UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Measuring individual and group performance in collaborative problem solving. This project aims to develop performance measures of individuals and groups completing collaborative problem-solving tasks. The project plans to draw on new research in online assessment of collaborative problem solving across curricular domains. Outcomes may include new psychometric models taking into account differences in student ability within groups and the effect on student and group performance of the curriculum domain in which the task is embedded. The benefits include a better understanding of the measurement and improvement of group work. Policy extensions beyond the classroom may lead to a workforce better equipped to solve problems collaboratively. Field of research: 1303 - Specialist Studies In Education

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Islam, Law and the State in the Philippines. Using the Philippines as a case study, the project plans to offer insights into a question that is of global significance but also of direct relevance to Australia: how Muslim minorities use sharî’a in their search for legitimacy and identity and the role of conflict in that process. It also plans to explore their opposition to the legal systems of modern nation states. The project aims to provide a thorough contemporary description of both the state system for the application of Islamic law in the Philippines and alternative systems developed by Muslim minorities who have used violence in their efforts to secede from that state, and have threatened regional security. Field of research: 1801 - Law

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Evolution on the edge: a model system for evolution on invasion fronts. This project aims to develop a shared experimental platform, using the well-studied ecological model, Daphnia, to test emergent predictions about evolution on invasion fronts. Evolution happens rapidly on invasion fronts, accelerating the speed and potentially the damage caused by an invasion. By manipulating invasions through an experimental landscape, the project aims to answer currently infeasible questions, including whether pathogens become more virulent as they spread, and whether evolutionary trade-offs place limits on spread rate. This work would dramatically improve our understanding of biological invasions and may have implications for the management of phenomena ranging from emergent diseases to invasive pests and malignant growths. Field of research: 0603 - Evolutionary Biology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Changing children’s chances: Exploring pathways to developmental inequities. This project aims to investigate the causes of health and developmental inequities between Australian children. Inequities are increasingly observed in Australian children’s physical health, social and emotional wellbeing, and academic learning. Such inequities are unjust, unnecessary and potentially preventable. This project aims to understand the pathways leading to these inequities by examining the many contexts in which children and their families live and grow. Through a series of innovative analyses using existing data, the project aims to identify potentially modifiable factors at the child, family, school, and community level that contribute to developmental inequities. Understanding of the most promising leverage points for interventions to reduce inequities for Australian children could be used to inform policy. Field of research: 1117 - Public Health and Health Services

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Emotion regulation in daily life: Capturing context and flexibility. This project aims to understand the role of contextual and individual factors in effective emotion regulation in daily life. The ability to manage emotions is central to virtually every aspect of psychosocial functioning and wellbeing. However, because research in this domain has relied heavily on laboratory methods, very little is known about emotion regulation as it naturally occurs in daily life. Using cutting-edge mobile technologies, this project aims to uncover when, and for whom, various forms of emotion regulation are most effective in daily life. Besides a significantly improved scientific understanding of emotion regulation, this project is expected to inform the development of novel person - and situation-specific interventions in the many applied domains involving emotion regulation. Field of research: 1701 - Psychology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Where is the justice? Theorising the legacy of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal. This project seeks to advance theories that explain the social and political effects of international criminal tribunals. It is widely claimed that international tribunals, in addition to providing legal justice, work to enhance the rule of law, respect for human rights and national reconciliation in post-conflict contexts. Taking the Khmer Rouge Tribunal as its case, this project aims to critically analyse such claims by interrogating the non-judicial legacies of documentation, memorialisation and the provision of collective reparations. Knowing more about these key non-judicial legacies and how tribunals enhance the rule of law, human rights and national reconciliation, may help inform the design of tribunals worldwide. Field of research: 1604 - Human Geography

