MONASH UNIVERSITY

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

ARC Research Hub for Infrastructure Net Zero Category: Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) Research

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

ARC Research Hub for Infrastructure Net Zero Category: Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) Research

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

The next great escape – how does mtDNA become extracellular? Category: Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) Research

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

The next great escape – how does mtDNA become extracellular? Category: Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) Research

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

Asterix and the Making of Modern France: The Creation of a National Myth Category: Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) Research

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

Asterix and the Making of Modern France: The Creation of a National Myth Category: Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) Research

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

Dynamics of calcitonin family receptor activation Category: Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) Research

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

An investigation into metabolite-mediated immunity Category: Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) Research

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

An investigation into metabolite-mediated immunity Category: Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) Research

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

New ion-pair species-driven strategies for complex molecule synthesis Category: Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) Research

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

New ion-pair species-driven strategies for complex molecule synthesis Category: Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) Research

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

A near-space surveillance capability for natural disasters Category: Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) Research

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

A near-space surveillance capability for natural disasters Category: Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) Research

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Engineering the Future: Safety Risk Intelligence in Early Childhood. Knowing how safety risk intelligence develops and is used in practice has become increasingly important for keeping people safe at work. This study aims to investigate children’s capacity to read their environment for risks, engineer solutions to problems presented, and develop safety risk intelligence. Bringing imagination, play and engineering together in a SeeMore Engineering PlayWorld is an innovative approach for researching safety risk intelligence that offers different insights for pioneering future research in workforce safety. An intended outcome of the project is for robust empirical evidence to be generated; significantly contributing to the development of safety standards and evidence-informed practice for engineering education. Field of research: 3901 - Curriculum and Pedagogy Little is known about how children develop the capacity to read their environment for risks and respond safely (‘safety risk intelligence’), particularly in engineered contexts such as farm machinery, sheds and dams. Research shows that children as young as 5 can develop road safety awareness, but we do not know beyond this area. The project extends this understanding; bringing in partnership the Monash PlayLab’s Conceptual PlayWorld model of teaching and KIDS Foundation’s SeeMore safety education program. A safety risk intelligence intervention program will be developed, leveraging infrastructure (e.g. mobile classroom, app, resources), where children recreate their real-life environment digitally, and reinforce understandings of safe and unsafe scenarios. With injuries being a leading cause of death among youth and a major cause of hospitalisation among children, this research makes a step change in supporting children to know how to keep safe, thereby potentially reducing injuries, and affording immediate and long-term economic benefits for Australians. Results will inform best practice to support children in Victoria, and be scaled up, offering purpose designed resources and an evidence-informed program to support stakeholders nationally. Our partnership ensures that evidence-informed knowledge, resources, and infrastructure will be delivered at scale, positioning Australia as a leader in safety risk intelligence in early childhood.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Customized advanced aluminum alloys for additive manufacturing. This project aims to establish the comprehensive profiles of Al-Mn-Sc alloys specifically for 3D printing by advancing their alloy design, processing and mechanical performance. The project expects to generate new knowledge in the area of aluminium alloys utilising additive manufacturing. Expected outcomes of this project include enhanced capacity of industrial partner to deliver a variety of superior aluminium powder alloys to 3D-print diverse products for different application scenarios. This should provide significant benefits, such as improving industrial partner’s competitiveness, boosting economy and environmental sustainability and enhancing Australia’s international standing in cutting-edge research on advanced manufacturing. Field of research: 4014 - Manufacturing Engineering The project aims to create a class of superior 3D-printed aluminium materials for use in industries such as transportation. Currently, the commercially-available 3D-printed aluminium alloys are limited, making it challenging to meet the rapidly growing demands from the industry to make important parts for cars, trains, and airplanes. This project will help to broaden the types of commercial aluminium alloys for use in these various applications. This will be highly beneficial for end-users who need diverse high-quality aluminium powder for 3D printing to make competitive and customizable products for their customers. By being able to make customizable parts, end-users can save time and money, while also having the ability to create more intricate and customized designs. The project includes a partnership between industry and research which will directly lead to adoption of the research outcomes into local manufacturing. This will lead to economic benefits through better products, and help boost innovation and the economy in Australia.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Victorian Facility for Atom-Scale Quantum Microscopy and Manufacturing. This proposal aims to establish a readily accessible facility that will enable atomic-scale measurements of quantum phenomena in materials that are currently unavailable in Victoria. This project expects to generate new knowledge in the area of quantum and functional materials, utilising innovative techniques in microscopy and electronic measurements. Expected outcomes of this project include building capacity for and supporting world-leading research collaborations into novel topological materials, atomically thin materials, quantum matter, and magnetic materials. This should provide significant benefits, such as materials for faster and more efficient generation, storage, transmission and processing of energy and information. Field of research: 5104 - Condensed Matter Physics The proposed project will establish a facility unique to Victoria that will enable a wide variety of new quantum materials to be fabricated and studied with microscopy and electronic measurements at extreme temperatures and magnetic fields. This world-class facility will bridge a research gap in the development of quantum materials, with applications in more efficient and faster information technology, quantum computing and sensing, magnetic data storage, and energy harvesting. The research facility will offer tangible benefit to the Australian people by generating valuable new knowledge in quantum and functional materials, as well as intellectual property which will serve as a foundation for Australian industry in next-generation quantum technologies. Long-term outcomes will likely include multiple economic and societal benefits, including more efficient generation and use of energy, sustainable classical and quantum computation to meet the demand for artificial intelligence, and improved quantum sensing and cryptography for better security. The facility will further be used for training the next generation of physicists and material scientists in the skills they need to grow and support the Advanced Manufacturing, Energy, and Quantum sectors. Research outcomes of the facility will be promoted via public science websites aimed at a broad audience, along with workshops that involve industry in order to forge new partnerships to develop these new quantum technologies.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

