MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY

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

Consumer experiences and preferences for aged care through citizen... Category: Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) Research

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

Consumer experiences and preferences for aged care through citizen... Category: Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) Research

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

What does ‘doing diversity’ do, and how can it be done differently? . This project aims to take stock of the state of news media’s ‘diversity problem’—developing the first detailed, Australia-wide study of how news media organisations respond to criticism of the makeup of their workforce. We will examine what initiatives are being taken to diversify news media workplaces and their workforce, and the frameworks and approaches to understanding and addressing the problems of racism, discrimination, and harm inside the workplace. We will build new knowledge on strategies and practices of survival employed by diverse media workers who navigate careers in often hostile environments, using this to inform a set of strategies for industry to improve their practices, and make news media organisations safer workplaces. Field of research: 4701 - Communication and Media Studies This project constitutes the first major study of how diversity is ‘done’ in Australia’s media sector, and the opportunities and barriers it presents for media employment, workers’ safety and wellbeing, and social and cultural representation. Producing evidence of how diversity is defined and pursued within news organisations, and learning from the practices and experience of media workers, it will inform robust and sustainable solutions to problems of exclusion, discrimination and harm. This supports social inclusion in the media industry, a key contributor to national culture, and generates knowledge and debate of significance for other industry sectors. Through sharing and discussing its findings in public fora, including in and through media itself, the project will provoke public engagement and reflection on the adequacy of existing diversity policies and practices. Enabling informed reflection works to promote the benefits of enhanced inclusion, supporting all Australians to fully and safely participate in the social, cultural and economic life of the nation. The project also, importantly, contributes to and facilitates international research, extending and enhancing Australia’s reputation as a nation that supports all citizens to contribute to national life without discrimination, and regardless of cultural, ethnic or gender identity, sexuality or disability.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Consumer experiences and preferences for aged care through citizen science. This project aims to generate large scale data on consumer experiences and preferences for care delivered in residential aged care using an innovative approach. The new knowledge generated by this project will be rich data on consumer experiences and preferences for infection management in residential aged care. The expected outcomes will include a replicable model for elucidating consumer experiences and preferences for key care types and will enable the development of resources to support a high-quality care experience aligned with consumer preferences. Significant benefits to one of Australia's most vulnerable populations are expected, and reductions in economic losses from antimicrobial resistance due to antibiotic overuse may follow. Field of research: 4203 - Health Services and Systems A core value of aged care is that it should be person centred; however the poor quality of aged care services in Australia has been a concern for over two decades. Recent regulatory changes provide little insight into how aged care services can provide person centred care that meets consumer needs. Furthermore, past and current efforts to understand consumer needs rely on summary measures of care experiences and treat residential aged care as a single service rather than a collection of services. This project will overcome these limitations and generate large scale data on consumer experiences and preferences for residential aged care using an innovative approach. We will use participatory citizen science and co-design, with consumers, a crowdsourcing platform to capture consumer experiences and preferences in near real-time, using infection management as an exemplar. A key outcome will be a replicable model for elucidating consumer experiences and preferences for a range of care types. Social benefits will flow from improved aged care services, a right of all Australians. Reductions in economic losses from antimicrobial resistance due to antibiotic overuse may follow in the future. We will leverage our connections with industry (e.g. aged care providers, IT vendors), government (e.g. Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission) and nongovernment organisations (e.g. Consumers Health Forum of Australia) to disseminate the research findings and promote adoption of the research.