Deakin University

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

Quantum secured communications for information networks Category: Technology

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

2024 Equipment Grants Category: Health and Medical Research

GrantConnect (Australian Government grants) · FY 2024 · 2024-10

Addressing Commercial Health-determinants: Indigenous Empowerment and... Category: Medical Research

GrantConnect (Australian Government grants) · FY 2024 · 2024-08

An AI video trap to detect cold-blooded threatened and invasive species Category: Animal Welfare

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

ARC Training Centre for Resource Efficient Alloys in a Circular Economy Category: Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) Research

GrantConnect (Australian Government grants) · FY 2024 · 2024-06

"It’s not over yet": Improving the mental health and wellbeing of... Category: Medical Research

GrantConnect (Australian Government grants) · FY 2024 · 2024-06

Safeguarding the mental health of families in rural communities affected... Category: Medical Research

GrantConnect (Australian Government grants) · FY 2024 · 2024-06

Digital-enabled solutions to support healthcare delivery: Transforming... Category: Medical Research

GrantConnect (Australian Government grants) · FY 2024 · 2024-06

Pathways of Influence through the Gut Microbiome in Post-Acute COVID-19... Category: Medical Research

GrantConnect (Australian Government grants) · FY 2024 · 2024-06

Pathways of Influence through the Gut Microbiome in Post-Acute COVID-19... Category: Medical Research

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2024 · 2024-01

TransformUs Higher Ed: Developing confident, 'classroom-ready' graduates . The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children has been far-reaching. Many students have fallen behind academically, are experiencing mental health challenges and have critically low levels of physical activity. These issues have become a global research priority, the focus of national and state policies, and urgently need addressing. This project offers a novel initial teacher education program that integrates meaningful physical activity into classroom learning to address critical classroom challenges, exacerbated by COVID-19. The empirical findings are expected to generate new knowledge and practices to strengthen teaching degrees from a robust evidence base and benefit the learning and health outcomes of all Australian students. Field of research: 3903 - Education Systems Teacher shortages are impacting schools across Australia, with teachers working in challenging environments and systems, further exacerbated by COVID-19. In addition, the impact of the pandemic on children has been far-reaching. Many students have fallen behind academically, are experiencing mental health challenges and have critically low levels of physical activity. Collaborating with key education stakeholders across three Australian universities, this research aims to strengthen initial teacher education programs to deliver 'classroom-ready' graduates who provide optimal learning and health outcomes for the children they teach. Educational research, behavioral research and evidenced-based models of implementation science, are being brought together as an exemplar of innovative, interdisciplinary research. The findings will generate new knowledge to strengthen teaching degrees and benefit the learning and health outcomes of all Australian students. Participation of key Education stakeholders and existing curriculum authority relationships would greatly facilitate the translation of research outcomes.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2024 · 2024-01

Reverse Design of Tuneable 4D Printed Materials for Soft Robotics. This project aims to facilitate the design and manufacture of specialised objects that can change their shape over time. These types of objects are made from ‘tuneable metamaterials’, which can be made by 4D printing: 3D printing with an added dimension of time. These materials are becoming indispensable in many fields- including non-metallic soft robots used in medicine or the exploration of harsh environments like space- but are currently onerous to make. This project will develop a revolutionary new method for a user to work backward from defining the desired qualities to the manufacture of the object that satisfies their needs. It will also create a library that will allow users to quickly select a material that will be appropriate. Field of research: 4017 - Mechanical Engineering Additive manufacturing (3D printing) is revolutionizing industries by creating components quickly, cheaply and flexibly. 4D printing is 3D printing of products that change shape over time, providing additional advanced functionality. The project will create a theoretical model allowing design of bespoke, time varying responses of 4D printed products by predicting optimal printing conditions. Commercially, this will accelerate production of soft (non-metallic) robots, a growing part of the $100B national advanced manufacturing sector. Soft robotics are used in healthcare as prosthetics and for surgical procedures for example, to improve patient’s lives. Economically and environmentally, the project facilitates circular design, and production cost and waste reduction. It will boost Australia’s leadership in additive manufacturing and sovereign capabilities in soft robotics and 4D printing. Translation will involve early engagement of innovative medical device companies to understand unmet needs the technology can address, and to provide technology transfer partners for the outcomes of the project.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2024 · 2024-01