A platform for in situ structural biology. This project aims to establish an Australian facility for in situ structural biology. The Arctis cryo-plasma focused ion beam will enable cryo-electron microscopy on a large range of samples from bacteria, plants, animal cells, tissues and organs to soft materials. This project expects to reveal new structural information in situ generating knowledge in the fields of microbiology, cell and developmental biology and in bioengineering and materials science. Expected outcomes are fundamental discoveries, training opportunities, international collaborations, and high impact publications. This project should provide significant benefits through underpinning innovation in renewal energy generation and storage, drug delivery, and nanotechnology. Field of research: 3101 - Biochemistry and Cell Biology Previously, structure determination has required analysing targets, such as proteins, in isolation. This means our study of these proteins has been missing a lot of important information – such as their location, compositional diversity as well as the context of their environments. This project will address this gap in our knowledge by establishing a highly advanced “high throughput cryogenic plasma focus ion beam” microscope, to allow the visual study of molecular structures in their real environment inside bacteria, plants, animals, and humans. This microscope will be one of the first of its kind in the world, and will be made open access. Engineers can use it to characterise new materials including solar cells, biomaterials, batteries and building materials, leading to important outcomes such as longer lasting batteries and cheaper manufacturing, making renewable energy more accessible for more Australians. Researchers in the pharmaceutical industry can use it to directly visualise a drug acting on its target inside the cell, facilitating the development of AI-guided drug design and delivery and leading to more targeted medicines with less side effects. This technology will put Australia at the forefront of high-resolution imaging, and the advancements in sustainable energy and drug development stemming from this work will also lead to environmental, health, and economic benefits for all Australians.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Breaking Down Silos: Optimal Aligned Decisions via Forecast Reconciliation. This project aims to develop new forecasting methods, where forecasts are needed at different levels of aggregation, such as store level and total regional demand in retail. This project expects to generate new knowledge in terms of forecasting methods that are robust to extreme events such as supply chain disruptions, while ensuring decisions made by different agents in an organisation are aligned. An interdisciplinary approach, using techniques from mathematical optimisation and statistics will be taken. Expected outcomes include improved forecasting methods placed on a rigorous footing by new theory. This should provide significant benefits, including efficient retail operations and better planning of infrastructure investment in energy. Field of research: 3802 - Econometrics The project concerns forecasting in large organisations, where forecasts are needed at a disaggregate level (e.g. individual retail stores) and an aggregate level (e.g. total sales across all stores supplied by a single warehouse). Ensuring that forecasts of disaggregate data add up to the forecast of aggregate data is critical to ensure that decisions are aligned across the organisation. The project will develop new methods for forecasting that inform decisions to minimise economic costs in an uncertain environment. The research will lead to economic benefits via management of inventories, planning, and risk management reducing costs for businesses and government organisations, across industries including retail, finance and energy. In the case of energy, environmental benefits will also be realised via a more cost effective transition to zero carbon electricity generation. With its emphasis on economic costs, the project will improve forecasting methods already used widely in industry. This existing translation of research into practice has been a consequence of the direct efforts of the researchers, and their development of freely available software implementations of their forecasting methods. Through these established links with industry, as well as a continued commitment to open source software, the new research outcomes of this project have a high likelihood of adoption by the broader Australian and international community.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Women in STEM: The Longer-Term Effects of Teachers. This project aims to understand the impact of teacher attitudes, gender, gender biases and behaviour on student performance in and preference for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects and careers, and the impact of the school environment on teacher gender bias. The project will use exogenous variation to analyse the impact of teachers on student achievement in high stakes exams, effort and aspirations to pursue a STEM career. Expected outcomes include a new understanding of the contribution of teachers to gender differences in STEM. This will benefit Australia that invests significant funding to gender equity initiatives to eliminate barriers for women's participation in STEM, and reduce the gender wage gap. Field of research: 3801 - Applied Economics Research shows that there exist gender gaps in STEM degrees and careers, which contribute to the existing gender pay gaps in Australia and internationally. Central to rectifying these disparities are teachers, who are pivotal in shaping students' life trajectories and formulating their human capital. However, there are significant gaps in this research space that make it difficult to understand and predict how teachers' attitudes, behaviours, and potential biases influence these gaps, impacting students' motivation, effort, and pathways. With significant gender gaps in Australia, better policies are needed to improve students' long-run outcomes and motivate girls to apply to prestigious STEM degrees and occupations. This project will develop new methodologies and test their applications to understand to what extent teachers’ attitudes and behaviours influence the gender gap in STEM studies and careers. The expected outcome and benefit of this project is to inform and design policies to improve long-run outcomes of students, eliminate barriers for women's participation in STEM and reduce the gender wage gap. The translation pathway includes formal submissions to government authorities dealing with the issues of gender and education, media engagement, and stakeholder forums to disseminate research outcomes to a policy audience. The potential future benefits of using these methodologies to support the changes required to address gender gaps in Australia and globally are immense.

