PNG, assess the potential for intervention, and study ramifications for social cohesion, individual and community well-being, and even cognition. Field of research: 4513 - Pacific Peoples Culture, Language and History This project investigates the effects of ongoing Indigenous language loss in Papua New Guinea (PNG). As Australia’s nearest neighbour, primary aid recipient, and strategic partner, PNG’s 600-800 Indigenous languages are key to group identity, and a factor in social stability. However, the actual extent of Indigenous language loss in PNG is unknown. Our project aims to determine the extent of PNG Indigenous language loss and whether wellbeing and prosocial behaviour can be positively linked to maintaining and revitalising Indigenous language skills in PNG communities. This research will enable PNG communities to make informed decisions about maintaining, abandoning, or revitalizing their Indigenous languages. This may provide sociocultural and health benefits. It will also enhance our understanding of the cultures of our nearest neighbour, and enable more efficient aid funding—especially in remote parts of PNG. Research outcomes will be promoted through an international linguistics meeting in PNG, as well as through the PNG communities themselves. The project includes the development of Indigenous language revitalisation and strengthening programs which will be implemented in PNG, but can also be adapted to address Indigenous language loss in other countries, including Australia.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Plants and climate mitigation futures: Museums, communities, knowledges . Acting beyond the Paris Agreement that view trees as carbon sinks, this project advances novel interdisciplinary, Indigenous knowledge alliances and new forms of community engagement facilitated by museums to co-generate innovative climate plant mitigation concepts and strategies in Australia and Vanuatu. It supports Indigenous-led climate agendas around cultural burning and green development, develops new plant sciences and environmental humanities concepts to rework the PA and its human-centred climate plant relations. Expected outcomes include new plant mitigation practices, scholarly and policy approaches for the regeneration of Country with significant benefits to Indigenous communities, project partners and society for climate action. Field of research: 4302 - Heritage, Archive and Museum Studies This project addresses the challenges of global warming to Australia and Vanuatu’s communities and ecosystems. The Project responds to the UNFCCC invitation to develop new ideas and form coalitions to find solutions to mitigate global warming. Challenging Paris Agreement (PA) conventions, it addresses the need to form better, diverse and culturally informed climate concepts regarding human agency and the use of plants in the PA beyond their value as carbon sinks. Accordingly, this project expands the roles of museums and Indigenous communities in the PA as generators of new approaches to climate plant mitigation supporting Indigenous Australian-led climate governance around cultural burning and Vanuatu ambition around green development founded in traditional knowledge. The Project will bring significant economic, social, cultural and environmental benefits to the partner organisations, Australian communities and to Vanuatu with whom Australia has significant climate commitments. By bringing together diverse knowledge the project advances cultural and scientific knowledge about climate change, plant cultures and human agency amplifying ecosystem regeneration. Through the revision of the Paris Agreement articles respectful human climate-plant relations will enable better policy and pedagogical responses for public literacy. The outcomes will increase Australia, Vanuatu and UNFCCC capacity to achieve zero emissions by 2050, and support Indigenous climate justice.

GrantConnect (Australian Government grants) · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Hybrid nanoreinforced recycled concrete for sustainable building Category: Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) Research

GrantConnect (Australian Government grants) · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Transborder Electricity Infrastructures and Geopolitics Category: Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) Research

