Flinders University

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2018 · 2018-01

Tracing connection and change in deep-time landscapes. This project aims to develop new insights into Australia’s past by telling the story of Aboriginal people’s long-term connections and changing relationships with prominent places. Building on new discoveries in the northwest arid zone, the project will conduct archaeological research at landforms in the eastern Pilbara. The project will analyse rock art and excavated materials from key sites to learn how they acted as beacons through time to structure and shape people's movements, encounters and connections with others. This is expected to promote Indigenous connection with cultural heritage, help facilitate cultural education programs in remote areas, and offer new insights into the relationship between cultural heritage and Indigenous health and well-being. Field of research: 2101 - Archaeology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2018 · 2018-01

Economic complexity as a driver of innovation and smart specialisation. This project aims to determine how economic complexity can drive innovation and smart specialisation and how industry can be supported to transition to a more competitive economy. With the downturn of traditional manufacturing, innovation is crucial to create new industries and the jobs of the future. The expected outcomes of this project include high-value industry intelligence in support of product diversification. This should provide significant benefits, such as increased international competitiveness, exports, revenue, and economic growth. Field of research: 1402 - Applied Economics

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2018 · 2018-01

Promoting engagement with life in older adulthood. This project aims to examine engagement in meaningful activities among older adults. Increasing older adults' engagement could promote direct benefits for social integration, well-being and better quality of life. The project is expected to generate new knowledge on programs that effectively promote engagement, as well as evaluating a new tailored approach to promoting engagement that aligns with individuals' unique strengths, capabilities and values. The findings aim to provide benefits for community organisations and aged care service providers adopting innovative approaches to promoting ageing well. Field of research: 1701 - Psychology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2017 · 2017-01

Contemporary Indigenous relationships to rock art. This project aims to understand the roles and meanings of archaeological heritage in the lives of Indigenous people today. Archaeological investigations typically rely on objects, images and places as evidence of past human activity, but these "artefacts" could also tell us about present-day relationships between people and their archaeological heritage. The project will examine how Aboriginal people from the south-western Gulf of Carpentaria engage with rock art, one of the most visual aspects of the archaeological record. By focussing on the cultural re-working of relationships to rock art, this project aims to provide new understandings to inform national and Indigenous futures, and support progressive advancements in land and sea management. Field of research: 2101 - Archaeology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2017 · 2017-01

Adolescents becoming delinquent online. The project aims to provide a longitudinal criminological study of adolescent Internet use in the world. The Internet is a pervasive influence in young people's lives and is increasingly viewed as a significant factor in the incidence of criminal activities including cyber-bullying, computer hacking and radicalisation. Using survey and interview methods over four years, the project will study how adolescents use the Internet daily, and particularly how this may enable or encourage delinquency on and off-line. This project is expected to benefit national security, law enforcement and crime prevention and enhance public safety and social cohesion. Field of research: 1602 - Criminology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2017 · 2017-01

Visualising venues in Australian live performance research. This project aims to construct a two- and three-dimensional visual interface and digital curatorial space, improving the existing AusStage open-access live performance database. This new interface, ‘Phase 6’, will create visualisation infrastructure, map relationships between Australian artists, audiences and venues, and collaborate with leading performing arts collections to foster compatible models and projects. Expected benefits are better understanding of the physical parameters of live performance and improved decision-making for metropolitan and regional communities about managing theatre sites and venues. Field of research: 1904 - Performing Arts and Creative Writing

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2017 · 2017-01

Psychosocial mechanisms of maladaptive online gaming. This project aims to produce a new model of the cognitive, affective and social mechanisms that underlie maladaptive online gaming. Maladaptive online gaming is a major health threat, especially for young people, but how it develops and persists is unknown. Prevailing models fail to account for the important role of player strategy and skill, motivations and beliefs and identity formation in online gaming. This project will identify the mechanisms that influence the nature and severity of maladaptive online gaming presentations. Project outcomes are expected to develop primary prevention strategies and intervention measures to reduce maladaptive gaming in diverse populations. Field of research: 1701 - Psychology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2017 · 2017-01

