Deakin University

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Supporting the sustainability of Australia's local news ecosystem. This project aims to understand how Australia’s main public broadcaster, the ABC, can best support public interest journalism in rural and regional communities, with a specific focus on fragile and underserved areas of the nation’s local news ecosystem. The project will develop new knowledge around media power and how news providers can work together to secure the sustainability of local news. Expected outcomes include a framework to identify and define areas of news need, an assessment of existing interventions and road-tested approaches to improve information quality. The project should provide benefits by supporting forms of local journalism that ultimately enhances the demographic health and social fabric of small towns and cities. Field of research: 4701 - Communication and Media Studies The sustainability of local news is an urgent national policy issue yet there is little research that examines the effectiveness of existing solutions and interventions and what role public broadcasting can play in leading collaborations and initiatives to secure news sustainability. This project will examine how Australia’s main public broadcaster, the ABC, can best support public interest journalism in rural and regional communities, with a specific focus on fragile and underserved areas of the nation’s local news ecosystem. Expected outcomes include defined areas of news need, an assessment of existing interventions and road-test targeted approaches to improve the quality of news and information. Addressing this knowledge gap will benefit hundreds of rural/regional communities by ensuring access to quality, reliable and relevant information essential to democracy and which strengthens the social fabric. The project will also benefit policymakers, researchers and industry by providing an evidence-based framework to guide initiatives that enhance public interest journalism.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Civilisationist Mobilisation, Digital Technologies and Social Cohesion. Civilisational populist rulers polarise societies mainly along religious lines. They also interfere with their emigrants, mobilising supporters against other expatriates. This project aims to advance knowledge of authoritarian states' transnational influence on social cohesion and inter-group conflict. By studying Islamist and Hindutva civilisationist mobilisations, their reach into their emigrants via digital technologies, and their impact on Turkish and Indian groups in Australia, the project aims to assist policy makers and community groups by generating conceptual frameworks, benchmarking data, and recommendations for making policies to deal with this phenomenon's negative effects and for developing intervention strategies Field of research: 4408 - Political Science Authoritarian foreign governments increasingly seek to motivate loyal emigrants to support their repressive policies both at home and abroad. They seek to provoke action by their supporters against emigrants who hold opposing views to the government. In Australia, this leads to tension – even violence – between different migrant communities. This project will determine how foreign governments use polarising speech, religion and digital technologies to influence emigrant populations. The project will analyse the impact of this foreign interference on social cohesion and economic integration on a multicultural society such as Australia. Research findings will help governments counter such threats. The project also aims to produce social and economic benefits through policy briefings and recommendations, and workshops with policymakers, media, community organisations and affected communities to minimise the impact of foreign interference.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

RECONNECT ME: REgaining CONtrol of childreN’s EleCTronic MEdia . This project aims to understand the impact that screen behaviours have on children’s quality of life, social skills and family functioning, and co-design feasible, acceptable and effective behavioural and digital strategies to mitigate this impact. Parents are concerned and are seeking urgent help in the persistent and evolving technology climate, where previous strategies are no longer relevant. Expected outcomes include new knowledge of the impact of screen time, and the co-design of innovative and user-friendly strategies developed with families, for families, to manage this. The benefits will include informing future effective and scalable screen time strategies for improved quality of life, social skills, family functioning outcomes. Field of research: 1117 - Public Health and Health Services Children’s quality of life, social skills, and family functioning are established in childhood, yet excessive screen time may be deleterious to these outcomes. The majority of Australian children fail to adhere to national behaviour recommendations and this is exacerbated by the rapid expansion of the technology environment. Parents are concerned and urgently seeking effective technology-related strategies for the current technology climate. This research will explore the impact of children’s screen time on quality of life, social skills, and family functioning and the potential determinants of these behaviours. It will purposefully collaborate with families, stakeholders and Deakin University's Applied Artificial Intelligence Institute (A²I²) to co-design theoretically-based, innovative and user-friendly behavioural and digital strategies to help parents manage screen time. This research will generate new knowledge of the impact of screen time on children's quality of life, social skills, and family functioning, and develop feasible, effective and scalable screen time strategies to improve these outcomes.