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Explaining species diversity in a fractal world. This project aims to improve our understanding of landscape-scale patterns of species diversity, particularly invertebrates. A central question in ecology asks how habitat patchiness interacts with dispersal abilities to determine species diversity. Field tests of hypotheses are lacking due to logistic difficulties in quantifying habitat patchiness and dispersal over landscape scales. A new model proposes that fractals (a clever way of measuring environmental complexity) can capture both habitat patchiness and species' responses. Advances in river ecology have solved the logistic problems and will allow tests to compare the three main hypotheses about species diversity. The project aims to improve information about which tools will provide the best guidance, benefitting the discipline of ecology and conservation managers. Field of research: 0602 - Ecology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Australian labour market adjustment to technology, trade and policy. This project aims to examine how the Australian labour market has adjusted over the past 30 years to several major developments: increased use of computers, growth in international trade and the mining boom, microeconomic reform, and the expansion of higher education. The analysis is designed to encompass the effect on labour market outcomes including workers’ pay, the skill composition of employment, migration flows and individuals’ decisions about acquiring education. Having a richer understanding of how the labour market has adjusted in the past may help policy-makers to infer how adjustment will happen in the future. For example, a better understanding of the effects of new technologies would provide a stronger basis for judging trends in job creation and hence the types of skills and training that will be required in Australia in future years. Field of research: 1402 - Applied Economics

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Enhancing information security management through organisational learning. This project aims to help organisations to protect their information resources from complex and evolving information security threats. This is highly significant for organisations; evidence shows that despite financing information security programs, the incidence of information security breaches is still increasing. To address this issue, the project plans to use a security learning process model which will be refined through a series of action research cycles. The model incorporates security lessons and insights learnt from incidents into routine security practices. By institutionalising lessons learnt from security incidents, organisations may be able to apply more effective and adaptive security defences to their evolving security threat environment. Field of research: 0806 - Information Systems

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Asset Market Interconnectedness and Exotic Options: The Mean Impact Surface. The project intends to develop models to price financial risk more accurately during periods of financial stress and increasing global interconnectedness. Specifically, it plans to develop a new class of latent factor models with time-varying loadings to model the interconnectedness of global financial markets during periods of financial stress. A key feature of the proposed model is the role of second-order conditional moments of the underlying innovation processes in modelling asset return dynamics. The proposed model is characterised by higher order nonlinear structures which are captured graphically by the mean impact surface. The project also plans to develop a new class of tests to detect higher order dependencies among asset returns in the presence of time-varying volatility, and to investigate the implications for constructing portfolios with exotic options to hedge risk during financial crises. Field of research: 1403 - Econometrics

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

The function of the ribbon structure of the Golgi apparatus in vertebrates. The aim of the project is to determine the function of the Golgi ribbon structure in higher order cell functions, including metabolism, cell cycle, and cell polarity in both cultured cells and whole organisms. Understanding of the functions of the Golgi has been restricted to the regulation of glycosylation and membrane transport. However, it is now recognised that the Golgi apparatus feeds into the wiring of a range of cellular networks in higher organisms such as cell polarisation, directed migration, metabolism and autophagy. Vertebrates have evolved mechanisms for joining individual Golgi stacks into a ribbon structure. The relevance of this ribbon structure remains a mystery. The project aims to answer this major question in cell biology. Field of research: 0601 - Biochemistry and Cell Biology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Network modelling nationally important emerging infectious diseases. The project aims to develop decision-support tools for emerging infectious disease outbreaks that build on recent advances in gene sequencing and predictive modelling. Infectious disease transmission depends on the proximity and attributes of infectious and susceptible animals, evolution of the host-pathogen relationship and environmental influences. Recent changes in these have led to a series of major outbreaks with impacts on animal health, productivity and trade. New decision-support tools are required to combine genetic sequences with epidemiological data early in large outbreaks. The intended outcome of the project is that the models developed may enable appropriate and timely intervention and reduce impacts in future outbreaks. Field of research: 0707 - Veterinary Sciences