Contemporary social and environmental risks for youth offending. While social and technology changes have led to reductions in low-level youth offending, chronic youth offending has not reduced notably, and is growing in areas of Australia. This project aims to generate new knowledge on underlying social and environmental risks for chronic youth offending in Australia to improve the effectiveness of crime prevention and desistance strategies to reduce reoffending. This project uses longitudinal survey and youth justice data, and interviews with young people, to identify key social and environmental risks for chronic youth offending. Expected outcomes of the project include evidence to inform effective crime prevention and desistance strategies for young people ‘at risk’ or engaged in chronic offending. Field of research: 4402 - Criminology Technological and social changes have led to reductions in low-level youth offending in Australia, but chronic youth offending has not notably reduced, and is growing in some populations. Contemporary social and environmental contexts for youth offending across different populations are poorly understood. This project aims to generate new evidence on the contemporary social and environmental contexts for youth offending in Australia, including consideration of complex disadvantage commonly experienced by First Nations young people. The project will identify key social and environmental risks for chronic youth offending, and co-design crime prevention and desistance strategies to address these risks with youth justice, police and community stakeholders. The results will be shared with the public and policy makers and will benefit young people at risk or engaged in offending, and the broader Australian community, by reducing reoffending and victimisation, and associated harms and costs.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2024 · 2024-01

Electrolyte design for high-performance, sustainable sodium batteries. This project aims to develop sustainable high-performance sodium batteries by investigating new non-flammable and safe electrolyte chemistries. The project will generate knowledge in materials chemistry for battery electrolytes that will underpin improvements in battery technology and help to move society towards a zero-carbon economy. The outcomes will provide materials suitable for prototyping reliable, safe and sustainable batteries in Australia and enhance research collaborations with local and international industry partners. These advances will contribute to reliable, affordable, and sustainable energy storage systems, positioning Australia at the forefront of advanced battery research. Field of research: 4016 - Materials Engineering The proposed research aims to develop next generation high-performance sodium batteries, that are currently the most promising alternative to lithium-ion batteries and offer the ability to overcome critical safety and material supply chain issues. Novel non-flammable, thermally stable electrolyte materials will be designed to ensure sustainability and enhanced cycle life of sodium batteries. This will progress a technology that is just at the cusp of widespread commercial deployment and become a viable complementary alternative to lithium-ion batteries. These new energy storage systems address Australia’s “National Energy Performance Strategy” by improving energy reliability, delivering a high energy performance technology, reducing carbon emissions and providing energy security for Australia. The project will provide fundamental knowledge, training, intellectual property and commercialization opportunities that will foster job creation and lay the groundwork for an Australian sodium battery manufacturing industry.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2024 · 2024-01

The Great Exhibitions and their Lost Indigenous Objects . This project will rediscover the Australian Indigenous objects sent overseas to the Great Exhibitions of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Such objects acted as powerful forms of cultural, political and economic display, and a form of imperial and colonial projection. It will excavate the hidden histories of Indigenous people involved in these events and the many objects lost to Australia. Through collaborative work at community dialogues, the project will repatriate knowledge and remake connections between objects, museums, and Indigenous people. In doing so, it will bring contemporary Indigenous perspectives to global attention, generate new exhibition possibilities and influence international museum practice. Field of research: 4501 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Culture, Language and History Between 1851 and 1937, Australia lost hundreds of significant Indigenous objects sent overseas for display at international exhibitions, some now found in museums in Paris, London, Glasgow and Chicago. This project will find and examine these objects to reveal forgotten histories of Indigenous Australians on the global stage. We will then reconnect these objects and associated data back to Australia, Indigenous custodians and the wider public, enabled through discussion at regional stakeholder workshops, publication of the first complete inventory of these objects and distribution of community booklets featuring objects and images from each state. This engagement and sharing process will enable new histories to be generated for truth-telling about Australia’s past as well as recovering Indigenous Knowledge. Direct involvement of Indigenous scholars in the work will develop their expertise while benefitting and influencing practice in Australian and international museums by demonstrating how such collections could be used to the benefit of Indigenous people, Australia and global audiences.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2024 · 2024-01

