THE UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Rehydration of the lower crust, fluid sources and geophysical expression. This project aims to explore a long-standing mystery: the origin of deep crustal electrical conductors detected by magnetotelluric imaging of tectonically stable crust. These features occur in cratons of all ages, and commonly cross cut structures and lithologies. This project aims to investigate the hypothesis that such features are the record of ancient deep crustal fluid flow, which modified the rock electrical properties. Using an exceptionally exposed natural laboratory preserving large-scale rehydration of anhydrous lower crust, the project plans to determine the source of fluids and the compositional changes they induced. It then plans to experimentally determine changes in resistivity induced by fluid flow and use that data to model the magnetotelluric response at crustal scale. Field of research: 0403 - Geology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Aquaporin channels in cell migration. The project aims to determine the role of Aquaporin1 (AQP1) in enhancing rapid cell motility. Cell migration is important for development, repair, and protection in multicellular organisms. AQP1 is increased in some rapidly migrating cell types. Loss of AQP1 impairs migration, which is restored by reintroduction of AQP1 but not AQP4. Expected outcomes include defining the features of AQP1 that confer enhanced cell migration. The project will test the hypothesis that dual water and ion channel functions of AQP1 are needed for movement, using migration assays in cells with wild type and mutant AQP1, and selective pharmacological agents developed by the project team to dissect the essential channel properties that enable rapid migration in cancer and stem cells. The project seeks to build knowledge of AQP roles in development, regeneration and surveillance, potentially improving health care by revealing pathways in migration disorders such as metastasis. Field of research: 0606 - Physiology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Luminescence dating of Middle Pleistocene human histories in Europe. This project aims to ascertain the timing, context and nature of early human evolution and associated cultural turnovers in southern Europe using cutting-edge dating techniques. The project plans to use recent advances in extended-range luminescence dating to establish unequivocal, multifaceted chronologies for a comprehensive range of human fossil and stone tool sites from the Iberian Peninsula. The outcomes of this project are expected to advance our understanding of early human history by providing a critical temporal reappraisal of modelled hominin evolutionary relationships, determining the mode and tempo of cultural turnovers, and unravelling how past human populations responded to major climate change and environmental pressures. Field of research: 0403 - Geology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Nanostructured Electrocatalysts for Clean Fuels Production. This project aims to develop single-component and hybrid transition-metal and metal-free electrocatalysts with controllable nanostructures to efficiently and selectively catalyse carbon dioxide reduction and hydrogen evolution reactions for clean fuels production including hydrogen and low-carbon organic molecules. By combining experimental and theoretical modelling, this project plans to reveal the origins, mechanism and pathway of these reactions, and the effect of catalyst composition and morphology on their performance. The resulting nanostructured catalysts are of great importance for feasible clean fuel generation and carbon dioxide reduction. Field of research: 0912 - Materials Engineering

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Australian National Facility for Noble-Gas Radio-Isotope Measurements. Australian national facility for noble-gas radio-isotope measurements: This facility is designed to provide researchers with the ability to accurately date water and ice cores using the natural radio-isotopes in the sample. Radiocarbon dating has been a revolutionary tool in providing answers to a range of questions in anthropology, archaeology and the earth sciences. However, radiocarbon dating has a strong limitation in that it can only date periods from 1000–50 000 years: the use of radioactive noble-gas isotopes can extend this range out to 1 year to 1 million years. This capability in the new facility is expected to support new understanding of processes in artesian reservoirs, ocean currents and geology that may affect questions of water availability, climate and environmental change. Field of research: 0406 - Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Design of Nanostructured Electrocatalysts for Water Splitting. The project intends to develop electrocatalysts for water splitting (where a chemical reaction separates water into oxygen and hydrogen, providing clean renewable fuel). The efficient use of renewable energy to generate clean fuels will provide a direct solution to the energy issues in Australia. This project aims to develop new catalysts for the water splitting process by taking into account their electronic structures and verifying their apparent activities in devices. The universal principles to be discovered in the project may be important for the discovery of new electrocatalysts for key energy conversion reactions to develop a feasible clean energy infrastructure and solve environmental issues. Field of research: 1007 - Nanotechnology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Water Harvesting and the Cultural Politics of Resource Equity. This project aims to provide a new framework for understanding water equity challenges in urban South Asia. Equitable water access is an everyday struggle in this region. For example, in New Delhi, millions suffer from inadequate supplies, while the wealthy enjoy more than their share. The project plans to investigate how people respond to water stress by adopting techniques such as water harvesting. It also plans to examine the degree to which water harvesting leads to social inclusion or exclusion. Through ethnographic examinations of the water values, resource subjectivities and power dynamics that influence the success of urban water harvesting, the projects intends to gain insights to improve regional water policy and aid effectiveness. Field of research: 1601 - Anthropology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

The Advanced DNA Identification and Forensics Facility. The advanced DNA identification and forensics facility: The project aims to establish a national integrated facility for cutting-edge forensic genetic research, resources and expertise in wildlife, forest and environmental DNA identification to improve our capacity to identify unknown biological material. The project’s goal will be to enhance synergies between academic research, service delivery and forensic application of DNA identification technologies, addressing vital questions such as: From which individual or species did this material originate? Where in the world is it from? Is it legal? The proposed facility may deliver applied outcomes for government, the criminal justice system, and industry, such as improved pest and threatened species identification; biosecurity, prosecutions of wildlife crime and illegal logging; and missing person and disaster victim identification. Field of research: 0699 - Other Biological Sciences