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Understanding mechanisms of sex programming of cardiovascular development. The goal of this project is to track the influence of sex and sex hormones through crucial lifespan timepoints to define how specific patterns of gene signalling determine adult cardiovascular traits at cell, tissue and systems level. Sexually distinct cardiovascular traits are conserved across mammalian species. Early developmental events are known to be important in influencing later adult characteristics, but how adult cardiovascular functions are ‘programmed’ differently for males and females is not understood. The project aims to uncover the importance of the placenta in regulating foetus exposure to sex steroids and the crucial effects of the pubertal hormone surge in shaping cardiovascular phenotypes of male and female offspring. Field of research: 0606 - Physiology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Algorithms and Software Systems for Management of Software-Defined Clouds. This project seeks to develop technologies for more powerful and lower-cost cloud computing. Cloud computing offers utility-oriented information technology services to users worldwide. Based on pay-as-you-go model, it enables hosting of pervasive applications from consumer, scientific and business domains. However, applications are unable to harness the full power of the cloud due to partial virtualisation and lack of integrated management of compute and network resources of data centres. This project aims to transform cloud computing by developing architectural principles for software-defined clouds; algorithms and policies for integrated allocation of compute and network resources to meet quality-of-service requirements of applications; and a novel software technology for energy-efficient management of software-defined clouds. Field of research: 0805 - Distributed Computing

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Manufacturing consensus: Independence in consensus statements in health. The project plans to conduct the first international systematic inquiry into the value, use and protection of public interest in consensus statements in health. Consensus statements based on scientific evidence are a useful platform to progress policy and practice in an environment of uncertainty. Consensus statements acknowledge both the importance of evidence but also the imperatives for action. However, there is concern that they are inefficient, easily co-opted by interest groups and have changed the way the enterprise of science is perceived. The project aims to help inform future processes for improving the incorporation of evidence in policy and practice in a way that balances pragmatic, scientific and public concerns. Field of research: 1117 - Public Health and Health Services

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

The role of immune cells in controlling blood flow. The project aims to increase our understanding of how neurons in the central nervous system alter blood flow to meet their metabolic needs. Tight control of the retinal vasculature is crucial for maintaining normal vision. Unlike most blood vessels in the body, those in the retina and brain receive no direct neural control. Rather, they rely on support cells to communicate the needs of neurons. This project aims to examine whether resident immune cells called microglia regulate blood vessels in response to neural activity. This knowledge would improve our understanding of how blood vessels are controlled in the retina and brain. The results may guide the development of novel ways of examining blood vessel function. Field of research: 1109 - Neurosciences

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Macroeconomic Consequences of Macroprudential Policy. This project aims to investigate the macroeconomic consequences of macroprudential policies and to provide robust, empirically-based advice to policy-makers about how they should be conducted. The global financial crisis motivated many nations to introduce new policies – known as macroprudential policies – with the explicit goal of maintaining financial stability. Important components of the project include estimation of a multisector small open economy model with interactions between the financial sector and the rest of the macroeconomy and development of new methods to evaluate these policies. Assessing the sensitivity of the performance of macroprudential policies to variations in key dimensions of the model is another important aspect. Field of research: 1402 - Applied Economics

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Learning Deep Semantics for Automatic Translation between Human Languages. This project seeks to integrate deep linguistics and deep learning to improve translation quality. The modern world relies increasingly on automatic translation of human languages to deal with billions of documents. Current translation systems struggle with complex texts and often produce misleading or incoherent outputs. Furthermore, they translate sentences independently and ignore their overall document-wide context. This project seeks to address these issues by developing a new approach using semantics – the underlying meaning of the text – to drive translation, both as discrete structures and continuous representations learned via deep learning. This may improve translation quality, thereby improving automatic translation for end-users. Field of research: 0801 - Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Nanoelectromechanical Mass Spectrometry with Molecular Imaging. This project aims to develop new technology to enable simultaneous measurement of the mass and conformation of single molecules. Mass spectrometry and high-resolution microscopy are independent analytical tools used widely to characterise the chemical and physical properties of molecules. This project aims to develop new technology based on advanced nanoelectromechanical systems that combines the capabilities of these complementary instruments. This would enable synchronous measurement of molecular mass and conformation with nanometre resolution. In contrast to current mass spectrometry, this technology could be operated in fluid and detect neutral species. This significant change in capability could be applied to advance biological and medical research. Field of research: 1007 - Nanotechnology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Extremely lightweight and superelastic cellular materials. This project aims to synthesise a new generation of extremely lightweight, superelastic yet mechanically robust graphene-based cellular materials, develop new strategies to strengthen and functionalise them with other functional polymers or nanoparticles, and explore new techniques to characterise their unique mechanical, electrical and thermal properties for a range of potential applications. The new knowledge obtained would significantly advance our understanding of extremely lightweight and multifunctional cellular materials as well as graphene-based bulk materials. Project outcomes are expected to help generate high value-added technological applications from natural graphite. Field of research: 0912 - Materials Engineering