Informing intervention responses to violent offenders through data linkage. The project aims to capitalise on new data access capacity to improve knowledge on violent offender pathways and criminogenic needs, such as acquired brain injury, to reduce offending and re-offending. Violence is a major social and health issue nationally and internationally. While there has been substantial investment in treatment/prevention campaigns, rates of violence remain high. Using diverse linked administrative data, we will identify key risk factors and times in trajectories, as well as effective treatment/justice responses. Expected benefits include evidence-based recommendations and engagement with policymakers targeting recidivism, offender screening, treatment, and coordinated violence prevention policy and practice. Field of research: 5205 - Social and Personality Psychology Two in five Australian adults have experienced physical or sexual violence since the age of 15. Violence negatively affects mental, emotional, physical and social wellbeing, and the economic impact of violence in Australia is estimated at AU$24 billion per year. This research will use linked data across multiple domains to identify key indicators and outcomes of violent offending. Findings will address critical knowledge gaps, provide new insights into complex offender needs and identify high-risk conditions. This project thus responds to three Australian Government 2018 National Crime Prevention Framework research priorities: (1) community safety, security and cohesiveness; (2) monitoring of localised crime and the development of targeted strategies; and (3) improving the evidence base for crime prevention. Using our extensive networks of policymakers and practitioners, the findings will inform targeted prevention, intervention and reintegration programs to break cycles of violence and improve community safety and wellbeing.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2024 · 2024-01

Unlocking exceptional properties through pressure-induced phase transitions. The aim of this project is to produce novel hybrid boron nitride materials by utilizing advanced green techniques of mechanochemistry and high-pressure methods to achieve a phase transition from hexagonal to wurtzite structure. The development of these materials is critical in tackling contemporary environmental and technological issues, particularly those linked to cooling systems in electronic devices and batteries. The outcome of this study will be new nanomaterials with exceptional mechanical, thermal, and electronic properties, as well as new insights into mechanical-force induced green chemistry and an environmentally friendly synthesis process, and help with heat management, energy preservation, and advanced manufacturing. Field of research: 4018 - Nanotechnology The challenge of dissipating heat is a major hindrance in the development of miniaturised electronics. To overcome this issue, there is demand for advanced materials that possess exceptional electronic and thermal properties to reduce heat generation and improve thermal management through passive cooling. This technology is also crucial for reducing energy consumption, which is a pressing global concern. Currently, data centres consume a significant amount of energy, accounting for 3.5% of Australia's total electricity consumption and producing the same amount of CO2 emissions as the commercial airline industry. A large portion of this energy, around 40%, is used for active cooling, with the waste heat being released into the environment, exacerbating the effects of climate change. This project aims to develop new hybrid materials with enhanced electronic and thermal properties. The project will address the challenge of dissipating heat with an efficient new cooling system based on the new developed materials. We will collaborate with local industries to commercialise the new materials and production technology as we have done previously with other nanomaterials. The outcomes of this project will provide considerable social and environmental benefits for Australian society and industry, including intellectual property, commercialisation opportunities and employment, and reduction of energy consumption and CO2 emissions.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2024 · 2024-01

Design of novel polymer electrolytes for solid state sodium batteries. Solid-state sodium-ion batteries can provide a cheaper, safer, and greener alternative solution to store energy. This project aims to investigate the design of advanced polymer electrolyte materials to address the challenge for the development of all solid-state sodium batteries. New understandings in polymer chemistry, interfacial properties and cell performance will be gained through co-active approaches combining molecular simulations, experimental characterizations, and battery prototyping. This project will provide significant benefits in developing new functional materials, new knowledge, and advanced battery techniques, benefiting Australia’s clean energy storage sector. Field of research: 3403 - Macromolecular and Materials Chemistry If Australia is to develop a future ‘green economy’ we will need high-performance energy-storage devices to effectively use renewable energy and reduce carbon emissions. As the energy storage needs of industry and households grow, the enormous energy-storage challenge will be difficult to solve with current lithium-ion battery technology alone. The mass production of lithium batteries also raises social and resource issues. This research will provide alternative energy storage technology based on sodium batteries, which will be more economical and sustainable in the long term. The project will bring together world-renowned experts in the fields of polymer synthesis, characterisation and modelling to develop new polymer materials. These materials will be tested in batteries in partnership with industry partners. To maximise uptake, the project findings will be shared through collaborations with major battery industry players, leveraging existing battery prototyping facilities within Deakin University’s Battery Research and Innovation Hub and broader industry and research networks established in partnership with the ARC Training Centre for Future Energy Storage Technologies and the Future Battery Industry CRC. The broad benefits to society of improved and diversified battery technology will be both economic and environmental.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2024 · 2024-01

Zwitterion-based electrolytes for advanced energy technologies. This research aims to develop a new class of electrolyte that is safer, non-flammable and designed to enable excellent performance of high energy batteries made with either sodium or lithium. Through the synthesis of new electrolyte structures that are designed to improve stability and electrochemical properties, and using a range of analysis techniques to understand the material properties, the project aims to solve some of the safety and performance problems that plague existing electrolytes. Expected benefits include new functional energy materials for safer, more reliable energy storage technologies, plus research training, collaborations and materials development capabilities to help position Australia as a global leader in this field. Field of research: 4016 - Materials Engineering Lithium-ion batteries are the most widely used in Australia. However, the electrolytes inside them are flammable and unsafe, and are incompatible with new electrodes being developed to make batteries more powerful. Australia's shift to a green energy economy will rely heavily on batteries, which will be used in everything from electric vehicles to solar energy storage. Using sodium instead of lithium in batteries could provide an incredible alternative, as sodium is cheap and abundant, but this transition requires new electrolytes. This project aims to develop a new class of electrolyte that is safer, non-flammable and designed to function in high-energy batteries made with sodium or lithium. The project will build our understanding of how to improve movement of charge through electrolyte materials to enhance battery performance. Findings will be shared with emerging battery industries and those developing new energy storage technologies through our training centres, collaborators and battery prototyping facility. In a battery-powered future, the potential advantages of these novel electrolytes are diverse, from the economic value of better battery performance to the environmental benefits of more efficient solar energy storage.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2024 · 2024-01

Shifting the Culture of Out-of-field Professional Education for Teachers. This project aims to model an education system that would diversify the expertise of teachers as part of attending to long-term teacher shortage. It responds to a pressing national need for a system of valued and accessible professional education (PE) for out-of-field teachers. The project draws on perspectives from schools, governments and PE providers to expose current practices, cultural norms, and policies; propose an 'ideal' PE ecosystem that values re-specialisation in the core subjects; and develop principles to inform policy and practice needed to attain this ideal. The evidence-based framing of PE will inform efforts by schools, PE providers and policy makers to sustain a highly capable, adaptive and specialised teaching workforce. Field of research: 3903 - Education Systems Australian schools are currently facing a teacher shortage. Subsequently, secondary teachers are increasingly required to teach outside their area of specialisation. This project aims to support the diversification of teacher expertise through professional education and re-specialisation to build a more robust, resilient and consistently high-quality education system. The project will integrate perspectives from across the education system to develop a framework for professional education for ‘out-of-field’ teachers in science, mathematics, English and the humanities. The framework will guide policy settings, education structures and school practices needed to support teachers through continuing subject-focused professional education. A series of workshops across Australian states will ensure the framework is translated for government, school and university contexts, leading to more informed approaches to funding, designing and marketing of professional education for teachers. The scale and scope of this project has the potential to enhance the quality of teaching and learning across Australia by developing policies and practices to produce a highly skilled workforce that will, ultimately, improve the future education of our nation. The project contributes to the priority area of keeping the teachers we have to address teacher shortages from the National Teacher Workforce Action Plan.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2024 · 2024-01

