MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Seeing the light: high-power visible-light generation using silicate fibre. Unlike their near-infrared counterparts, visible-light-emitting lasers are inefficient and complicated, impacting their broader deployment in industry, medicine, and telecommunications. To address this, we will create a new class of laser and amplifier based on an entirely new doped silicate glass fibre that will display low background loss and resilience to photodegradation from high-power visible light. This will solve one of the last important problems in fibre laser research. The primary outcome will be a series of high-power continuous-wave, ultrashort-pulse, all-fibre lasers emitting at yellow and red wavelengths, with significant benefits for space, defence, manufacturing, and human health. Field of research: 4006 - Communications Engineering Unlike their near-infrared counterparts, visible-light-emitting lasers are inefficient which limits broader use in industry, medicine, and telecomms. We aim to create a new class of laser that emits intense visible light using silicate glass optical fibre, which is stronger, crystal clear, and able to channel high optical power. Silicate fibre is used across many sectors, for example telecomms, where it supports faster moving data into our homes and businesses. The use of innovative visible light emitting lasers coupled with silicate glass optical fibre is a modern boost that will enhance our ability to send complex, large information across distances without signal disruption or distortion. This innovation will aid in more efficient and reliable communications and will also level-up Australia’s contribution to telecommunications, defence, and medical treatments (such as ophthalmology and tattoo removal). On completion of this project, we will work with Australian companies to introduce these innovative lasers to our high-tech sector, boosting Australia’s economy and global competitive advantage.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Dispersing myths; Characterising human migration through Asia . The human journey across the globe is one of our greatest achievements, yet the archaeological evidence for the earliest migrations is poorly dated, plagued by uncertainty and often overlooked. This project aims to characterise the nature of early human dispersals across Asia en route to Australasia by going beyond the timing and identification of human evidence to explore their behaviour, health and adaptability. Reconsidering early migrations within their environmental context will allow an assessment of their feasibility and address the disparity between the genetic and physical evidence. By elucidating the story of the greatest human journey we will develop a new understanding and appreciation of our survival and adaption capabilities. Field of research: 4301 - Archaeology Human migration across the globe is one of our greatest achievements but the archaeological evidence for early human migration is poorly dated and does not tell us the full story of how our ancestors came to Australia via Asia. This project will reconsider the earliest known journeys of our ancestors to better understand how they travelled and why they were so successful at reaching our shores. By uncovering new human fossil evidence and applying new scientific dating techniques to bone, teeth and sediments, this project will build new knowledge of the human story and document human survival, migration and adaption capabilities. This project will have social and cultural benefits for First Nation communities in Australia reinforcing their connection to country through a deeper understanding of their ancestor’s genetic and cultural heritage and adaptability and installing a deeper pride in their achievements. By documenting human adaptability and survival during past changing climates, this project will provide benefits to Australian policy makers who shape our responses to future climate change challenges.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Creating coolspots: eco-engineering heat-resistant intertidal communities. This project aims to identify structural characteristics of marine intertidal habitat patches, formed by seaweeds and shellfish, that protect associated species from thermal extremes. This project will generate new knowledge about how thermally sensitive intertidal species can persist in stressful environments. Expected outcomes of this project include new approaches for building heat-tolerant ecological communities on coastal infrastructure, and improved tools for predicting the response of intertidal seaweeds and animals to environmental change. The results of this project will benefit coastal management by identifying conservation and rehabilitation strategies that maximise the resilience of coastal ecosystems to environmental change. Field of research: 3103 - Ecology This project will identify geometries and configurations of marine intertidal habitats, formed by seaweeds and shellfish, that protect other intertidal species from increasing thermal extremes under climate change. This knowledge will enable the development of conservation and rehabilitation strategies for sensitive species and will build heat-tolerant ecological communities. The results generated by this study will assist in climate-proofing Australia’s coastal ecosystems, worth over $895 billion to the economy every year, which include species important to recreational and commercial fishing. This directly aligns with the government priority of adapting to the impacts of environmental change on biological systems. The results will provide evidence-based support to be used by coastal managers and policy makers to decide which types of habitat to conserve and rehabilitate to provide thermal resilience. They will also be used to develop strategies with developers and environmental managers for building heat-resistant habitats into marine constructions to benefit both humans and nature.