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Genetic rescue, restoration and adaptation. This project aims to evaluate a promising but rarely used method of population recovery by genetically rescuing populations of two threatened Australian mammals: the mountain pygmy possum and the eastern barred bandicoot. Despite our best efforts to curb biodiversity loss, extinction rates are increasing and Australia is expected to lose a substantial proportion of its unique endemic fauna over the next 20–50 years. By tracking the phenotypic and underlying genomic changes that occur when a population undergoes a genetic rescue, the project aims to create data of interest to conservation biology. Field of research: 0502 - Environmental Science and Management

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Women, Feminism and Art in Australia since 1970. The project aims are to investigate the impact of feminism on contemporary Australian art and to critically interpret the history of feminism and its influence on the ways in which Australian society views representations of women across cultural differences. Hundreds of women will have the opportunity to contribute to the project, revealing the roles and interactions between gender, race, class and ethnicity. This process is designed to give voice to complex positions, highlighting different interpretations rather than a unified point of view. The project plans to combine the source material collected through the national workshop program with scholarly methodologies to provide a diverse and noisy cultural picture of Australia and its women. Field of research: 1901 - Art Theory and Criticism

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Ultrasound-assisted fabrication of biofunctional materials. The project aims to develop a fundamental understanding of the mechanism involved in the synthetic process in order to control the physical and functional properties of core-shell biomaterials. Biofunctional core-shell materials are of scientific interest due to their potential use in a variety of applications including food manufacturing. Among existing methodologies for the synthesis of core-shell biomaterials, ultrasonic technology offers versatility and a wider choice of core and shell materials possessing specific biofunctionality. The outcomes of this project may include the establishment of a versatile technology for the fabrication of tailor-made biofunctional materials suitable for specific applications. Field of research: 1003 - Industrial Biotechnology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Optimal Policy Design with Entry: A Model of Aggregative Oligopoly Games. This project aims to develop a theory of endogenous market structures using aggregative oligopoly games to engage issues in competition, trade and innovation policy. Effective and innovative policy design is crucial for economic growth and productivity. Policy analysis with endogenous market structures is in need of better tools. The toolkit of aggregative games, in which each player’s profit can be written as a function of own action and an aggregate variable, would greatly simplify the analysis of oligopoly interaction. This would lead to a tractable but general welfare analysis yielding new results. The framework is designed to allow us to examine complex policy questions in a simplified way, accommodating models with heterogeneous players and entry, and generalising models with different types of competition and demand specification. Field of research: 1402 - Applied Economics

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Understanding interglacial diversity. This project intends to improve our understanding of interglacial processes. Interglacials, the relatively brief warm intervals of Quaternary ice-age cycles, have varied significantly over the last 800 000 years in terms of their duration, timing, intensity and complexity. The reason for such diversity has eluded palaeoclimatologists for decades. This is because of the difficulty of dating marine and ice records, which best preserve interglacial histories. The projects plans to compile precisely dated time series of past interglacials that can be linked directly to these records, allowing robust comparisons between interglacial properties and changes in Earth's astronomical parameters. This would advance palaeoclimate theory and provide a new perspective on the future evolution of the climate system. Field of research: 0406 - Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience