UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2019 · 2019-01

Women, task allocations, and advancement in the labour market. This project aims to investigate the origins and labour market consequences of gender differences in willingness to perform low-promotability tasks. The design of practices and institutions that can close gender gaps in the labour market and promote the advancement of the highest quality workforce in organisations requires information about the factors that affect career advancement. This project will study the allocation of tasks that do not enhance prospects for promotion. The project will provide new insights regarding how organisations and the government can design programs to reduce the under-representation of women in leadership positions and in traditionally male-dominated fields. Field of research: 1402 - Applied Economics

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2019 · 2019-01

Unravelling the relationship between food and the brain. This project aims to investigate how highly palatable foods that are high in fat and sugar, interact with the brain to cause their overconsumption. Highly palatable foods cause plasticity in brain reward circuitry in a manner similar to drugs of abuse. Identifying how these "junk" foods interact with reward areas of the brain will explore the neural mechanisms underlying the hedonic nature of appetite. This project will not only inform our understanding of how exposure to these foods can contribute to overeating and obesity, a huge and growing problem in Australia, but will also provide evidence to inform policy options relevant to advertising and marketing of these foods. Field of research: 1701 - Psychology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2019 · 2019-01

Integrable systems from gauge theories. This project aims to construct and describe three important integrable systems and to produce new significant results in representation theory and mathematical physics. The focus of the project is the theory of integrable systems, a breakthrough area in modern mathematics, and it will use tools from geometric representation theory to study the interrelation between geometry and mathematical physics. Originating from string theory, the project will not only provide a deeper understanding of the universe, it will also train young mathematicians and other highly qualified individuals with the potential to make a significant impact to technology, security, and the economy though their specialised skills. Field of research: 0101 - Pure Mathematics

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2019 · 2019-01

Tackling social inequality in Indian schools. This project aims to investigate whether affirmative action education policies can assist in breaking down social inequality. It will do so by exploring the lived outcomes of India’s Right to Education Act, which requires private schools to provide free education for underprivileged children. Based on long-term fieldwork, this project is expected to identify factors that contribute to inclusivity in private schools, and to generate fine-grained data on class contestation. Anticipated outcomes include a deeper understanding of how Indian private schools can be desegregated, new perspectives on the analysis of class globally, and insights into the relationship between the state, the private sector and education as a public good. The project will inform Australian debates about social mobility and education as a public good. Field of research: 1601 - Anthropology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2019 · 2019-01

Elliptic representation theory: the study of symmetries across geometry, algebra and physics. This project aims to study symmetries which control geometry and physics of four-dimensional manifolds. Representation theory is the area in pure mathematics which studies symmetries coming from geometry, algebra, and physics. The expected outcome is new families of quantum algebra, their character formulas, and a solution to an infinite-dimensional moduli problem. This project will further deepen the mathematical knowledge of symmetries, and show unexpected new connections between different areas of pure mathematics and mathematical physics. Field of research: 0101 - Pure Mathematics

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2019 · 2019-01

Inverse problems with partial data. This project aims to use mathematics, in particular the theory of micro-local analysis, to determine the amount of measurements one needs in order to reconstruct an image by some of the tomography methods commonly used in medical imaging. Expected outcomes of this project include showing that an arbitrarily small set of boundary measurements is sufficient to reconstruct the coefficients of various important partial differential equations such as Schrodinger equation, Dirac operators, and Maxwell equations. In addition to providing a theoretical foundation upon which one can build numerical algorithms, this project will also provide the missing link between inverse problems and unique continuation theory. The downstream impact of this research will lead to more efficient and accurate tomography methods which can be implemented in a range of imaging applications. Field of research: 0101 - Pure Mathematics

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2019 · 2019-01

The environmental costs and benefits of special economic zones. This project aims to evaluate the environmental impacts of the spatial concentration of firms. Taking advantage of increasing availability of geo-referenced economic data, the project will evaluate the environmental costs and benefits of policies to promote industrial clusters in China, India, and Colombia. The collected datasets will match trends in firm-level emissions imputed from accounting data to ambient pollution measures derived from ground monitors and satellites. This project will investigate the interactions between economic growth and industrial emissions, and provide recommendations based on a better understanding of whether industrial clusters mitigate or exacerbate local and global emissions from manufacturing. Field of research: 1402 - Applied Economics

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2019 · 2019-01

High performance density-based clustering in parallel environments. This project aims to conduct a comprehensive study on density-based clustering to improve data management in parallel computing environments. Clustering, a fundamental task in data management, is to group a set of objects such that objects in the same group (called a cluster) are more similar to each other than those in other groups in order to simplify retrieval of similar information. Clustering is widely used in many fields including machine learning, pattern recognition, information retrieval, bioinformatics and image analysis. It is expected that the developed clustering techniques will provide significant performance improvements in industry sectors where decisions are made based on clustering data analytics, such as the sectors of finance, renewable energy and artificial intelligence. Field of research: 0806 - Information Systems

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2019 · 2019-01

Early stress experiences and stress resilience in pigs. Animal stress has substantial implications on animal productivity, health and welfare of farm animals and thus farm profitability. This project aims to examine the stress resilience in pigs. Modern pig farming is a major source of food, providing substantial nutritional, social and economic benefits in Australia and worldwide. Animal welfare is of increasing concern to the public, consumers and pork producers, and stress vulnerability is an animal health and production problem in the life of the commercial pig. This project will generate new knowledge on early life management to endow stress resilience in pigs, with expected benefits for animal welfare, farm productivity and profitability. Field of research: 0608 - Zoology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2019 · 2019-01

The oxygenation of Earth’s early marine ecosystems. This project aims to map out the complex evolution of the Earth’s ocean ecosystems and oxygenation using marine carbonates. The oxygenation of Earth’s surface is one of the most profound processes to shape the planet, affecting all biological and geological systems. However, uncertainties remain in the timing of oxygenation and how it relates to the evolution of life. This project will develop our understanding of how Earth has remained habitable through significant intervals of environmental change. Using the geology of Australia, and elsewhere, this project is expected to derive the oxygenation evolution of ancient seawater and its effect on reef ecosystems during critical intervals of Earth’s history. Field of research: 0403 - Geology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2019 · 2019-01

Novel green scalable chemical peptide synthesis and enzyme immobilization. The Project aims to address the critical issue of developing green processes for the chemical production of peptides including on an industrial scale. It will use unique, biocompatible solid supports that have been invented by our partner SpheriTech Ltd together with other reagents to allow synthesis to be conducted in water rather than toxic organic solvents. Expected outcomes of the Project include an international partnership in highly efficient environmentally-friendly assembly of peptides and of their analogues by both solid phase synthesis and immobilized enzyme-mediated ligation. The clear benefit will be the first novel, water-based, scalable green synthesis of peptides as biological probes and potential therapeutic agents. Field of research: 0304 - Medicinal and Biomolecular Chemistry

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2019 · 2019-01

Task-centric Synthesis for Wearable Assistive Robots. Wearable Assistive Robots, designed to be worn on the human body, show tremendous potentials to provide what the wearer lacks in performing physically challenging tasks, such as seen in manufacturing, agricultural and healthcare industries. However, fundamental challenges still prevent the realisation of such benefits in the practical settings outside the laboratory. This project addresses these challenges by establishing (1) a systematic design approach for wearable robots to achieve the intended task while optimising other relevant considerations, such as human factors and the practical bulk of the robot; and (2) a novel control and interaction strategy to accommodate the variations in realistic living and working environments. Field of research: 0913 - Mechanical Engineering

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2019 · 2019-01

Illuminating genomic dark matter to develop new interventions for parasites. This project aims to unravel the molecular basis of parasitism using leading-edge post-genomics approaches. This research expects to explore genomic ‘dark matter’ in the genome to discover how parasites survive and cause disease. The resultant shift in the understanding of molecular mechanisms and processes governing parasitism will lead to new ways of disrupting the intricate parasite-host relationship, which will translate into innovative technologies or products to ameliorate the burden of parasites in livestock animals. Expected socioeconomic benefits include lifting Australia’s scientific knowledge base, reputation in biology and biotechnology, livestock production and investment in translational research. Field of research: 0699 - Other Biological Sciences

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2019 · 2019-01

Phylogenetic methods for genome surveillance of microbial pathogens. This project aims to develop phylogenetic approaches to harness the potential evolution of bacterial and virus pathogens data and to improve early detection of infectious outbreaks. Genome surveillance programs consist in routine sequencing of particular organisms to track their evolution over time. Such programs currently exist for important bacterial and virus pathogens. This project expects to develop computational methods to improve our understanding of pathogen outbreak emergence and infectious spread using genome data. This project will expand our knowledge base and research capability in the evolution and epidemiology of infectious agents, and aid in the prevention and control strategies of infectious disease benefiting the research priorities of food and health. Field of research: 0603 - Evolutionary Biology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2019 · 2019-01

High-fidelity, long lasting, single-neuron brain machine interfaces. The ability to conduct stable, high resolution recording and stimulation within the brain is critically important to the development of technologies that interface electronics with the human body. Devices that interface directly with the brain are increasingly important in brain research, medical monitoring, treatment of neurological diseases or the enormous increase in brain-machine interface technologies. Carbon Cybernetics have developed a high-density neural recording and stimulation array that employs fine carbon fibres as the electrode material. We aim to show that this array can record from the brain indefinitely, without loosing signal quality, and the same array can be used to stimulate the brain to recreate memories or sensations. Field of research: 0903 - Biomedical Engineering

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2019 · 2019-01

The Systems Biochemistry of Adaptation in Cellular Protein Networks. A living cell must process and interpret a host of diverse signals using a complex network of interacting proteins inside the cell. The detailed molecular mechanisms by which cells exhibit adaptation to these signals remains a fundamental question in biology. This project aims to develop a novel mathematical framework for analysing the capacity of intracellular protein interactions to contribute to cellular adaptation, along with a novel methodology for validating mathematical models against experimental data. These innovations offer a completely fresh approach to identifying and modulating the adaptive capacities of living cells, which may contribute to overcoming the problem of drug resistance in future therapeutic development. Field of research: 0102 - Applied Mathematics

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2019 · 2019-01

Restoring public trust in charities: reforming governance and enforcement. This project aims to undertake a comprehensive and comparative investigation of governance and enforcement in the charitable sector in Australia. Public trust in the charitable sector has been damaged by governance failures, particularly in religious contexts, exacerbated by the sector’s complex and incoherent governance system. As yet, there has been limited academic consideration or empirical analysis of the effectiveness of the governance and regulatory framework of the sector or concrete reform proposals. This project aims to undertake comparative analysis and empirical research of these aspects, and to develop proposals for effective law and policy reform. This is expected to strengthen and maximise the sector’s capacity to contribute to the social and economic life in Australia. Field of research: 1801 - Law

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2019 · 2019-01

Gender equality in Australia: impact on social, economic and health outcomes. This project aims to develop an innovative, Australian-specific multidimensional measure of gender equality. The project’s focus on conceptualising and measuring gender equality in the Australian context will address a significant barrier to the development, implementation and evaluation of targeted gender equality programs and policies. By partnering with government and industry representatives, this project will develop a baseline from which programs and policies can be measured. The project will also establish evidence about the effects of gender equality in relation to economic, social and wellbeing outcomes. Field of research: 1603 - Demography

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2019 · 2019-01

Dark matter interactions. This project aims to address the problem of the existence of cosmological dark matter. The interactions of dark matter particles with regular matter will be investigated using complementary techniques which combine information from particle experiments and astrophysical observations. The expected outcomes include major theoretical advances, which will provide an important guide for future experimental searches, and contribute to the development of a world-class dark matter research capacity in Australia. Significant benefits include high level training of students and early career researchers, contributing to a highly skilled STEM workforce. Field of research: 0202 - Atomic, Molecular, Nuclear, Particle and Plasma Physics

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2019 · 2019-01

Scaling-up the impact of voluntary sustainability standards. How can global sustainability regulators, such as Fairtrade or the Rainforest Alliance, more effectively tackle large-scale regulatory problems of deforestation, land use conflict and recurring labour rights violations? This project will address this question by analysing and evaluating innovative regulatory schemes that were designed to have broad, sector- or jurisdiction-wide impacts on critical social and environmental problems in South-East Asia and Latin America. A new framework will be developed to strengthen the effectiveness and accountability of sustainability regulation - benefiting workers, businesses and the environment and enabling the Australian public to participate in more sustainable systems of production and consumption. Field of research: 1606 - Political Science

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2019 · 2019-01

Conceptualising and measuring digital emotion regulation. This project aims to develop the theory and supporting research tools to investigate how, where, and why people engage in digital emotion regulation. Individuals often use digital technologies to shape their emotions, yet social norms often cast such technology use as disrespectful or distracting. The discrepancy between the practice and perception of digital emotion regulation may be due to the lack of a systematic understanding of this behaviour. The project will inform the debate about technology use and its impact on work, education and interpersonal relationships. Additionally, the created knowledge will inform policy-makers, designers, and end-users about how technology use is perceived, as well as effective use of technology in everyday settings. Field of research: 0806 - Information Systems

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2019 · 2019-01

Trafficking inside the cell for effective immunity. This project aims to investigate how cargo is trafficked to the right destination inside cells. The project will investigate the trafficking routes and the critical machinery required. This project is expected to generate fundamental new knowledge in the areas of cell biology and immunology. Expected outcomes of this Project include scholarly publications and highly-trained personnel in cell biology and immunology. This project will provide significant benefits such as advances to fundamental knowledge, training for higher research degree students, opportunities for the biotechnology sector and strengthened international (research collaborations. Field of research: 0601 - Biochemistry and Cell Biology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2019 · 2019-01

Market Design for the Reallocation of Land. This fellowship uses laboratory and lab-in-the-field experiments to explores how market design can be used to develop combinatorial exchanges that allow participants to exchange packages of land. Allowing for package bids can facilitate trade in situations where owning one piece of land increases the value of adjacent land and where assembling contiguous pieces of land is important. Combinatorial exchanges have the potential to increase the productivity of agriculture land in both Australia and developing countries, encourage urban redevelopment, and help the government secure land for infrastructure and environmental protection in a cost-effective way. Field of research: 1402 - Applied Economics

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2019 · 2019-01

De-risking new surfactant and polymer classes in personal care formulations. Personal care products are almost completely reliant on palm oil feedstocks for the surfactants or soaps that provide cleansing and conditioning. Yet, there is considerable risk in moving to alternative feedstocks for new surfactant formulations, where the design rules based in fundamental colloid science do not yet exist. In collaboration with world leading formulation expertise, this project aims to use a combination of high-throughput microfluidic platforms to direct more detailed colloidal, surface and scattering techniques to drive mechanistic studies to link microstructure to formulation properties. This will lead to the design rules needed to control the synergistic interactions between surfactants and polymers in these formulations. Field of research: 0306 - Physical Chemistry (Incl. Structural)

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2019 · 2019-01

Next-generation genomic resources to tackle parasitic diseases of animals. The revolution in genomics provides unprecedented opportunities to tackle destructive parasitic diseases affecting billions of animals worldwide. Through a synergy of leading-edge technologies and a strong partnership with BGI International, this project aims to deliver major conceptual advances in the understanding of parasitism; an unparalleled skills-base in genomics and bioinformatics; innovative new molecular technologies; and new treatments and diagnostic tests as biotechnological outcomes. This leap forward in Australia will substantially enhance the global profile of parasitology research, training and employment opportunities for early career scientists, and improve access to international research funding and networks. Field of research: 0707 - Veterinary Sciences