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Towards Generalisable and Unbiased Dynamic Recommender Systems. This project aims to develop the foundations, including models, methodology, and algorithms for building generalisable and unbiased dynamic recommender systems to facilitate intelligent decision-making, prompt contextualised and personalised strategic plans, and support context-aware action recourse. To ensure that fundamental principles, such as fairness and transparency, are respected, a set of algorithms and techniques are proposed to develop recommender systems in a more responsible manner. The result of this project will not only maintain Australia's leadership in this frontier research area, but also serve as an excellent vehicle for the education and training of Australia's next generation of scholars and engineers. Field of research: 4605 - Data Management and Data Science ‘Recommender systems’ – a type of information filtering system that provide suggestions for items tailored to a particular user - are a powerful machine learning tool for various human decision-making activities from healthcare, cyberattack defence, prison sentence recommendation to personalised shopping and music recommendation. Existing recommender systems are constrained by inadequate data, biased algorithms, and a lack of transparency and ‘explainability’, causing concerns about their robustness, trustiness, and fairness. This project will address these challenges and develop new models, methodologies, and algorithms to establish ‘responsible’ recommender systems with boosted decision-making capacity. Through partnerships with industry and policymakers, outcomes of this research have potential to deliver significant commercial and social benefits, such as expediting demand and supply analyses to drive manufacture automation, increasing cyber security capabilities, and optimising medical resource allocation amid pandemics.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Hello, Mr America: Americans on R&R Leave in Australia in the Vietnam War. This project will provide the first comprehensive history of an important but neglected aspect of Australia's relationship with the United States. From 1967 until 1971 nearly 300,000 American servicemen - one tenth of the total number of Americans who served in Vietnam - travelled to Australia for their R&R Leave. What began as a matter of military expediency became an exercise in cultural diplomacy that left lasting economic, social and political legacies in Australia. Outcomes include a deeper understanding of the history of the US-Australian alliance, the international history of the Vietnam War, and Australian history during a period of dramatic transformation. Outputs will include a book, journal articles, and a symposium. Field of research: 4303 - Historical Studies This project will provide the first comprehensive history of the American presence in Australia during the Vietnam War, an important but neglected aspect of Australia's relationship with the United States. American servicemen travelling to Australia on Rest and Recreation leave shaped social, cultural, and economic change. The innovative combination of military and diplomatic history with cultural, tourism and memory studies will provide Australians with relevant historical context to the ongoing relationship between Australia and the United States, reflected in recent comments from US President Biden of an enhanced Australia-US alliance and greater American presence in the region during the ‘Asia-Pacific Century’. At a time when the US-Australian relationship is under increasing scrutiny, project outputs including the book and public symposium will provide government agencies, business, education and not-for-profit stakeholders with key insights into the history of Australian-US military and cultural relations, the shifting geo-politics of the region, and Australia's security and future within it.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Social Resilience, Migrant Integration and Informal Sport in Public Space. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of public space and leisure in strengthening individual and community well-being. This project investigates the potential of informal sport in fostering social resilience and cohesion in new migrant communities by analysing how social outcomes are shaped by public spaces and built environments of Australia and Singapore. Expected outcomes and benefits include qualitative evidence of the dynamics that contribute to the formation of successful neighbourhoods and communities, related policy and urban planning recommendations and an enhanced capacity to build urban citizenship among Australia's growing and vulnerable multicultural migrant populations. Field of research: 1608 - Sociology Studies have shown that active participation in formal sport has immense public health benefits and builds community. Little, however, is known about the role that informal sporting cultures play in building social cohesion and intercultural relations amongst migrants in Australia. This is incredibly significant in the current COVID-19 pandemic era. By providing the first comprehensive analysis of migrant participation in informal sports teams in Australia, which has now overtaken participation in formal amateur clubs, this study will generate new knowledge of the neighbourhood level dynamics that can contribute to social cohesion. Findings delivered through stakeholder workshops, policy briefings and media engagement will provide government, community workers, city planners and sporting bodies with new insights into the social implications of informal sport in our major cities. The findings will have the potential to contribute to policy and public space planning that fosters inclusive participation in sport and leisure and enhances community building among diverse urban residents.