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Innovative microwave processing for sustainable semiconductor fabrication. This project pioneers the use of rapid microwave annealing in transforming solutions into semiconductors, a process pivotal for industries such as solar cell manufacturing. Solution-processed semiconductors offer ultra-cheap solar cells with a very low carbon footprint, but their potential is hindered by challenges in material stability and fast manufacturability. This project focuses on uncovering the dynamics of microwave processing to grow high-quality, stable semiconductor crystals. By combining innovative microwave processing and characterisation techniques, we aim to gain insights that will propel this technology forward, potentially transforming the production of semiconductors and significantly impacting sustainable electronics. Field of research: 4016 - Materials Engineering This project will develop a low-cost, energy-efficient microwave technology for rapidly fabricating high-quality, solution-processed semiconductor devices, with a particular emphasis on solar cells. This innovation tackles the high energy consumption issue of traditional semiconductor manufacturing. By enabling faster and greener production of solar cells, this project directly supports Australia's ambitious target of achieving Net Zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The research goes beyond immediate applications in solar cells. It delves into the fundamental understanding of how microwave radiation influences semiconductor crystal formation from solutions. This knowledge will pave the way for a broader "microwave processing" industry in Australia, encompassing not only solar cells but the entire electronics sector. This shift has the potential to fuel economic growth through innovation and a vibrant startup ecosystem. Ultimately, by enabling the production of cheaper and more sustainable electronics, this research will improve the quality of life for Australians. This research is particularly timely as Australia joins Southeast Asia as a future leader in the global semiconductor industry.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Multi-point maximum principles, integrability profiles, and smoothing. Regularity theory forms the foundation of differential equations governing the behaviour of systems such as gravitation, climate modelling, biological systems, economics models, geometric structures such as minimal surfaces and many others. Tremendous developments occurred during the 20th century, yet many unresolved questions remain (such as the Millennial prize problem on the regularity of Navier-Stokes). We propose new methods to tackle such questions via a geometric approach to obtain optimal inequalities. The project will greatly simplify the very technical aspects of the field and open up new avenues to solve the major outstanding problems in this area. Field of research: 4904 - Pure Mathematics The project aims to develop a fundamental theory of regularity for partial differential equations. Regularity pertains to the underlying structure of solutions of problems modelled by differential equations from which everything else follows. This project has very broad implications for a range of problems including in physics, economics, climate modelling, engineering, biological systems, and many areas of mathematics itself. The project will develop new tools to study problems of great interest to the international mathematics community and will attract both domestic and international researchers and students to Australian universities. In this way it will lead to significant national benefits, both economically and intellectually.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Consumer Data Privacy Risk Analysis and Management in the Open Banking Era. This project aims to address privacy issues in current Open Banking adoption using Bayesian learning techniques that quantitatively analyse privacy risks and propose scenario-based risk mitigation strategies. The expected outcomes include advancing the theoretical knowledge base in privacy risk assessment and mitigation for open finance, and new guidelines for establishing explicit and well-informed consumer consent in digital financial service platforms. The project findings are expected to significantly enhance ethical and responsible digital financial service offerings, strengthen consumers' privacy awareness and well-grained data controls, and foster the development of privacy regulation in digital finance and the open data economy. Field of research: 3502 - Banking, Finance and Investment Open banking - an innovative and legislated financial services practice that gives consumers the option of sharing their bank data with accredited third parties, has the potential to revolutionise the financial sector by fostering innovation and prioritising customer-centric solutions. However, open banking has not been widely adopted in Australia and abroad due to privacy and security risks. While informed consumer consent holds promise in addressing this issue by empowering consumers with data control, clear guidance for consumers on how to effectively implement consent mechanisms is commonly lacking. This project aims to bridge these gaps by leveraging cutting-edge AI-driven data analytic techniques to explicitly quantify potential privacy risks associated with personal bank data sharing, alongside the formulation of risk mitigation strategies that empower consumers to provide privacy-preserving bank data sharing consent. The outcomes will promote ethical digital transformation in the Australian financial industry, enhance consumer privacy awareness and education when using digital financial services and products, and inform regulatory and legal framework design regarding privacy risk disclosure and consumer information provision standards in the development of digital and open finance. The project findings will be widely communicated among financial industry and regulators to facilitate its practical use.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

'No' to Black Box: Towards Transparent and Safe AI in Healthcare. While Artificial Intelligence (AI) offers immense potential for various sectors, there is little information about how AI applications are developed and tested. This lack of transparency contributes to AI safety issues and undermines trust. In healthcare, these challenges have led to limited adoption of AI in practice, with lost opportunities for patients and healthcare systems. Based on new empirical and international comparative data, this project will develop an AI Transparency Map that identifies stakeholder transparency needs and current gaps. Outcomes will include a Framework of policy measures to improve AI transparency. Australia will benefit from safer and more effective adoption of AI in healthcare and other high-stake sectors. Field of research: 4804 - Law In Context The global healthcare AI market was valued at USD 16.3 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow at 40.2% to reach USD 173.55 billion by 2029. While healthcare AI is expected to improve diagnosis and treatment of patients, decrease healthcare costs, and make healthcare more accessible, the adoption of AI tools in practice has been slow. This is due to a lack of trust in AI and safety issues, which are in turn caused by a lack of transparency around AI functioning and limitations. Based on new empirical data, this project will develop a first of its kind AI Transparency Map that identifies stakeholders’ transparency needs for AI healthcare technologies and current transparency gaps. The project will then collect best industry practices and international policy approaches to improve AI transparency, and develop a Model Framework proposing legal, policy and governance measures that will foster AI transparency around healthcare AI. These project outputs will enable governments and stakeholders improve transparency around healthcare AI, which will lead to increased trust and safer use of AI, and eventually speed up the adoption of these promising technologies in practice. The interdisciplinary and international project team will leverage their extensive industry contacts and engage with healthcare, AI and policy stakeholders throughout the project, which will ensure that the project benefits the targeted stakeholders and the society at large.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Creating a sense of balance: Enhancing stimulation of vestibular tissues. Tucked away deep in the hardest part of the skull hides our balance system - the mysterious unsung hero of the senses, which controls gaze, posture, and spatial orientation. In collaboration with Key Industry Partner, Cochlear Limited, this project aims to unlock key features of the mammalian balance system, involving organizational principles and coding mechanisms, such as how balance receptors provide three dimensional neural representations of the external world. Findings will reveal new insights into the fundamental operation of this important sensory system and will direct evidence-based coding strategies to improve the control of neuronal excitability within the ear for future translational success. Field of research: 3202 - Clinical Sciences This project will reveal new fundamental mechanisms of inner ear balance, by which head motion information is encoded in patterns of electrical signals by the ear and sent to the brain. One in three of us will be affected by a balance disorder during our lifetime, which could involve anything from a dizzy spell to more serious crippling vertigo, where the world spins around us. More than half of balance disorders arise from dysfunction of the inner ear sensory organ – called the vestibular system. With our ageing population, the incidence of balance problems, and its consequences, are expected to skyrocket. Unfortunately, no effective treatments or cures exist for people who have lost their sense of balance. Solving this problem requires an urgent understanding of how the balance system operates. Uncovering vestibular sensory coding is of profound interest to KIP Cochlear, who are currently developing a vestibular prosthesis device but lack a clear explanation of how it works. Enhancing the stimulation and excitability of vestibular tissues will ultimately benefit our aging population by improving our knowledge of sensory and balance processes. Using cutting-edge techniques, this project will uncover the operation, integration, and control of the sensory cells governing balance. Findings have future implications for restoring sensory loss and will contribute to the future development of important translational therapies, including vestibular aids and implants.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Synthetic biology conservation of endangered species impacted by disease. The invasive disease, chytridiomycosis, has brought devastation to native Australian frogs with six species being driven to extinction and numerous others in decline. This project aims to provide endangered frog species with heritable chytridiomycosis-resilience. This work is innovative because it will combine synthetic biology with conservation biology to overcome a major conservation challenge. The outcome of this research will be the generation of biotechnological tools for generating endangered frogs that are more resilient to chytridiomycosis and, thus, a potential exit strategy for indefinite captive management of highly susceptible species. Field of research: 4104 - Environmental Management Australia is at the cutting-edge of biodiversity conservation research but emerging threats such as invasive species have sabotaged conservation efforts. The pathogenic chytrid fungus entered Australia in the late 1970s and has spread nationwide, driving massive declines in frogs, including 6 species extinctions. Since the pathogen cannot be eradicated, many highly susceptible species rely on captivity for their continued existence. While this method of last resort prevents extinction, it does not restore wild ecologically functional populations. Currently, there are no long-term, sustainable strategies for successfully restoring chytrid-impacted species to the wild. This project addresses this limitation by providing synthetic biological tools to generate endangered frogs that can co-exist with the chytrid pathogen. This project will benefit Australia economically by providing a conservation approach for establishing self-sustaining populations that are less reliant on captive management. Productive conversations about the project’s advancements in wildlife conservation will bring social and environmental benefits. The project will establish Australia as a leader in an innovation in biodiversity conservation and provide valuable IP in the form of novel methods, reagents, and tools.

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

Functional Panel Data Analysis: Harnessing Big Data for Society Category: Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) Research

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Tandem electrolysis to produce liquid fuels from carbon capture feedstock. As the global push towards a net-zero economy intensifies, innovative strategies for carbon capture and utilization become increasingly crucial. This project aims to deliver a cost-effective and durable tandem electrolysis technology for converting CO2 into high-rate transportable liquid fuels, facilitated by mechanism-driven catalyst development and engineering innovations in prototyping. The proposed two-step process is expected to enable energy-efficient and practically viable electrochemical CO2 reduction. The resulting innovations will not only reduce the environmental impact of atmospheric CO2 but also generate high-rate transportable fuels and industrial feedstocks for the sustainable production of commodity chemicals. Field of research: 4016 - Materials Engineering Australia's pursuit of net-zero emissions coupled with the rising energy demands, necessitates the adoption of practically viable carbon capture and utilization technologies. One innovative strategy is to convert CO2 into transportable liquid fuels and chemicals using renewable electricity. To tackle the challenges of low CO2 utilization and energy efficiency, this project aims to develop a novel energy-efficient tandem electrolysis technology for producing high-rate transportable liquid fuels from CO2 exiting carbon capture units. This technology will eliminate the need for conventional, energy-intensive CO2 recovery and compression steps. The resulting transportable liquid fuels will integrate seamlessly into existing infrastructure, facilitating smoother transitions to renewable energy without significant modifications. This approach is also well-suited for coupling with carbon capture systems. Furthermore, advancing CO2-to-fuels conversion technologies will create jobs and stimulate growth in emerging sectors focused on carbon capture and utilization. Given the urgency of addressing climate challenges, the production of transportable liquid fuels from CO2 and renewable electricity is vital for driving sustainability, enhancing energy independence, and supporting the transition to a low-carbon economy.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Building robust networks of trust in the Anthropocene. This project aims to inform an evaluation of discourse about global warming. Social media data will be collected to construct an international network that discusses global warming. Using both social network analysis (clustering, identification of central nodes) and natural language processing to identify climate skeptics and anti-immigrant sentiment, the project examines trust-related language in the network, enabling tracking of changes in discourse, identification of vectors of mistrust, and collocations of terms, hashtags, and emoji. From this empirical basis, interventions to foster better patterns of trust will be proposed. This will result in better policies and regulations for social media communication about controversial topics. Field of research: 5003 - Philosophy Democracy is under threat in Australia and worldwide. One challenge democracies face is the spread of misinformation, disinformation, and unwarranted conspiracy theories by domestic and foreign actors, who undermine civic trust and interfere with efforts to address global problems like climate change, terrorism, and armed conflict. If Australians lack a shared reality, it will be difficult to reach consensus on how to respond to these generation-defining challenges. To help shield Australian and global democracy, this project aims to deliver reproducible results and open-source tools to enable Australian individuals, organisations, and regulators to assess the capacity of a social network to produce and disseminate knowledge and understanding. The national benefit is the improvement of national resilience to attacks such as the spread of misinformation by those hostile to the existence of Australia as a well-functioning, orderly democracy. The project operates at the level of the individual (including their character traits such as closed-mindedness and attitudes such as distrust) and the society (including geometries of trust and distrust).

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

(Dis)Integrating the Past: How old states shape new wars . This project aims to model how precolonial states have shaped internal borders and the flow-on impacts for conflict using new spatial data on the evolution of boundaries in Asia and Africa from 1750-2020. Discontinuities between precolonial states, colonial regimes, and postcolonial governance have destabilised countries in Australia's region, such as Indonesia, and remain a source of tension. This project provides scientific knowledge on the mechanisms through which precolonial institutions can be peacefully incorporated into stable, democratic governments. Results will help policy makers anticipate the fault lines along which new conflicts in Australia's region might erupt and tools to prevent their onset. Field of research: 4408 - Political Science Numerous conflicts in Australia's near-region - in Myanmar, Indonesia, and India, for example - can be traced to the failure of colonial and postcolonial governments to peacefully (dis)integrate older kingdoms and authorities. Ensuring a stable, peaceful, and democratic region is fundamental to Australia's national interest. For example, in 2023-2024 the Australian Federal Government allocated $4.77 billion in Overseas Development Assistance, the vast majority to assist postcolonial countries in the Indo-Pacific region. To be effective, however, aid strategies and conflict prevention must be targeted to at risk regions and tailored to local contexts. This project will deliver economic and security benefits to Australia by helping policy makers to anticipate the fault lines along which new conflicts in our region may erupt and adapting development and capacity-building assistance to the deeper precolonial and colonial history of many of Australia's neighbours. This project will also deliver cultural benefits. Many of the precolonial states in this project are unfamiliar to most Australians and provide a critical historical context through which to understand not only politics in the region, but also Australia's colonial and precolonial experience through a comparative lens. This project will raise awareness of our regions' diverse history and how the imprints of "dead" states and colonial rule remain relevant today through workshops and popular science publications.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Next-Generation Graph-Level Mining for High-Complexity Data Environments. This project aims to advance Australia's data mining research by developing cutting-edge graph-level mining solutions for highly complex real-world data environments, such as multi-source, low-quality, and multi-graph data. The research will primarily explore intricate structural interactions in challenging scenarios to generate new knowledge and enable effective, reliable, and robust graph analysis with interpretability. This project will lay the theoretical foundations of this significant research field to strengthen Australia’s world leadership role in data science. Practically, the outcomes should benefit Australian governments and businesses across diverse applications, such as intelligent urban transportation and financial networks. Field of research: 4605 - Data Management and Data Science Real-world data environments contain complex, interconnected information that imparts highly valuable knowledge, such as how different regions in an urban transportation network interact or how financial fraudsters communicate with users. Currently, Australia lacks advanced tools to analyse these intricate connections and discover interpretable patterns, limiting the ability of domain experts to make informed decisions. This project aims to bridge this gap by developing advanced graph-level data mining techniques that will enable an effective, reliable, and robust analysis pipeline. The outcomes will benefit Australians economically and socially. In transportation, these techniques will optimise traffic management by analysing interactions within urban networks, helping to reduce congestion and improve the efficiency of public services. In the financial sector, the project will enhance risk control capabilities, protecting Australian businesses and consumers from fraudulent financial networks and fostering a positive and healthy commercial environment. By advancing capabilities in handling complex graph structures, this project will position Australia as a leader in the rapidly growing global graph analytics market.

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

Functional Panel Data Analysis: Harnessing Big Data for Society Category: Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) Research

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

Philosophical Foundations of Mechanistic Understanding in AI Category: Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) Research

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

Reliable and Efficient Massive Long Range Connectivity Category: Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) Research

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

Reliable and Efficient Massive Long Range Connectivity Category: Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) Research

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

Philosophical Foundations of Mechanistic Understanding in AI Category: Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) Research

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

Optimising and leveraging technology to improve medication safety Category: Medical Research

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

Paradigm-changing strategies to reduce global asthma mortality and... Category: Medical Research

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

Ribbon Cable Connectivity of the Carotid Body: Insights for Selective... Category: Medical Research

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

Paradigm-changing strategies to reduce global asthma mortality and... Category: Medical Research

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

Cell type and organelle specific identification of molecular mechanisms... Category: Medical Research