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Anthropological Art History: New Approaches to Aboriginal Desert Art. This project aims to explore cultural, linguistic and geographic aspects of Aboriginal Western Desert art. The rise of Aboriginal desert art is an important cultural development in Australia’s cross-cultural history. Yet little research has been conducted directly with Western Desert artists. Consequently, our understanding of these artists and the historical, cultural and kin-based relationships that underscore their art practice remains undeveloped. The project intends to address these limitations to produce an anthropologically-informed art history. It is anticipated that this history will increase public appreciation of Aboriginal art, promote Aboriginal art and artists globally, and improve Aboriginal peoples’ capacity to access mainstream markets. Field of research: 1601 - Anthropology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Functional Superstructures of Microporous Metal-Organic Frameworks. This project aims to develop metal-organic framework (MOF) superstructures as a new materials platform. MOFs are an emerging class of porous adsorbents that are expected to fulfil a crucial role as functional materials in industrially important applications, including molecular separations and heterogeneous catalysis. However, there is an urgent need for convenient methods to integrate the attractive properties of MOFs with the unique features of meso- and macrostructured materials, and for a fundamental understanding of the influence of structuring on their material properties. The project intends to synthesise structuralised MOFs as a platform for studies related to their adsorptive and dynamic properties, and to study these systems as next-generation materials for hydrocarbon separations. Field of research: 0303 - Macromolecular and Materials Chemistry

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

The genomic history of Indigenous Australia. The aim of the project is to analyse genomic DNA from historic hair samples collected by anthropological expeditions in the early 20th century to generate a detailed genetic map of Aboriginal Australia and to reconstruct Australia’s pre-European genetic history. The genomic data and detailed contextual and genealogical information from museum archives will be used to work with Aboriginal individuals to trace past population movements and augment oral historical records. The project aims to reconstruct the first detailed genomic history of indigenous Australia, including adaptation to the challenging Australian environment, and to generate important information for indigenous communities and the Australian public more widely. Field of research: 0603 - Evolutionary Biology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Optimising the National Benefits From Restoring Environmental Water Flows. The project plans to evaluate strategies that may maximise the national benefits from restoring environmental flows in Australia’s Murray–Darling Basin (MDB). MDB water supply is characterised by prolonged droughts and flood events, and future climatic projections anticipate that these water supply events will intensify. As the uncertainty of future water supply increases, it is important that the volume of water provided by the portfolio of water rights is known. By examining how decision-makers adapt to water supply uncertainty, optimal management strategies could be determined for watering key ecological assets, trading water between irrigators and the government; and private and public investments. Field of research: 1402 - Applied Economics

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Higgs bundle moduli spaces and spectral data. The aim of this Project is to advance the study of Higgs bundles using a construction known as spectral data. Higgs bundles are geometric structures bridging several branches of mathematics including differential geometry, representation theory and mathematical physics. This should lead to new results and solve some important open problems concerning the geometry of Higgs bundle moduli spaces and their symmetry groups. The results obtained in the Project should benefit the many branches of mathematics interacting with Higgs bundles. Such theoretical underpinnings are the basis on which new innovations and technologies in science and engineering may be developed. Field of research: 0101 - Pure Mathematics

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Suspension flows and particle focusing in curved geometries. The project aims to develop fast predictive tools to investigate suspension flows in curved channels and thin ducts and the effect of channel geometry on the focusing of particles by weight to different regions of the channel. Interaction between particles and fluid in suspension flows is a fundamental problem that is little understood but which is important in a wide range of problems in nature and industry (eg for design of microscale segregation devices for separation of different cells in a blood sample, and of macroscale devices for separation of mineral particles from crushed ore). At present, the description of these processes is qualitative, with quantitative understanding seen as a challenge without intensive computation. The project plans to develop, solve and validate mathematical models to give a quantitative understanding of these processes. Field of research: 0102 - Applied Mathematics

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Whole image understanding by convolutions on graphs. This project seeks to develop technologies that will help computer vision interpret the whole visible scene, rather than just some of the objects therein. Existing automated methods for understanding images perform well at recognising specific objects in canonical poses, but the problem of whole image interpretation is far more challenging. Convolutional neural networks (CNN) have underpinned recent progress in object recognition, but whole-image understanding cannot be tackled similarly because the number of possible combinations of objects is too large. The project thus proposes a graph-based generalisation of the CNN approach which allows scene structure to be learned explicitly. This would represent an important step towards providing computers with robust vision, allowing them to interact with their environment. Field of research: 0801 - Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Optimal Robust Fitting under the Framework of LP-Type Problems. The project aims to develop algorithms to support the development of robust and accurate computer vision systems. Real-world visual data (images, videos) is inherently noisy and outlier prone. To build computer vision systems that work reliably in the real world, it is necessary to ensure that the underlying algorithms are robust and efficient. The project aims to devise novel algorithms that can compute the best possible result given the input data in a short amount of time. The expected outcomes would support the construction of reliable and accurate computer vision-based systems, such as large-scale 3-D reconstruction from photo collections, self-driving cars and domestic robots. Field of research: 0801 - Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing

Other NSERC · FY 2024

Biomechanics, Injury biomechanics, Spinal cord injury, Injury mechanism, Cerebrospinal fluid pressure, Cerebrospinal fluid flow, Computational fluid dynamics