Discrimination in Policing: Evidences from Natural Experiments. Ensuring that institutions are discrimination-free is key for the harmony of a society and the strength of a nation’s social contract. This research aims to investigate whether Australian law enforcement discriminates against certain groups and to explore the mechanisms explaining how it decides with whom to strictly enforce the law and with whom to be lenient. This research program focuses on speeding fines as they offer unique natural experiments allowing rigorous exploration of these issues. The expected outcome is a better understanding of discrimination in Australia and the factors explaining it, which should contribute to better policy design and lead to more equitable treatment for all Australians. Field of research: 3801 - Applied Economics Allowing discretion in the application of the law allows the spirit of the law to be respected while also allowing flexibility in its application. However, this discretion can lead to discrimination based on race, wealth, and gender. It is, therefore, essential to understand how this discretion is applied and whether it leads to discrimination. This research program focuses on the issue of speeding fines, which provides unique real-world data to explore these questions rigorously. By understanding how discretion is applied in this context and whether it leads to discrimination, we can gain valuable insights into the prevalence and impact of discrimination in Australia. While the findings will help us understand discrimination outside this specific setting, studying how speeding fines are issued is important by itself. Driving is part of Australians’ daily life; 66.1% of Australians travel to work by car, and 8% have received a speeding fine in the last 12 months. With speeding offences being so prevalent, it is essential to better understand whether all Australians are treated equally when driving over the speed limit. By deepening our understanding of discrimination in Australia, this research program will inform policymaking and could lead to more equitable treatment for all Australians. We will organize workshops that bring together behavioral scientists, policymakers, and other stakeholders to disseminate our findings and promote collaboration on this important issue.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2024 · 2024-01

Side-Hustles: Young People and Employment-Adjacent Entrepreneurship. This project aims to understand new working biographies created by young people that combine employment with entrepreneurial activities. 'Side-hustles' are increasingly common amongst young workers, but while entrepreneurship is promoted globally as a policy solution to youth unemployment there is no comprehensive evidence base about the nature of young workers' entrepreneurial activities or the outcomes they experience. The evidence created by this project supports efforts to facilitate youth entrepreneurship, address youth unemployment, and enhance Australia's future labour force. Outcomes include policy papers and reports, a policy forum, academic outputs, and a project website, offering benefit to policymakers, educators and employers. Field of research: 4410 - Sociology Young people are increasingly engaging in small-scale entrepreneurial activities alongside formal employment, or 'side hustles'. Amid increasing employment uncertainty and low wages, entrepreneurship is also being embraced as a policy solution by government. However, the consequences of side hustles are poorly understood. There is a risk that these policies may be ineffective or worsen the economic marginalisation of young people. This project aims to develop a comprehensive understanding of the impact of side hustles on the lives of young workers. Working with government, industry and the non-government organisation sector, we will examine the characteristics of side-hustlers, the nature of their entrepreneurial activities, the strategies they use to combine employment and entrepreneurship, and their experiences overall. A range of outputs will be produced, including a series of public reports, a project website and a public policy forum to ensure that the findings are accessible to policymakers, employers and the general public. The project will provide social and economic benefit by supporting the entrepreneurial aspirations of young workers, promoting economic growth and reducing youth unemployment.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2024 · 2024-01

Drivers of ageing and adaptive ageing in middle-aged and older adults. This project aims to answer crucial questions about how our early years influence our health and wellbeing in middle and later life. Drawing on one of Australia’s longest running studies of social and emotional development, we link decades of developmental data collected since 1983 to social, emotional, cognitive and physical wellbeing in participants turning 40 (midlife) and 70 (later life). It will provide insight into important and largely unanswered questions about the way social factors in the first half of life shape our later selves. This study will inform government and health policy targeting ageing populations. Field of research: 4202 - Epidemiology This project will help answer crucial questions about how our early years influence our health and wellbeing in middle and later life, and what we can do to live a healthy and prosperous life later down the track. Established in 1983 and now spanning three generations of study participants, the Australian Temperament Project is one of Australia’s longest running studies of social and emotional development. The next phase of this work is a unique opportunity to collect data on ways in which we adapt to and cope with social and emotional challenges in middle and later life. It will survey study participants who are now aged in their 40s, as well as their parents in their 70s, and connect this to decades of data on social and emotional development collected from these same participants since 1983. It will provide insight into important and largely unanswered questions about the way social factors in the first half of life shape our later selves. This study will directly inform government and health policy for promoting healthy ageing, with a focus on what can be done to build the social and relationship skills from the very beginning of life. The team will continue to support state and federal governments, and peak bodies such as the World Health Organisation and United Nations, to provide world-first insights which can inform how we reduce the pressures on our health and welfare systems that will be needed to support ageing populations in Australia and globally.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2024 · 2024-01

Digital Death and Immortality. This project will create a philosophically-informed ethical approach for managing the 'digital remains' of internet users who have died. Emerging artificial intelligence technologies make it possible to reuse and interact with these digital remains. This offers new ways of commemorating the dead and for managing grief. Yet these technologies also threaten to exploit the dead and to change our relationship to them in troubling ways. Expected outcomes of the project include guidance for the ethical use of these technologies and policy recommendations for regulating the reuse of digital remains. This will provide significant benefits by helping Australia to avoid the ethical dangers inherent in emerging technologies of 'digital reanimation.' Field of research: 5001 - Applied Ethics A legacy of today’s digitally driven world is the increasing number of ‘digital remains’ a person leaves behind after they die, such as audio and image files, social media accounts and emails. How to deal with these digital remains has become an increasingly significant and costly problem for individuals, families, organisations, tech companies, and governments. Existing legal approaches focus on treating digital remains as a form of property, but they do not fully capture the sensitivities and significance of digital remains in people's lives. Additionally, a property-only approach cannot address the dangers of ‘digital reanimation' – emerging technologies that re-use digital remains to ‘revive’ the dead. From posthumous chatbots to CGI performances from dead actors, it creates an ethical dilemma for digital souls. This project will help to understand what sort of ethical significance digital remains have, and determine how they should be preserved, reused or disposed of. Outputs will be shared via workshops, policy papers and media commentary to engage industry, government, academia and the public. The work will provide a range of social benefits to Australians by informing effective and ethical government and industry policymaking to regulate the reuse and disposal of digital artefacts. In turn, this will help protect Australians and their digital remains from being used in degrading or exploitative ways while still allowing for legitimate uses.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2024 · 2024-01

Analysing and disrupting outlaw motorcycle gangs in Australia. This project aims to reveal the structure and social dynamics of co-offending networks by OMCGs in Australia. Outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMCGs) cause significant social and economic harm in Australia and internationally. The project will generate new knowledge about OMCG co-offending using an innovative multimethod approach combining social network analysis with interviews and focus groups. Expected outcomes include a deeper understanding of OMCG criminal activity across Australia and refined theory development about co-offending in criminal groups. The project will lead to improved policy, legislation and policing practice to prevent OMCG crime and dismantle OMCG criminal networks in more cost-effective ways. Field of research: 4402 - Criminology Crimes committed by Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (OMCGs) cause significant social and economic harm for Australian and international communities. However, little is currently known about co-offending by members of OMCGs. This project will shed light on co-offending within and between OMCG clubs, document changes over time, and develop more effective policies and practices to disrupt OMCG crime. Results of the project will be communicated to criminal justice personnel, especially those working in law enforcement and criminal intelligence agencies tasked with disrupting crime committed by OMCGs and other organised criminal groups. A report summarising the findings of the Project will be produced and shared with law enforcement practitioners and policymakers and will be made publicly available via the project website. The domain expert workshop will demonstrate how our methodology can be utilised by crime analysts and other law enforcement personnel. The project will lead to enhanced capability for law enforcement and criminal intelligence agencies to prevent and disrupt OMCG crime. Benefits will include direct and indirect cost savings from reduced crime and from more targeted and cost-effective prevention and disruption methodologies. The project will contribute to making Australia safer from the harms of criminal activities undertaken by OMCGs and position Australia as a global leader in the field of criminal networks and methodologies to prevent and disrupt related crime.