Environmentally benign polymer solar cells. The project aims to prepare polymer solar cells, by developing water-compatible conjugated materials for the active layer. This technology would be cost-efficient and not use environmentally harmful solvents. The project would achieve aqueous compatibility of these hydrophobic molecules through substitution and careful positioning of functional groups. Fabrication processes will be optimised to incorporate these materials into solar cells, with a focus on controlling the morphology of the active material. Determining the relationships between conjugated molecular design and cell performance should provide a new direction in solar-cell technology. Field of research: 0912 - Materials Engineering

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2017 · 2017-01

Rock art as a proxy for environmental change. The project aims to identify fauna in rock art in the Warddeken Indigenous Protected Area, NT, an area with no Pleistocene palaeontological fauna record. Rock art in Arnhem Land preserves information about past fauna species unavailable archaeologically beyond the Late Holocene. This repertoire has been vastly under-exploited as a source of data about changing human-animal relationships past and present. The research will augment zoological methods with insights from Aboriginal people. Securely identifying and dating fauna species in rock art is expected to enhance understanding past human-animal relationships. Potential benefits include enhancing international significance of Australia’s rock art and informing debates on megafauna extinctions, climate, and environmental change in Australia. Field of research: 2101 - Archaeology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2017 · 2017-01

Reverse engineering nature: metal extraction through mineral replacement. This project aims to find new methods of copper recovery from low grade copper ores, which are currently uneconomic to mine. In nature, at the top of ore deposits and just below the water-table, is a region known as the supergene zone. Here mild oxidizing reactions take place causing primary ore minerals such as chalcopyrite to be replaced by more copper-rich, less refractory minerals. These processes are driven by dissolution re-precipitation reactions (CDR reactions) and in many CDR reactions, the reaction mechanism, rather than intensive properties such as pressure and temperature, control the nature of the products and the overall reaction process. This project will explore the mechanism and controls on these reactions to see if they can be utilized in the mining industry to economically extract copper from low grade ores. Field of research: 0402 - Geochemistry

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2017 · 2017-01

Beyond Empire: Transnational religious networks and liberal cosmopolitanisms. This project aims to study religion as a dimension of international affairs between 1860 and 1950. It will examine the contribution of faith-based activity, networking and thought to global governance and peace building institutionalised in the United Nations, universal human rights and humanitarianism that shaped the second half of the twentieth century. The project will explore the emergence of these faith-based cosmopolitanisms at the interstices of multi-faith, multi-cultural and multi-racial webs of connection and their significance for Australian, regional and global history. This could show how secular and inter-faith activisms can produce cosmopolitan visions of practical co-existence. Field of research: 2103 - Historical Studies

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2017 · 2017-01

Sustaining effective educational initiatives. This project aims to investigate how educational initiatives can be sustained over the long term. Schools and early childhood and care services deliver programmes to develop students' social and emotional wellbeing, promote mental health, prevent bullying and address eating disorders. However, effective initiatives often fade away when start-up resources run out. This project will review models of implementation and provide exemplars of good practice to better enable sustainability at all phases of implementation, evaluation and long-term maintenance of educational initiatives. Field of research: 1303 - Specialist Studies In Education

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2017 · 2017-01

Target detection in three-dimensional optic flow. This project aims to understand the behavioural, neural, and computational mechanisms underlying the visualisation of moving targets. Insects have poorer eyesight and smaller brains than humans, but can chase small targets at high speed. This project will use intracellular electrophysiology, information content analysis and model development to decipher the underlying neural tuning mechanisms of hoverflies, which could suggest advanced computational optimisation and miniaturisation. The project may generate algorithms for rapid and reliable information extraction from large, noisy inputs, useful for developing unmanned vehicles and in Big Data analysis. The results could be useful in developing anti-collision control systems in vehicles using less computational power. Field of research: 1109 - Neurosciences