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

The Decolonisation of Literary Culture. This project aims to transform our understanding of literary decolonisation by looking beyond questions of texts and curricula to literary culture as a whole, which encompasses the institutions of dissemination, evaluation, and pedagogy, and the often unseen actors who operate in them such as publishers, critics, and teachers. An archival stream will investigate the long revolution of literary decolonisation in the Caribbean from the nineteenth century to today, and a documentary podcast stream will mentor First Nations and CALD practitioners to tell the unfolding story of literary decolonisation in Australia. Discoveries will be readily accessible to the community, cultivating public appreciation of profound shifts in our literary culture. Field of research: 4705 - Literary Studies ‘Decolonisation’ has seemingly been applied to everything, from whole nations to particular products, but its meaning remains unclear to many Australians. This project seeks to provide new clarity about what it means to ‘decolonise’ literature by expanding beyond literary texts—the focus of most previous research—to consider all the components that make up a literary culture, including publishing, criticism, pedagogy, and reading. This wholistic appraisal will explore the shift away from imposed colonial norms and the interplay of creative innovation and institutional transformation over time as the formerly colonised have striven to write in their own voices and from within their restored creative traditions. The project has two streams. The first studies the trajectory of literary decolonisation in the Caribbean, the region where modern colonialism began, shedding new light on how decolonisation was seeded from deep within the colonial literary culture. The second focuses on contemporary Australia, where we continue to grapple with the colonial legacy. This stream involves mentoring First Nations and Culturally and Linguistically Diverse writers to tell the story of literary decolonisation in a series of documentary podcasts that will engage and be readily accessible to the public. The project will benefit Australians by providing a clear account of the complexities involved in decolonising culture while making a critical contribution to understanding our literary heritage.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Into the wild: safe site networks to halt plant extinction. Nine in ten of Australia’s ~25,000 native plant species occur nowhere else on Earth. This project aims to halt their documented decline and extinction. An entirely new approach for their conservation is proposed – creating ‘safe site’ networks for the reintroduction of populations, funded by nature repair markets. By determining which species are most at risk from extinction and using large theory-driven field experiments and spatial analysis to uncover how and where to recover populations, the research aims to transform plant conservation. Among expected benefits are cost-benefit data and frameworks for embedding safe site approaches in emerging nature markets to safeguard the natural capital embedded in Australia's exceptional flora. Field of research: 4104 - Environmental Management Ninety percent of Australian plants are unique to the Australian continent, growing nowhere else in the world. However, their conservation is at risk from feral animals, drought, disease, and habitat destruction. This project will develop new and sustainable ways of preventing their extinction, primarily focusing on the practice of plant reintroductions. The research aligns with the Australian Government’s policy agenda for the introduction of a Nature Repair Market and for the successful implementation of its Threatened Species Action Plan 2022-2032. The project addresses strategic gaps in knowledge within these government policies, firstly by identifying which plant species are most at risk, and secondly by determining ideal planting locations and optimal growing conditions. Australia’s species recovery efforts will benefit greatly from evidence-led financial incentives to landholders who engage in nature markets, so research findings will be communicated directly with policy makers in State and Commonwealth government. Preventing plant extinctions preserves the nation’s natural capital for future generations, not only protecting untapped economic opportunities such as new food crops, materials, and medicines, but also contributing to global biodiversity efforts.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Indigenous/Pasifika LGBTIQ+ wellbeing & the role of rights-based practices . This project will conduct comparative cross-country research into Indigenous/Pasifika LGBTIQ+ ways of addressing their health and wellbeing futures. The research will improve service provision by integrating the knowledges of Indigenous/Pasifika LGBTIQ+ peoples from Pacific nations (Australia, Aotearoa/NZ, & Pasifika nations). This will be the first project to comprehensively address this topic in the Pacific region and will have direct theoretical application for theory and the development of practical frameworks aimed at influencing rights-based approaches, policies and practices within government, community sector, UN Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity frameworks and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Field of research: 4406 - Human Geography Indigenous/Pasifika LGBTIQ+ peoples are severely underserved in social and health policy in Australia and the Pacific region. The negative impact upon their social, emotional and cultural wellbeing is widespread, they have one of the highest rates of depression and suicide. This project will address the significant gap in empirical research and document Indigenous wellbeing knowledges to improve health outcomes for this group across Australia and the Pacific, supporting Australia's development goals for the region. Through strategies of collaborative knowledge mobilisation and translation with academia, government and stakeholders the study will directly influence and inform inter/national local and development policy that it is inclusive of this group. Building on well established networks with community/organisations will enable the project findings to (a) improve Indigenous/LGBTIQ+ peoples' inclusion in policy making and service design; (b) develop organisations capacity to advocate, transform and optimise vital services; and (c) inform the implementation of rights-based approaches that actively facilitate wellbeing outcomes for this group. Through an agenda-setting research program built upon the principles of co-production and collaboration, the outputs will facilitate Australia's development goals at the forefront of global innovation for more effective and sustainable development practice and services that are culturally appropriate and gender/sexuality responsive.

GrantConnect (Australian Government grants) · FY 2024 · 2024-11

2024 Equipment Grants Category: Health and Medical Research

GrantConnect (Australian Government grants) · FY 2024 · 2024-07

Industrial Transformation Training Centre in digital platforms for... Category: Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) Research

GrantConnect (Australian Government grants) · FY 2024 · 2024-07

ARC Training Centre for Smart and Sustainable Horticulture Category: Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) Research