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Optimising lasers for ablation of structurally complex solid non-metals. This project aims to take the latest developments in fibre laser technology to create a new ablation system for precision cutting and reshaping of structurally complex non-metal materials. Fibre lasers provide high quality beams, high average power, and precise pulse timing. Guided by the composition of the material and its response to incident mid-infrared light, the project will create a tailored laser beam to provide accurate and high-rate ablation. The expected outcomes include minimal damage to the surrounding area and a level of precision not possible with any mechanical alternative. The project will provide long term benefits to the aerospace and healthcare industries and, be a boost to Australia’s manufacturing sector. Field of research: 0906 - Electrical and Electronic Engineering Lasers produce better quality cars, on demand material re-shaping and they underpin precision instruments. Maximising their reliability and power allows them to penetrate further into industry creating a direct benefit to society. We will develop, to application-ready status, high average power pulsed mid-infrared lasers. Thermal imaging cameras, dental and skin resurfacing lasers and narcotics detectors all involve the mid-infrared, but the potential to further exploit the mid-infrared is substantial. Mid-infrared laser sources will greatly expand advanced manufacturing, opening opportunities in high-yield pharmaceutics and long-range defence applications. The core value proposition in this project is a significant improvement in the accuracy and reproducibility of reshaping structurally complex materials containing water. The overarching long-term objective is to overcome all the limitations of mechanical tools currently in use. This work continues a long Australian tradition in world-leading laser development and application that will benefit manufacturing, defence, and healthcare in the future.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

The power of public spaces to connect communities and places. The project aims to uncover the vital role of public spaces during COVID-19 and in a time of climate change. Public spaces are not just places that are nice to have, they are an essential civic and environmental asset. The project adopts a collaborative framework to build dialogue, bridge academic and industry practice and promote debate about how to sustain public spaces now and in the future. Expected outcomes include new understandings of the diversity of community connections to public space and the importance of Indigenous leadership in public space-making and design. Benefits include an interactive website that will communicate new roles for public space and provide a valuable resource for communities, educators and governments. Field of research: 1604 - Human Geography Public spaces are vital for enabling vibrant and sustainable civic life at the heart of communities. They are not just 'nice to have', public spaces provide essential social, environmental and economic benefits. This project adopts an innovative model of government-university-community collaboration to investigate, discuss and co-create new approaches to public space design, management and use. The social benefits will be to better understand how public spaces positively contribute to place-based social connectivity in ways that can mitigate the negative impacts of current challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic and a changing climate. The project will enhance current understandings of the diverse community connections to public spaces, including by promoting Indigenous leadership in place design, place-making and caring for Country. This will lead to increased cultural and community benefits by making public spaces more inclusive to a broader range of people. The project will benefit industry, educational and public audiences by supporting awareness, advocacy and systems-change via an interactive website.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Deep Pattern Mining for Brain Graph Analysis: A Data Mining Perspective. This project brings together experts in the fields of data mining and cognitive neuroscience. This project aims to develop new data analytics tools, algorithms, and models to combine complex multi-source neuroimage brain data and non-imaging data, to explore the interplays among these different data structures and identify novel functional patterns from complex brain graph structures. The research undertaken in this project expects to provide practical data analysis approaches and establish the theoretical foundations for data mining with multiple sources of brain data. Field of research: 0801 - Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing Studies on the human brain include medical imaging and cognitive behavioural therapies. Lacking is a unified approach to analysing how the brain functions to help humans understand and interact with the world. The project will for the first time combine data from medical imaging and behavioural performance techniques to provide a comprehensive analysis of brain function. Society will benefit by extending our understanding of how the wiring of the brain supports specific cognitive skills. It will reveal how the human brain filters and interprets sounds which will have immense benefits for hearing-impaired Australians. Collaborations with clinical and industry partners specialised in data science will enable the development of innovative methods to measure the performance of patients’ brains. Doctors can utilise this work to help patients suffering from conditions such as traumatic brain injury or migraines. In addition, learning more about how a person thinks will advance artificial networks that seek to mimic human decision making and are critical to Australia’s ongoing innovations in artificial intelligence.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Observe, Reflect, Improve: a tool to enrich Children’s Learning (ORICL). This project aims to address long-standing concerns about the quality of education and care for children during their critical first two years. It will introduce a promising, future-focused digital tool, co-designed with practitioners and providers of early childhood services, to support infant-toddler educators’ planning and practice. Building on ground-breaking pilot work, we will undertake a national implementation and evaluation of the Observe, Reflect and Improve Children’s Learning (ORICL) tool. Expected outcomes include: enhanced pedagogical practices; enriched learning experiences for children birth-two; effective communication with families; and improved resourcing for providers of early childhood education and care services. Field of research: 1301 - Education Systems By the age of two, 59% of Australian children attend a centre-based or home-based day care for a regular part of their week. This project will address long-standing concerns about the quality of education and care for children during these first two years that are critical to positive life trajectories. There is an urgent need to increase educators' specialist knowledge of, and skills for supporting, infants' and toddlers' engagement in learning. This project will deliver a future-focused digital tool, co-designed with practitioners and providers of early childhood services, that will for the first time address the interplay between observing, interpreting, planning, facilitating and documenting children's interactions and experiences by educators, enabling the enhancement of pedagogical practices. Implementation of this tool will improve resourcing for providers of early childhood education and care services, and will benefit Australian children and their families by promoting optimal development, learning and wellbeing in child care services and at home.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Swarm construction: ant-inspired processes for teams of building robots. Construction and manufacturing can be dangerous, wasteful industries—prime candidates for automation by teams of mobile robot builders. However, our understanding of how to program robots for teamwork is limited. This project aims to understand how colonies of weaver ants build complex nest structures, using novel 3D-imaging and ant tracking techniques. The anticipated outcomes of the project are i) a framework for how individual-level behaviour drives structure-level outcomes, applicable to many complex systems, and ii) novel software and hardware for robot swarms that can 3D-print structures using ant inspired teamwork strategies. Benefits of the project include new construction technologies that are safer, greener, cheaper and faster. Field of research: 3109 - Zoology The country faces a construction crisis that is a double-edged sword - increases in urbanisation, homelessness and natural disasters demand vast construction efforts, yet current construction methods are expensive and lengthy, as well as among the most dangerous and wasteful work industries in Australia. Solving this problem will require the innovative development of teams of autonomous building robots. However, our understanding of how to program robots for teamwork is limited. This project aims to understand how colonies of weaver ants build complex nest structures, using novel 3D-imaging and ant tracking techniques. The project will reveal how many autonomous units (ants) collectively build functional nest structures and will deliver bio-inspired designs to create the first robot swarm that can autonomously build structures using decentralised, team-based strategies. This project will connect Australia with industry partners in robotics and additive manufacturing, with benefits to include fewer deaths, less environmental waste, lower costs, increased capacity, and novel export technologies for Australia.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Protecting Global Wetlands, 1945 to the Present. This project aims to provide the first in-depth environmental history of international wetlands conservation post-World War II. Focusing on the key concepts of animal migration, ecosystems, and wise use, and grounded in the important case study of the Ramsar Convention, the project expects to generate new theoretical and applied insights about wetlands conservation and expertise, and nurture exciting new directions in environmental history. Anticipated outcomes include a clearer understanding of why wetlands became a focus of international conservation and the consequences. This will bring significant benefits to wetland managers and communities by contextualising competing wetlands futures and via policy recommendations. Field of research: 4303 - Historical Studies This project will reveal the untold history and consequences of international wetlands conservation efforts through the key case study of the Ramsar Convention (an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands), including economic, social, ecological, and regulatory aspects. Australia has 66 Ramsar-listed wetland sites, all managed in accordance with international obligations. The project will inform Australian conservation policy and processes as well as economic development by focusing its novel analysis on three key environmental concepts that have profoundly shaped global wetlands conservation agendas: ecosystems, animal migration, and wise use. The project’s insights are vital for wetland managers and policy makers in Australia who seek to protect these ecosystems now and in the future. The project will inform adaptive management processes; local, national, and international conservation and regulatory policy; economic development and access strategies; wetlands regeneration projects; and Indigenous-led initiatives.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Storytelling networks and community crises in ancient Greece. This project aims to investigate how communal crises impact storytelling through an analysis of Greek myth in antiquity (800BC-AD400). Using an innovative digital platform that structures mythic data as narrative networks, it expects to generate new knowledge about the impact of natural disasters, epidemics, migration and war and show how narratives work as strategies for resilience. The outcomes include a new method for modelling narrative networks against community disruption and revealing the preservative effects of social and cultural infrastructures. It will provide significant benefits, such as an improved understanding of how historical contingencies determine which stories survive, and better public access to research on Greek myth. Field of research: 4303 - Historical Studies This project explores the intersection of two key human practices: our habit of storytelling and our desire to create communities resilient to crises. It will reveal how storytelling responds and adapts to crises caused by natural disasters, disease, war and migration using data from Greek myths in antiquity (800BC-AD400). Using innovative software, it will model narrative networks against community disruption; provide insights into how Australian communities use stories to build their identities and express their place in the world; and potentially predict how communities respond to and overcome crises. Disasters experienced by Australians, bush fires, drought, floods and the pandemic, have disrupted communities, and with the digital age and new technologies, our usual storytelling practices have changed. This project will benefit Australian culture and society by establishing a framework to document disaster recovery, support the maintenance of local traditions and knowledge over generations, and suggest strategies to help communities in crisis foster resilience and rebuild their collective sense of self.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Microbial junk food: developing synthetic platforms for plastic degradation. This project aims to establish the genetic basis of polyethelene biodegradation (PED) by microbes from the gut microbiome of plastic-eating caterpillars. It will transform the active microbial PED genes into carefully designed synthetic microbes for efficient, safe and large-scale PED. The project will combine innovative functional microbial genetic tools and synthetic biology techniques with solid biochemistry and bioinformatics to produce translatable synthetic platforms containing key genes optimised for efficient PE waste removal. The outcomes will have the potential to transform the relative ineffective and expensive current methods for PE disposal into flexible, cost-effective and sustainable solutions applicable to multiple sectors. Field of research: 3107 - Microbiology Over 5.8 billion tonnes of plastic has been produced since 1950, yet less than 10% is recycled today. However, nature offers a potential biological solution to combat this plastic waste. This project will establish the genetic basis of microbial plastic degradation and harness this information to produce flexible and efficient synthetic biology technologies that can safely and sustainably degrade commonly used plastic. Microbes from the gut of a plastic-degrading caterpillar will be investigated for the first time to identify the genes and enzymes that allow for plastic degradation. The project will design and build synthetic microbes to optimise plastic degradation efficiency. This cutting-edge technology will have great commercial potential, positioning Australia as a leader in new plastic waste reduction strategies. It will ultimately benefit Australian waste removal and recycling industries, and benefit Australian society and the environment by tackling the accumulation of plastic that damages terrestrial and marine environments and harms human and animal health.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

The MARVEL exoplanet facility. This project aims to deliver critical parts for the new $6M international MARVEL exoplanet facility, in exchange for full access of Australian researchers to the facility. MARVEL is a robotic telescope array and cutting edge spectrograph at one of the best sites in the world. MARVEL is dedicated to collecting critical data on rocky exoplanet candidates from the TESS and PLATO space missions. Outcomes include finding the nearest terrestrial exoplanets, gaining a detailed understanding of their stellar systems, and identifying targets suitable for future searches for life based on atmospheric biomarkers. This project ensures a leading role for Australia in exoplanet science, one of the most exciting endeavours in astronomy. Field of research: 0201 - Astronomical and Space Sciences The search for life on other planets in our universe is one of the most exciting endeavours in science. Leveraging our world-leading expertise in astronomical spectroscopic instrumentation to deliver critical components to the MARVEL telescope, this project will place Australia at the forefront of the global pursuit of the question “How common is life in the Universe?” The technique we use to investigate the exoplanets is ultra-precise spectroscopy. Optical spectroscopy is a 5 Billion dollar / year market underpinning a broad range of industries, from food safety and the development of pharmaceuticals to mineral exploration and defense. Technology developed for this project can be applied to this wide range of industries, and in particular, the photonics sector, in which Australia is a global leader. This project will therefore have broad economic and educational benefits to the Australian community, as well as social benefits through public engagement, and will help Australian high-tech optics companies stay a step ahead.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Giving quantum systems a voice: quantum optoacoustics on a nanoscale. This project aims to build a complete and scalable platform for the new paradigm of quantum acoustics, ready for immediate deployment as a critical component of a hybrid quantum computing architecture. Using a combination of theoretical techniques at the boundary of quantum physics, nanoscale electromagnetism, classical theory of elasticity, and advanced numerical methods, I will design a complete suite of quantum acoustic devices and protocols to enable interfacing between state-of-the-art quantum devices. This project will strengthen the leading position of Australian researchers in the race towards quantum technologies by offering practical solutions to a critical bottleneck in designing large-scale quantum technologies. Field of research: 0206 - Quantum Physics Quantum technologies promise a revolution in the way we develop drugs, design new materials for high-tech industries, and secure our data. This fellowship aims to aid in the development of these capabilities, by providing a missing component of the quantum hardware - a quantum interface, implemented by harnessing the non-classical nature of high-frequency mechanical vibrations. When developed, this component will allow multiple platforms, created at Australian universities, to be effectively combined into multi-faceted hybrid quantum architectures. As such, this project has the potential to significantly accelerate the scaling and deployment of commercial quantum devices, bringing commercial and economic benefit to the emerging Australian quantum industry. Furthermore, it will generate IP, patents and stimulate media coverage, reinforcing the image of Australia as a diverse hub for quantum technologies. This will provide cultural benefits to the Australian public and scientific community.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

I can't find the word! Reading to maintain communication skills in ageing. This project aims to investigate why, as we age, we have trouble retrieving words when we speak but not when we read aloud. It takes the novel approach of systematically testing both reading and speaking in the same older adults. Through its innovative use of both behavioural research and computational modelling, it will generate new knowledge in spoken word production and reading, areas in which the project team have acknowledged expertise. This project will advance theories, achieving understanding of how ageing affects the cognitive systems involved in saying words and reading them aloud. By also investigating whether reading aloud can support word retrieval, it has potential future benefit for improved communication in older adults. Field of research: 1702 - Cognitive Sciences This project will result in the production of new knowledge, contributing to Australia's profile as a producer of high-quality research with translational importance. It will improve our understanding of how and why word retrieval ability declines in ageing, resulting in better theories of speaking and reading and of the effects of ageing on cognition. The innovative word recall training part of the project, pending larger scale implementation and demonstration of lasting benefits, has the potential to delay the onset of cognitive decline in older adults, allowing increased participation and longer engagement in the workforce, saving associated economic costs. The research will also result in a new database of reading and picture naming in older Australians which, as an added bonus, can serve as normative data to facilitate early detection of cognitive decline or dementia, potentially enabling earlier targeted intervention to maintain independence. Thus, the project has the potential to contribute, in the future, to building healthy and more resilient communities for the 15% of Australians that are over 65.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Re/connecting People, Nature and Sustainable Futures via Indigenous tourism. This project aims to identify how Australians might appropriately learn from and act on Indigenous knowledges for more sustainable futures. In the face of global ecological crises, Indigenous custodians are increasingly recognised as sustainable land managers from who much can be learned, yet it is not clearly understood how different individuals might be influenced by Indigenous sustainability thinking. In collaboration with NSW-based Indigenous tour operators, this project aims to discover the potential of Indigenous custodians as change agents towards sustainability thinking and action, communicated widely through research publications, reports to policy-makers. and documentary film. Field of research: 1604 - Human Geography This project contributes to National Science Priority 8: Environmental Change by enhancing Australia’s capacity and options for responding to the impacts of environmental change through developing new insights on how individuals might incorporate Indigenous knowledges, worldviews, sustainability thinking and ideas into different sectors of Australian society and in their everyday lives. The project will benefit participating Indigenous tour operators, and the NSW and Australian Indigenous tourism sector by providing new information on what kinds of Indigenous tourism activities and encounters most successfully influence tourists’ sustainability learning, thinking and doing. It will deliver policy-relevant materials through research synthesis reports on the types of sustainability learning activities that might be better supported and promoted within the Indigenous tourism sector.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Missing link in the chain: Gateway to the Satellite-Internet Constellations. This project aims to develop affordable and compact, reconfigurable antenna systems for satellite-terminals. With unprecedented performance, the wide bandwidth of operation, and low cost of production, the resulting antenna systems will act as the ‘enabling’ chip in providing internet connectivity to millions of people, who are unconnected or poorly connected at present. High-speed internet is not a reality outside densely populated areas, even today. The outcomes will close the digital divide, increase Australia’s economic and intellectual standing internationally, generate socio-economic benefits by empowering regional populations, increase the economic viability and remote-jobs outside metropolitan cities, and develop tourism. Field of research: 1005 - Communications Technologies The proposed technology aims to pave a way to significantly improve internet services in suburban and regional Australia. It will affordably connect billions of people to the internet worldwide, who do not have regular internet access so far. The project will create new opportunities for the Australian industry in emerging telecommunication and defense markets, by enabling remote jobs in the Australian economy. As COVID-19 disrupted the world’s economy, the socioeconomic strengths of e-commerce, internet connectivity and remote workplaces has been recognized globally. The proposed project is a timely attempt to develop affordable and effective technology, critical in enabling remote global populations to develop skills and contribute towards national economies. Aligned with the goals of the Australian Space Agency in the next decade, the project will realize affordable and reliable connectivity, enabling remote education, distant healthcare, and remote workforce augmentation.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Rewriting moral character and professional virtue. This project aims to solve the philosophical problems of whether moral character motivates action and how it does so by developing an innovative account of moral character that draws on two overlooked bodies of research: the psychology of ‘moral identity’ and the philosophy of narrative self-constitution. The resulting narrative account of moral character claims that moral identities motivate moral action and, therefore, underpin moral character. The project then applies this knowledge to professional ethics, empirically testing the extent to which professional moral identities influence action and creating novel, self-narrative focused strategies to foster professional virtue. Field of research: 2203 - Philosophy Morality is essential for social collaboration and people who lack sufficient morality act in self-interested, socially damaging ways. This project will help Australian communities foster morality more effectively by establishing that moral character is largely underpinned by people’s moral identities and revealing new approaches to moral education that aim to shape moral identity. More specifically, this project aims to recommend ways to improve professional moral character by developing professional moral identity. Immoral professionals harm vulnerable service users and erode public trust in the professions. Professionals with stronger moral characters work more diligently to generate their profession's goods, such as good healthcare, and improve public trust in the professions. These social benefits have associated economic benefits for Australia. Society is more productive when it benefits from the goods provided by the professions and the more the public trust the professions the more likely they are to seek those goods.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

MAVIS: A Revolutionary New Instrument for the European Southern Observatory. This application aims to fund an innovative spectrograph for "MAVIS" - a ground-breaking Australian-led instrument for the European Southern Observatory (ESO), enabled by the current $120M 10-year Australia-ESO strategic partnership. MAVIS leverages ESO’s $40M investment in its unique Adaptive Optics Facility, and $30M of European funding for MAVIS itself. MAVIS will give the sharpest, most sensitive optical view of the cosmos ever, exceeding the capabilities of any ground- or space-based telescope in existence, or planned for the coming decade. The capabilities enabled by this funding will make MAVIS an essential tool for discoveries across a broad range of science prioritised by the Australian astronomy community’s 10-year strategic plan. Field of research: 0201 - Astronomical and Space Sciences The Australian Government’s investment in a strategic partnership with the European Southern Observatory (ESO) is enabling fundamental discoveries by Australian researchers in astronomy - one of the most publicly-accessible STEM fields. This partnership also presents opportunities for Australian institutions and companies to develop key technologies and engage in world-class, multi-million dollar instrumentation and technology projects for current and future facilities (such as the Square Kilometre Array and the Giant Magellan Telescope). Technology spin-offs from astronomy include new techniques in space situational awareness, improving the output of solar farms, and the application of advanced data analytics, including for COVID-19 clinical data processing. This proposal will fund an innovative capability for a new instrument Australia is leading for ESO that will give us the sharpest view of the Universe ever. This leverages $70M of external funding and investment from ESO and other European partners, and provides Australian researchers with new opportunities for leadership of globally-impactful research.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Political connections and the cleantech transition in China and Australia. Estimates show that the transition to clean technology will likely create $20 trillion in wealth worldwide. This project aims to analyse how corporate investment and government strategies are deployed in China and Australia to maximise wealth capture. Taking into consideration the critical role of government policy in the cleantech transition, the project attempts to determine how carbon-intensive and cleantech firms use political connections as a mechanism for mitigating risks and taking advantage of opportunities. This project focuses on the relation between politically connected boards and the cleantech transition, and seeks to empirically show the economic importance and value effects of political connections in two countries. Field of research: 1502 - Banking, Finance and Investment A transition to clean technology is forecast to lead to $20 trillion in wealth creation. This project will examine how political connections help fossil-fuel intensive firms and cleantech firms to secure favourable government action to mitigate the risks of investment in the cleantech transition and increase cleantech uptake. This research will assess public interest in the transition to cleantech, the role that a firm’s political connections have on accessing government contracts, resources and influencing policies, and how the importance of those connections may change as the legal and business cases for action on climate change become more evident. The project will examine the economic importance of political connections in Australia and China in maintaining the fossil-fuel sector while transitioning to cleantech. The findings will benefit the Australian community by providing investors, companies, policymakers and decision-makers with a comprehensive understanding of the economic and political factors that will act as barriers and enablers during Australia’s transition to clean energy technology.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Arab/Muslim Australian Social Movements since the 1970s: a hidden history. This project will be the first study of a neglected but constitutive part of Australia’s social movement history: Arab/Muslim Australian social justice activism. It aims to recover previously untapped oral histories and rare archival collections of Arab/Muslim Australian activists working in anti-racism, anti-war and feminist social movements from the 1970s to date. Expected outcomes include new knowledge about how this activist community has struggled against external systems and internal conflicts to build a socially just future in multicultural Australia. Anticipated social and cultural benefits include a greater understanding of the transformative activism of communities whose movement work is often relegated to the margins. Field of research: 4410 - Sociology In a world characterised by vast inequalities, we are witnessing urgent local and global debates on how marginalised communities can work together across social justice movements. The project aims to investigate how Arab/Muslim Australian activists, working in anti-racism, anti-war and feminist social movements from the 1970s to date, have mobilised a range of diverse groups (such as Indigenous activists) to establish partnerships that impact local, national and global politics. Through a public exhibition that will tour Australian museums, an open-access website and writing workshops with marginalised communities, the project will demonstrate the importance of social justice activism as part of Australia’s history and how it shaped Australia’s current democratic and political culture. The study will provide significant social and cultural benefits to members of the wider Australian community by offering a roadmap for how contemporary minority communities can work to build a socially just future in multicultural Australia and negotiate the politics of exclusion and inclusion and nurture united relationships.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Overcoming limits of miniaturisation to enhance spatial memory capacities. Ensuring optimal efficiency at the smallest possible physical limit is a challenge for technical systems, which has been elegantly solved by biological systems. This project aims to identify how insects with miniature brains enhance their memory capacities. It will leverage previous ARC funded research on navigation of Australian ants and apply sophisticated analytical tools to quantify the neural connectivity in the brain in the context of spatial memory. Expected outcomes include understanding how expensive neural tissue can be miniaturised for efficient spatial navigation, identifying the consequences of miniaturisation for developing miniature and autonomous agents, enhancing research capacity and institutional collaborations. Field of research: 0608 - Zoology Spatial memory is one of the most important cognitive functions for all animals as it informs animals where they are relative to home. While we rely on the 86 billion neurons in our brain to carry out spatial tasks, a humble ant achieves it with just 1 million neurons. This project will discover how animals with miniature brains increase memory capacities by investigating how ants overcome the physical limits imposed by miniaturisation to enhance information processing. The study will reveal how to achieve optimal cognitive efficiency at the smallest physical limit. Outcomes of this research will provide clear designs to develop miniature nanometer transistors and computer chips with large memory, and hence will make significant contributions towards the National Research Priority of Advanced Manufacturing. This project has enormous potential to generate valuable intellectual property and patents in the fields of engineering and robotics, bringing economic and commercial benefits to Australia’s technology industry.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2022 · 2022-01

Reducing Cyberbullying: Turning Bystanders into Constructive Defenders. This project aims to develop a theoretically driven internet-based training program to reduce cyberbullying among adolescents. It expects to discover how to turn passive bystanders (onlookers) into active constructive defenders who help to stop cyberbullying and assist those being cyberbullied. Expected outcomes include developing the first theoretical model of bystanders in the cyberbullying context and practical evidenced-based methods to increase constructive bystanding. The provision of an accessible training program for use in schools will produce significant benefits for the well-being of Australian youth by reducing cyberbullying and increasing the civility of Australian youth. Field of research: 1701 - Psychology Australia has one of the highest bullying rates in the world and it is imperative that more effective and sustainable methods for reducing bullying are found than are currently available in existing anti-bullying programs. This project builds on new research showing that bystanders have a crucial role in reducing cyberbullying. It aims to encourage bystanders, through an accessible internet training program, to respond constructively rather than aggressively to cyberbullying they witness. This research will enable bystanders to be a part of the solution in preventing cyberbullying rather than responding aggressively or ignoring it, thereby contributing to the problem. Evidence shows that the scars of being bullied during adolescence remain with many across their lifetime. The project will deliver economic and social benefits by improving the wellbeing of Australians who have been a target of cyberbullying. This in turn will reduce the burden on services, community programs and other supports for Australians impacted by cyberbullying, as well as improving Australian society’s resilience to cyberbullying.