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2017 · 2017-01

Structural diverse nanocarbon using continuous flow thin film microfluidics. This project aims to develop continuous flow thin film microfluidic device technology to gain access to nano-carbon material or carbon nano-material. This project will exploit high shear stress in dynamic thin films, field effects, including Faraday waves, plasma, magnetic, laser and LED irradiation. The technology is expected to allow both scalable ‘top down’ synthesis of graphene scrolls, laterally slicing carbon nanotubes and composites of different types of carbon, and ‘bottom up’ synthesis of nano-carbon from natural saccharides. By incorporating sustainability metrics including scalability, renewable feed-stocks and minimising waste, this research is expected to be attractive to industry and minimise the effect on the environment. Field of research: 1007 - Nanotechnology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2017 · 2017-01

Vortex fluidic mediated chemical transformations. This project aims to develop a continuous flow vortex fluidic device (VFD) for chemical and biochemical transformations. Vortex fluidic devices should lead to cleaner and faster ways of preparing complex molecules. Depending on the VFD’s operating parameters, including applying field effects such as Faraday waves, plasmas and light sources, reactions could have higher yields and selectivity than traditional batch processing. This will be translated into molecular assembly line syntheses in a single unit or a series. Such syntheses should provide a versatile toolbox for molecular transformations, under continuous flow conditions where scalability is addressed upfront. This will be attractive to industry and minimise effects on the environment. Field of research: 0305 - Organic Chemistry

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2017 · 2017-01

The deep history of Sea Country: Climate, sea level and culture. This project aims to investigate the records of the now-submerged Pilbara coast (50,000 to 7000 years ago). Nearly a third of Australia’s landmass was drowned after the last ice age, and sea-level change displaced generations of people. Submerged landscape archaeology will help reveal past sea-level rise, population resilience, mobility and diet. The project integrates cultural and environmental studies and material analysis, and adapts a method from the world’s only confirmed submarine middens. It will use marine and aerial survey techniques to investigate physical and cultural submerged landscapes. This project expects to influence heritage and environmental management and the marine heritage sector. Field of research: 2101 - Archaeology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2017 · 2017-01

A molecular/morphological view of animal evolution based on marsupials. This project aims to provide high-accuracy methods of evolutionary inference extendable to nearly all other organisms. It aims to research the evolution of animal diversity and calibrate evolutionary timescales on a case study of marsupial mammals, and differentiate between internal and external factors that govern animals’ ability to adapt and diversify. The project will collate a large, open-source three-dimensional catalogue of the evolving marsupial skeleton, which could provide a detailed and publicly accessible narrative of the evolutionary past and future adaptability of Australian marsupials. The proposed development of methods to quantify the effect of past and present biodiversity crises (e.g. environmental change) is expected to inform longer-term conservation planning. Field of research: 0603 - Evolutionary Biology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Preventing biological growth – a new generation anti-biofouling coatings. The project aims to improve anti-biofouling technology by developing a ‘smart and green’ coating that requires no toxic biocides and makes use of copper already present in the water. Biofouling is the unwanted attachment and growth on surfaces in water; it causes significant problems on ships and in drinking water systems, and damages infrastructure and capital investment. Biofouling also carries a significant risk of spreading diseases and environmental damage through the introduction of invasive marine species. Existing coatings release highly toxic substances into the water, causing untold environmental damage. This project offers a single, comprehensive solution for all of the above problems. Field of research: 0912 - Materials Engineering

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

The molecular interactome and functions of circular RNAs. This project aims to identify the functions of circular RNAs, the most contemporary and enigmatic family of RNA molecules. While their abundance suggests they are important, it is unclear how they function at the molecular level. This project aims to delineate circular RNA function by systematically identifying their interacting partners at the DNA, RNA and protein levels, the so-called molecular interactome. This project will reprogram embryonic stem cells to model developmental processes and is designed to validate circular RNA research. Together, the benefits include a higher-quality research workforce by mentoring students, refining fundamental tenets of RNA biology and may extend to improving health in the long-term. Field of research: 0601 - Biochemistry and Cell Biology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Policy orientation of non-health sectors to social determinants of health. This project aims to advance understanding of how Australian government policies in four sectors (justice, environment, planning, and industry) are oriented to action on social determinants of health equity (SDHE), including Indigenous health. Evidence shows that government policy in all sectors affects health. The World Health Organization and the United Nations have called for whole-of-government approaches to SDHE. The project plans to apply theory to understand how policy values and strategies in the selected sectors provide for or present barriers to this approach. Expected project outcomes will produce evidence for policy-makers on how to strengthen policy coherence across sectors to address SDHE more effectively in order to promote Australian health and reduce health inequities. Field of research: 1117 - Public Health and Health Services