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Student mobility, risk and changing geopolitics of international education. This project will investigate the impacts of changing geopolitics on student mobilities between Australia and China, India and Vietnam. The project uses a multi-method research design to generate new knowledge about how pre, during and post COVID-19 government policy responses and regional and global geopolitics affect inbound and outbound student mobilities. The expected outcomes include evidence-based recommendations for Australian government and university planning to build a resilient international education sector and co-designed resources to support international and domestic students and universities. Substantial benefits are expected as international education is vital to Australian higher education, society, culture, and economy. Field of research: 1301 - Education Systems The goal of this project is to generate foundational knowledge about the effects of geopolitics on inbound and outbound student mobilities between Australia and China, India and Vietnam. Both international students studying in Australia and Australian students learning abroad in the Indo-Pacific have created long-lasting regional and global ties benefiting Australia’s education, society, economics and politics. Both mobilities, however, are vulnerable to global and regional geopolitics. The project will address the urgent need for government and universities to have more evidence of immediate and long-term impacts of geopolitics on student mobilities, and to generate theoretically and empirically informed recommendations for building a sustainable international education sector. A key outcome will be recommendations for policymakers and universities to support Australia's international education, its largest services export (worth $40 billion, and vital to its society and economy), optimise Australian students’ learning in the Indo-Pacific, and strengthen Australia’s international standing within the region.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Religious Populism, Emotions and Political Mobilisation. This project aims to investigate the main features of religious populism with a focus on emotions in Turkey, Indonesia and Pakistan. Through multiple analytical methods that examine populist statements and interviews with voters, it will advance theoretical and empirical knowledge on religious populism, particularly in relation to emotive political mobilisation and polarisation. The expected outcomes are benchmark data sets and conceptual frameworks that can be used in other contexts where religious populism poses a danger to democracy. This will help democratic governments better understand religious populism so that they can generate effective policies to deal with any potential negative effects. Field of research: 1606 - Political Science Understanding the transmission of radical ideologies that undermine social cohesion and lack of trust in democratic institutions is central to the national interest of Australia and all democratic nations. This project aims to understand the role of emotions in populist ideologies and the ways in which populists mobilise their followers at home and abroad. By providing an understanding of how emotional appeals to religion are used to mobilise people to act against other groups, this project will provide us with new and improved tools to counter extremism. In the long term, understanding the complexities of populists’ ideology, narrative constructions and use of religion and emotions in mobilising their followers will help Australia and the broader international community predict and prevent the spread of radical ideologies.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

After the Return: Understanding Re-engagements with Aboriginal Collections. This project aims to investigate the dynamic ways in which repatriated cultural collections are re-integrated back into the lives of Aboriginal individuals and communities in central Australia. As the first systematic study of the mid-to long-term consequences of repatriation, the project intends to discover how repatriation policies and practices might be better developed, implemented and resourced. The project is designed to provide significant benefits to Aboriginal communities and wider Australia through the elevation of Indigenous perspectives and the production of community resources. It should also benefit the museum sector by developing insights into the effects of repatriation and enable the design of new policy frameworks. Field of research: 2102 - Curatorial and Related Studies The return of Indigenous cultural heritage is one of the most important developments in Australia's recent cross-cultural history. Through engaged, collaborative research with Aboriginal people across Central Australia and the Western Desert, this DECRA project will develop important new research into the effects of museum repatriation practices. Case studies involving some of the nation's most important ethnographic collections - including those that led to public understandings and translations of key Aboriginal concepts such as ‘Songlines’, ‘Dreaming’, and ‘Country’ - will reveal important Aboriginal responses and critiques to these nationally significant cultural collections. Innovative digital interactives will be developed in collaboration with Aboriginal communities, that show how museum object/s are linked to Dreaming stories, places and to people. New policy frameworks will also be developed to ensure the practices of Australia’s collecting sector align with the cultural heritage experiences and aspirations of contemporary Aboriginal communities.