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

The Archaeology of the Queensland Native Mounted Police. This project plans to conduct a systematic archaeological study of the Queensland Native Mounted Police. While previous studies have focused on policing activities as revealed by the historical record, this project will combine material, oral and historical evidence from a range of sites across central and northern Queensland to understand more fully the activities, lives and legacies of the Native Police. This project aims to provide an alternative lens through which to understand the nature of frontier conflict, initiate new understandings of the Aboriginal and settler experience, and contribute to global studies of Indigenous responses to colonialism. Field of research: 2101 - Archaeology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Out of China? Australia's earliest endemic jawed vertebrate faunas. This project will seek new fossil discoveries from Australian Devonian sediments to address questions of the origins, diversification and biogeographical dispersal of early jawed vertebrates. In particular, there is the potential to test or refine recent evolutionary hypotheses based on fossil finds from the Siluro-Devonian of southern China which served as a likely point of origin for several key vertebrate groups. Likely finds include fishes that test dermal bone-homologies between osteichthyans and placoderms, jawless fishes that may unveil details of the origin of jaws, and calibration of paleoatmospheric models via the observed size of Early Devonian fossil fishes. Field of research: 0403 - Geology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Attentional asymmetries for navigation in healthy and clinical groups. This project plans to investigate how differences in attentional capacity between the left and right sides of the brain affect the ability to walk or manoeuvre vehicles between obstacles. To navigate our environment and avoid obstacles, we need to attend to stimuli that are important and ignore those that are not. Unfortunately, the brain’s attentional capacity is limited, which can result in errors and collisions. Using the techniques of cognitive neuroscience, the project aims to provide a better understanding of the cognitive and neural mechanisms that govern attention in an applied setting. It expects to identify the factors that exacerbate lapses in attention and collisions. The effect of everyday impediments such as mobile phones, alcohol and fatigue will be investigated together with means of minimising these attentional lapses and improving safety. Field of research: 1701 - Psychology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Equipment for Advanced Surface Analysis. Equipment for advanced surface analysis: This project aims to establish equipment for advanced surface analysis to provide Australian researchers with cutting-edge capabilities in surface science. Vital chemical and physical reactions often occur at surfaces. Understanding these reactions requires analysis of the composition and electronic structure of the surface and near-surface regions. Neutral impact collision ion scattering spectroscopy and inverse photoemission spectroscopy measure concentration depth profiles and electronic structure. The depth resolution of the profiles is in the order of the distance between two neighbouring atoms in a solid or liquid and is the best currently achievable. The equipment providing these capabilities is expected to support research with applications in photovoltaics, catalysis, colloid surfaces and interfaces, coatings and nanocomposites. Field of research: 0204 - Condensed Matter Physics

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

The Drumbeat of Human Evolution: Climate Proxies from Rockshelter Sediments. This project aims to trial new techniques for extracting environmental information from the sediments contained within archaeological rock shelters. Homo sapiens evolved during a period of dramatic climate variation, which almost certainly influenced human development and global dispersal. High-resolution climate records are rarely available for Pleistocene archaeological sites and so it is challenging to quantify the degree of behavioural response to environmental change. This project aims to apply novel geophysical and geochemical techniques to provide new climate records for Indonesia and South Africa, facilitate correlation with other climate archives and thus create a means of directly evaluating the degree of environmental influence on human behavioural evolution. Field of research: 2101 - Archaeology