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Shadow Continent: Submerged Histories from Sahul. This project aims to investigate the cultural and environmental histories of Australia's drowned coastlines and what they reveal about past and future sea-level rise in the Australian region. Drawing on scientific understandings of the ancient continent of Sahul, it expects to generate new knowledge about environmental change and people-sea relationships. Expected outcomes of this project include enhanced capacity to build disciplinary collaborations in the fields of history, heritage and archaeology and establishing the first historical overview of Sahul. Benefits include recommendations to protect and manage Australia’s underwater cultural heritage and a narrative framework to advance public knowledge of Australia’s deep human history. Field of research: 2103 - Historical Studies The history of environmental change informs how Australians respond to future challenges. This interdisciplinary project develops four case studies in order to examine historic and scientific understandings of past and present sea-level change in the Australian region. It will foster greater appreciation of the variety and complexities of people-sea relationships, contributing to a better understanding of Australia's coastal heritage. It will address the National Science and Research Priority ‘Environmental Change’, providing insight into local and regional histories of sea-level rise. Expected benefits include policy recommendations to more effectively protect and manage Australia's underwater cultural heritage and the creation of opportunities for the wider Australian community to learn about Australia’s ancient and enduring heritage.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Striking voices: Australian school-aged students' climate justice activism. Mass student-led climate justice activism emerged as a transnational phenomenon in 2018.This project aims to foster understanding of this phenomenon, through exploring how Australian young people are taking action on climate change, the supports for their activism, and educational conditions of and responses to their climate concerns, using ethnographic and participatory methods. Expected outcomes include online student-curated accounts of social movement participation, and a co-produced teaching and learning framework for schools. Anticipated benefits include a greater understanding of emerging patterns of political engagement, and the development of educational capacity to engage young people and face urgent environmental challenges. Field of research: 1608 - Sociology This project will foster a timely understanding of school student climate activism in Australia, by identifying conditions for young people’s engagement with climate issues, exploring patterns of young people’s political participation, and analysing schools’ responses to their climate concerns. By involving young people and adults across formal and informal spaces of education this project will contribute to intergenerational discussion of civic-social approaches to the climate crisis. Outcomes, including a student-curated website and a teaching and learning framework developed with educational stakeholders, will advance knowledge of how young Australians contribute to climate action, how they learn and teach others, and how schools can develop educational capacity, together with young people, to meet contemporary environmental challenges. This project will benefit Australia by documenting how young people innovate to create strategies and solutions for environmental urgencies – ultimately contributing to strengthening Australia’s collective social, cultural and environmental futures.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

A national eInfrastructure for high-resolution population spatial modelling. Research at a meaningful spatial scale is hampered by privacy requirements and the use of administrative spatial units which prevent analysis at the address level and forces the use of spatial units which aggregate the results, mask spatial patterning, hindering local understanding. This proposal will: • build a digital twin Australian Synthetic Population on the Geocoded National Address File (GNAF). • link built environmental features to the GNAF. • build spatially detailed ARIA indices for Health and Wellbeing. Open access to these data eInfrastructure will improve modelling, policy and decision making across all levels of government and open a new level of understanding in how the environment helps shape the Australian population. Field of research: 1117 - Public Health and Health Services This project will build a spatially detailed eInfrastructure for a more equitable nation – a digital twin for modelling the patterns and processes impacting the Australian population. By calculating geographic access to commonly used services and facilities, this foundation dataset will enable Australian researchers, policy stakeholders, and industry to plan targeted interventions, and cost effective and equitable services to the Australian population. Through the creation of a synthetic, detailed data for the whole population, it will preserve individual anonymity, while still providing detailed, geographically located data (to the scale of individual residential addresses) across Australia. This is a fundamental piece of data infrastructure that is long overdue in Australia. This infrastructure will be a readily accessible for all sectors of government, academia and industry and provide a powerful and ongoing resource for Australia.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Physician Preferences for Medical Innovation. This project aims to identify the causes and consequences of medical practice variations by providing new evidence on the process through which physicians adopt and use new medical technology. This project expects to generate new knowledge on how physicians' human and social capital determine their preferences for taking up new medical technology and the economic consequences of such decisions. Expected outcomes of this project include a greater understanding of the sources for and costs of inappropriate use of healthcare, such as low-value care. This should provide significant benefits, such as contributing to the construction of effective policies for improving efficiency and equity of the healthcare system. Field of research: 1402 - Applied Economics This project will benefit the Australian community by generating significant new knowledge on the role of the physician in the diffusion of new medical technology. This is a relevant research topic since spending on healthcare goods and services constitute the largest expenditure category in the Australian economy. Increasing rates of costly medical innovations are likely to add further strains on future healthcare budgets, prompting an urgent need to reduce low-value care and to optimise value in healthcare. Expected outcomes from this project will provide benefits to the Australian community by building and developing research capacity to reduce inappropriate use of medical care. Results from this project will improve healthcare policy in Australia by providing knowledge and instruments to reduce low-value care and inappropriate medical practice variation in health service delivery.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Redox-mediated electrochemiluminescence enhancement for novel biosensors. This project aims to understand and apply a novel approach to the enhancement of diagnostic tests for agricultural biosecurity applications. Government and Industry require simple, rapid tests to monitor and detect threats to Australia’s agricultural biosecurity. This interdisciplinary project intends to enhance collaboration, generate fundamental advances in the field of analytical chemistry and bolster Australia’s research capabilities through new analytical techniques and technologies. The breadth of applications of this technology should also provide significant benefits to the Australian biotechnology industry, improve existing instrumentation and impact diverse research fields from biosecurity to health monitoring. Field of research: 0301 - Analytical Chemistry This project will optimise and develop novel sensor technologies, with wide-reaching and important applications in a diverse range of fields. Viral outbreaks such as Foot and Mouth Disease and Avian Influenza have highlighted the need for cheap, quick and accurate diagnostic tools to monitor viral diseases in livestock. The versatile technology developed as part of this project could greatly benefit Australia’s ability to monitor biosecurity threats which pose significant risks to the Australian livestock industry. Better diagnostic platforms will provide opportunities to expand the Australian biotechnology industry. This project aims to bring new analytical instrumentation and techniques to Australia, that will build local skills and knowledge, and complement existing capabilities in the domestic sensor industry. Other benefits to this project include increasing national and international collaboration, providing research training opportunities and enhancing Australia’s research profile through publication in prestigious journals.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Identifying how a non-stationary environment affects species persistence. This project aims to achieve the first application of new ecological theory that accounts for environmental change and species’ ability to respond to that change, using caddisflies that lay eggs on rocks in rivers as a case study. Long-term change in climate has always occurred but is often not accounted for when estimating future population sizes and extinction risk in species. Outcomes will include new knowledge on changing habitat availability, species’ ability to move in the landscape and successfully lay and hatch eggs, while creating a general template for use in other species. This will lead to significant benefits for conservation efforts worldwide, via the template’s inclusion in accepted extinction assessment protocols. Field of research: 0602 - Ecology This research adds to Australia’s national interest via its potential environmental benefits to the Australian community, specifically addressing the National Science and Research Priority of Environmental Change. The research will measure environmental change in climate and hydrology and develop new methods to predict associated changes in the physical landscape and the species that live there. By explicitly accounting for environmental change and the ability of species to respond to that change, we will directly improve our ability to estimate future population sizes and so also extinction risk, improving conservation outcomes. This work will benefit from direct input from leading international scientists in hydroclimatology, geomorphology and ecological theory, enhancing the capacity of established and emerging Australian scientists.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

An intelligent machine modelling assistant for combinatorial optimisation. This project aims to discover key fundamental technologies for automating assistance to non-expert users in the formulation of mathematical models. Through automating the modelling of combinatorial optimization problems, this research will generate new knowledge to address the fundamental challenges of automatic mathematical modelling. This intelligent assistant will enable synthesis of new mathematical models through the utilisation of pioneering natural language processing components and novel custom-made machine-readable knowledge bases. The outcome of this research will broaden access to high-quality models by non-expert workforce and alleviate the shortage of expert mathematicians, bringing significant social and economic benefits. Field of research: 0801 - Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing Mathematical modelling has an important role in science, business, civic services, and government operations and is traditionally conducted by expert mathematicians. However, there is a shortage of trained expert mathematicians in Australia that has a direct impact on quality and timely mathematical modelling. Optimisation modelling is a prime example of mathematical modelling that has improved business processes by saving resources or increasing efficiency for optimal outcomes. This research will make it possible for non-mathematician users to develop models tailored to their requirements through interacting with a computer. Our prototype will assist non-experts in formulating optimisation models for a range of planning, scheduling, resource allocation, timetabling problems and will benefit businesses and not-for-profit organisations. In doing so, this project will utilise a natural language processing-based agent with knowledge bases and Artificial Intelligence solutions to deliver economic and societal benefits according to Australia’s Tech Future report 2018.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Blockchain-Enabled Federated Learning for Secure and Decentralised Learning. This project aims to develop novel blockchain-enabled federated learning techniques for secure and decentralised learning. It addresses an important and urgent machine learning problem, that is, the data useful for training machine learning models are often held by different owners who are not willing to share their data due to privacy concerns, resulting in isolated data islands. The project will result in a set of innovative algorithms that provide solutions to the key challenges in blockchain-enabled federated learning. The expected outcomes of the project will dramatically advance the frontier of machine learning and blockchain research, and have massive social and economic benefits for Australia and international communities. Field of research: 0805 - Distributed Computing The blockchain-enabled federated learning techniques developed in this project will enable the building of secure and decentralised learning systems, which will have tremendous social and economic benefits to Australia society and thus greatly contribute to Australia’s national interest. In particular, the proposed techniques will provide governments and industries with new tools to enhance their privacy preservation capabilities and curb cybercrime and other illegal activities caused by privacy infringements. They will also enable Australian businesses to better comply with the privacy laws in Australian and other countries. Moreover, given the vast market size of machine learning, the proposed solutions will create enormous commercial opportunities for Australian companies and bring them huge economic benefits. Furthermore, the proposed research will greatly advance the theory of machine learning and blockchain and enhance Australia's international competitiveness in these research areas.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Communicating to promote engagement in using electronic medical records. This reflexive ethnographic and co-design project aims to examine how patient and family participation occurs with health professionals in using the electronic medical record within hospitals, especially for patients with complex needs. Its significance involves working with patients and families to consider how they could take part in decision making activities across transitions of care and influence health care activities. Outcomes are new knowledge and practices about how communication occurs with the electronic medical record and strategies adopted for effective engagement. Benefits are increased understanding of how and under what circumstances, engagement can take place in using the electronic medical record. Field of research: 0807 - Library and Information Studies Australia’s investment in the creation of electronic health records has led to significant health improvements. Further benefits will come from greater engagement with these records, particularly for patients who have complex care needs including those of non-English speaking backgrounds, those with many health conditions, or those who take many medicines. This project examines dynamics of communication between patients, family and health professionals. We will use these understandings of the actual ways in which communication occurs to develop and test new strategies to promote successful, shared engagement with electronic health records. Research shows communication problems affect up to 80% of adverse events that cause patient harm. This project addresses the practical research challenge of creating better models of health care and services by providing a model to reduce miscommunication and its negative impacts in health care. Improved communication should reduce adverse events in and out of hospitals and lower healthcare costs, providing significant economic, social and cultural benefits to Australia.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Anti-women online movements: Pathways and patterns of participation . This project aims to understand the influences shaping men’s attraction to anti-women online movements and patterns of participation within them. The project intends to advance sociological research on the endemic problem of anti-women movements advocating violence against women in online environments. Expected outcomes of this project include practical strategies for preventing and reducing participation by men in online movements responsible for the harassment and abuse of women and girls. By providing an evidence base and identifying key intervention points to inform policy making, this project should benefit women and girls who experience detrimental impacts on their democratic online participation and negative economic impacts. Field of research: 1608 - Sociology Women in online environments, particularly those expressing opinions, are increasingly subjected to harassment, threats and sexual violence through electronic means, undermining their participation in democratic exchange and with significant detriment to the economy due to harms caused. This behaviour is encouraged in the ‘manosphere’, a broad coalition of online, largely anonymous anti-women actors who coalesce around their shared antipathy toward women. These actions stand in strong contrast to Australian values including respect for the freedom and dignity of the individual, and equality of men and women. Furthermore, a stated aim of the Federal Office for Women is to ensure that women and their children are safe from violence. This project will identify key pathways and patterns of participation in online anti-women movements, improving scholarly understanding and identifying key intervention points for policy makers and practitioners. This has both a social benefit, protecting democratic exchange for women and girls and economic benefit, given the significant cost of online violence against women.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Unlocking the potential of multiphoton photoredox catalysis. Photoredox catalysis promises sustainable alternatives to synthesise high-value chemicals using energy converted from visible light. The project aims to address the current lack of understanding about how these reactions operate at the molecular level, using innovative electrochemical and spectroscopic techniques. The expected outcomes include new catalytic systems containing multiple light-driven steps that provide reactivities beyond those attainable in single-photon cycles. These will be applied to challenging modifications of large biomolecules under mild aqueous conditions. Anticipated benefits include adding value to Australia’s growing chemical industry through efficient green syntheses with reduced dependence on toxic solvents. Field of research: 0302 - Inorganic Chemistry With natural resources diminishing around the world, it is critical that sustainable methods for manufacturing life-saving drugs and agrochemicals are created. This will enable society to meet both current and future demand. This project will deliver tangible economic and environmental benefits to Australia by expanding knowledge in the chemical sciences, particularly in catalytic systems that contain multiple light-driven steps. Many new therapeutics are protein and antibody-based; this project expects to develop new methods for modifying these using visible in water instead of toxic solvents. These advances will be achieved using innovative experimental techniques that also serve to strengthen Australia’s research capability in both photochemistry and other solar-powered technologies including solar fuel generation, next-generation lighting and cellular imaging. Finally, this project provides a training program that will produce skilled research scientists highly attractive to Australia’s expanding chemical manufacturing industry.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

A design-led approach for multifunctional composites . This project aims to remove some of the limitations of carbon fibre composites by introducing novel functionality into the underlying carbon fibre. The project expects to modify carbon fibres, predict their functionality and develop new high-performance resins. The expected outcomes include enabling carbon composite materials to have high strength-to-weight ratio, durability, toughness, minimal maintenance, without compromising processability and the ability to manufacture at high volumes. The benefits should include a significant boost to Australia’s ability to lead economically important manufacturing innovations across a range of sectors including defence, energy and construction. Field of research: 0912 - Materials Engineering This project will provide new technologies and insight into materials design and performance which will provide a competitive edge for the existing composites industry in Australi. Providing unique opportunities for start up and small business to establish a presence in a global supply chain worth more than $40 billion dollars. This project will develop truly next generation carbon fibre composites for us in the automotive, military, aerospace, renewable energy and building sectors as value added materials. Manufacturing has been identified as a key sector for economic recovery post COVID-19, and the creation of jobs and exportable materials based on Australian generated intellectual property will be key to the success of this recovery effort.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Novel semio-chemical approach to control the Australian Sheep Blowfly . The Australian Federal Government through the 'Smart Farming' initiative highlights the need for improved multidisciplinary measures in order to remain at the global forefront of the invention and adoption of technology. This multidisciplinary project (entomology, biotechnology, analytical chemistry and genomics) will rapidly inform the management of fly strike on an important Australian resource merino sheep. This will build the key biochemical data in order to develop a novel fly lure technology (at scale) to be used on farm delivering national benefit through improved animal welfare and safety considerations for producers, and will establish the best approach to disseminate this scientific information to stakeholders such as farmers. Field of research: 0301 - Analytical Chemistry This project aims to develop protocols which will significantly improve on-farm practice in respect of flystrike management. Through improved control over fly production, the technology would add significant value to an already world class Australian sheep wool and meat industry. The initiative would assist in maintaining the Australian wool industry’s competitive edge internationally and to strengthen Australia’s own food security position. The project has potential to make a direct contribution to Australia’s economic stability, and to promote Australian scientific research capacity more generally. The technology also offers beneficial new outcomes for Australian farming industries’ OH&S and animal welfare practices. The project emphasises a national approach, benefitting rural end users by improving the consistency of the messaging of scientific information across both industry and farm-based stakeholders.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

No place like home? A phenomenology of racialised non-belonging. Racism is a persistent problem in Australian society, yet its existential effects remain inadequately understood. This project aims to develop a new understanding of racism’s deep impact on one’s sense of self, and sense of place. The project seeks to use the emerging framework of critical phenomenology to illuminate different experiences of racialised non-belonging. Expected outcomes include an improved understanding of the ontological significance of feeling not at home in one’s environs, or in one’s own body. This expanded understanding will provide significant benefits by helping to motivate and guide more robust models of anti-racism in public life, leading to a more racially just society. Field of research: 2203 - Philosophy Racism is an issue of national importance, costing the Australian economy $38 billion each year, and a problem that governments at all levels have committed to combatting. My research will contribute a better understanding of racism’s deep effects on one’s sense of self and belonging, in order to more clearly identify racism’s harms and the underlying issues that anti-racist efforts need to address. This project will investigate the significance of non-belonging as experienced by racialised, Indigenous, and immigrant communities in Australia, through a philosophical examination of ‘home’. By investigating the foundational significance of the home to who we are, this project will develop an account of the different and provisional ways racialised communities in Australia make ‘homeplaces’ in the face of persistent racism. Identifying the conditions that would lead to a more racially just society, this project will assist Australian government agencies and organisations to address the continuing problem of racism, providing social and cultural benefits to the Australian community as a whole.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Coexisting with Coronaviruses: Rethinking the Emergence of the Pandemic. Before COVID-19 disrupted modern life, benign coronaviruses were circulating among people and animals in Southeast Asia. As medical researchers work to control the spread of this infectious disease, multispecies ethnography has a special role to play in generating basic knowledge about coronaviruses. This project aims to understand how interactions between people and multiple animal species generated a virus with pandemic potential. Approaches from science studies and the environmental humanities will generate conceptual innovations related to three themes: viral visibility, coexistence, and pathogen emergence. Innovations in multispecies methods should produce knowledge about viruses with broad benefits that may safeguard future health. Field of research: 4702 - Cultural Studies This project will fill several critical gaps in knowledge regarding the factors that led to the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Human interactions with animals – such as bats, cats, pangolins, and pigs in Southeast Asia, result in the routine transmission of coronaviruses from animals to humans. Only a small minority of the viruses that jump across the species barrier result in an outbreak of serious infectious disease. This work seeks to understand how humans are able to coexist with some viruses and why other viruses become pathogenic. Knowledge about emergent viruses will help policy makers guard against future pandemics. The key findings of this project will be presented to elected officials through direct briefings, articles in mainstream media outlets, and publications in the Alfred Deakin Institute (ADI) Policy Briefing Paper series. This project will generate concrete policy recommendations that will help protect our economic, commercial, social, and cultural sectors from future disruptions by infectious disease.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Teaching digital writing in secondary English. In a digital world the nature of writing is changing. This project investigates how secondary English teachers are conceptualising and teaching digital writing, and how they perceive this work can be enhanced to create more engaged and empowered students, workers and citizens. The study contextualises contemporary digital writing pedagogy in the history of English teaching and provides insights into how teachers respond to demands for 21st century literacies. The project, of both national and international significance, will contribute to policy, professional learning and teacher education, and shape capacity for the education of adept writers for digital futures. Field of research: 1302 - Curriculum and Pedagogy This project is of high national relevance. English, in various forms, is compulsory in Australian schools and the study aims to expand conceptions of the fundamental skill of writing along with the capacity of a significant teacher workforce. Australian needs a better understanding of ways teachers can balance requirements of high stakes testing with the need to produce writers confident in a diverse repertoire of digital purposes, forms and audiences. The project seeks to provide strategic knowledge around how teachers can design within and beyond constraints and to identify their perceptions of how this capacity can be further enhanced. The project's digital focus offers innovative strategies for schooling beyond face-to-face contact, important for resilient education systems in volatile times. By prioritising writing, the project develops writers for future workplaces including the creative and cultural industries. 21st century literacies are vital for an economically sound, culturally rich, socially engaged and globally competitive post-COVID democracy.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Engineering nanoscale tools for cellular interrogation. The aim is to address fundamental hurdles to engineering seamless nanobiointerfaces between electroactive nanoscale tools and living cells. This is expected to allow efficient delivery of many bioactive cargo types into cells, intracellular sampling of cytosol contents, and probing of action potential, all at the cell—material interface. New, powerful, electroactive nanoscale tools that deliver precise spatio-temporal resolution and minimal invasiveness and perturbation are likely to transform ex-vivo cellular processes. The intended outcomes are crucial for maximising precision in engineering and implementing of ex-vivo cellular processes. Fundamental advances in knowledge may eventually be a platform for developing cell-based therapies. Field of research: 3106 - Industrial Biotechnology The project will develop a breakthrough technology to solve a long-standing challenge in biomedicine: how to inject genetic materials into cell interiors with much greater precision, but without damaging the cells’ intricate structure. My team will create tiny (nano) needles of specific dimensions to deliver genetic materials such as DNA into cells, giving them powerful new properties – including such functions as attacking specific cancer cells. These nanoneedles will also enable diagnosis of the health of cells by drawing out tiny volumes of their existing genetic material. These advances will have major potential as a platform for novel cell-based therapies for conditions that until now have eluded medical science such as cancers and heart disease, or for which current therapies are too slow and costly to be viable. Such a fundamental advance would open new ways of manipulating cells outside the body, creating intellectual property that would be highly attractive to Australian and international companies.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Prefrontal dopamine in the dynamic processes of learning across lifetime. To facilitate age-specific adaptive action in a changing environment, how we learn changes not only as we grow, but also as we age. However, the neurobiological processes in these age-related changes are poorly studied. This is a significant knowledge gap that needs to be addressed to promote healthy cognitive development and ageing. This research program aims to examine the contribution of prefrontal dopamine and its receptors D1 and D2 in associative learning and its inhibition at 9 distinct ages spanning development to ageing in male and female rats. The outcomes will provide a new neuroscientific framework to understand learning and memory throughout life, which will foster new research opportunities and inform our education and health. Field of research: 5202 - Biological Psychology The project will show how memory processes and intensity change throughout life and differently between the sexes, and how the brain chemical dopamine is involved, all poorly understood. Prescribed and illegal dopamine-based drug use is rising in Australia, our efficacy of early education is falling in world rankings and our ageing population is rapidly increasing, all associated with memory impairments. This project will have immediate relevance to Australian education, helping us understand why and how to intervene at different ages and between sexes. Working with stakeholders in education and government and applied researchers, we will use the new knowledge to improve current and design new strategies for application and evaluation in schools to improve learning and outcomes. Overall the greater understanding of the role of dopamine in memory will help inform safer use and development of improved dopamine-based drugs to improve memory, especially with ageing and other adverse exposures.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Young Workers and the Future of Service Employment. This project aims to understand how the social and political relations of service employment are transforming, and how workers' participation can support the future viability of the service economy. It explores how young service workers negotiate their status, conditions and working relationships, and how service employment facilitates or limits their social and political participation. This evidence base supports efforts to improve the resilience and productivity of the service economy and enhance the social relations of service labour at a time of economic crisis. It will benefit policymakers, employers and worker representatives aiming to engage and support this diverse labour force. Field of research: 4410 - Sociology This project creates evidence to improve productivity and conditions in the post-COVID service economy by enhancing workplace relations to create workplaces that meet the expectations of workers and employers. Improving productivity and employment relations is a national priority, but the service economy is in an unprecedented and poorly understood period of transformation, as labour shortages and public concerns about wage and job insecurity inhibit the sector’s recovery. To respond to these challenges, this project will examine the social relationships of service employment, explore the expectations and strategies workers use in negotiating conditions, and identify ways to strengthen productivity and job satisfaction. It will inform policymakers, employers and worker representatives aiming to engage and support this diverse labour force. Translation of findings will occur through the collaborative network of stakeholders including diverse worker representatives, industry bodies and policy makers to deliver tailored solutions to safeguard future viability of the service economy.