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

A molecular approach to unlocking B cell memory potential Category: Medical Research

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

Personalising brain care in preterm babies Category: Medical Research

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Humanizing facultative heterochromatin in the yeast. In all multicellular organisms, cell type-specific genes are maintained repressed, unless their product is needed. The robust gene repression system of multicellular organisms has been completely or partially lost in unicellular organisms. Yeast is a unicellular organism commonly used for fundamental research and biotechnology. This project aims to develop yeast strains that carry similar gene repression machinery as in multicellular organisms. By doing so, the project will allow gaining new knowledge into the way genes are turned off and maintained in a repressed state within cells during countless cell divisions. By generating methods for robust gene control in yeast, this project will also open paths for new biotechnology applications. Field of research: 3105 - Genetics The yeast S. cerevisiae has an astonishing high economic and social value, given its usage for the production of commodities ranging from bread, wine, beer, chocolate and to biofuels. New S. cerevisiae strains of various functionalities are commonly generated through the introduction of new genes, called "transgenes". Transgenes must become active only at the right time in the case of many biotech applications. Yet, S cerevisiae cannot turn off many genes simultaneously and pack them until they are needed to become active again. This is a major bottleneck for the development of advanced biotechnology applications using S cerevisiae. This project aims to generate the first S cerevisiae strains that are capable of packing silenced genes using the same factors that human cells are utilising. By doing so, this project will enable the application of fast and robust yeast genetic approaches for the study of human-gene silencing processes that are otherwise too complicated to study in human cells. The project will strengthen the high reputation of Australia in genetics and transcriptional regulation. This project also aims to allow, for the first time, the engineering of yeast strains with a gene expression control similar to that of multicellular organisms. The usage of these new traits for the generation of genetically modified yeast lines will transform the biotech sector by enabling the engineering of complex pathways in yeast to revolutionise their applicability.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

The molecular basis of rapid cellular replication in the malaria parasite. This research will reveal how malaria parasites perform extremely rapid replication of their DNA. Malaria is a major health burden in tropical regions, but our understanding of the parasite that causes this disease is limited. The malaria parasite lifecycle requires three stages of rapid replication, and we have recently identified new components of the parasite’s replication machinery that are likely responsible for this unique process. We will use new molecular and proteomics technologies, and integrate these with AI to reveal how proteins interact to facilitate rapid replication. Our findings will underpin future research aimed at developing new interventions for malaria and related infections in wildlife, livestock and humans. Field of research: 3101 - Biochemistry and Cell Biology This project will reveal the molecular mechanisms that malaria parasites use to rapidly replicate and divide within the cells of the people they infect, and the mosquitoes that transmit them. Malaria is a major global health and socio-economic burden, impacting over 200 million people every year, including many of Australia’s neighbours, tourist destinations and military and economic partners. By better understanding how these parasites divide and spread within and between hosts, we expect to identify new molecular mechanisms that could underpin future research to control parasite transmission. Closely related parasites, that use similar mechanisms to replicate, infect animals that impact Australian agriculture and wildlife; our research may identify new control methods for these parasites too. This project is enabled by our technological breakthrough that allows us to study the way proteins interact in living cells in real time. This project will develop Australia’s capability to implement this new technology so that it can be applied to other biological questions of agricultural, environmental and human health importance. We will promote this new technology to our national and international collaborators through publications and presentations, and promote our findings on cellular replication to the public through media and education outreach events organised by the Australian Society for Parasitology.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

A crystallography for disorder: characterising structural complexity. This project aims to devise new measurement techniques to quantify disorder in complex materials. Complex, non-equilibrium materials predominate in both human technology and nature, and yet their structures cannot be fully understood from conventional methods. The project is expected to solve long-standing problems in the design and optimisation of complex materials for structural, magnetic and optical applications. The project may identify new directions for research in the areas of data driven microscopy and materials discovery. The research should provide new characterisation tools for Australian researchers and industry to accelerate materials design and manufacture in the areas of building, communications, automotive and manufacturing. Field of research: 3406 - Physical Chemistry This project aims to devise new approaches for measuring structural disorder in complex materials. The proposed research is of foundational importance to physics and complexity science but also addresses a critical impediment in materials engineering. Most materials, both engineered and naturally forming, have elements of disorder that are critical in determining their properties. Examples include pharmaceuticals, batteries, solar cells, food products, plastics, cement, glass and biomaterials, to name a few. Measuring this structural disorder is critical to engineering materials with improved or entirely novel properties, but currently no technique is available that can access this information. This project is expected to provide these new methods for Australian researchers and industry to solve diverse problems and accelerate materials discovery and design. This could generate intellectual property, new materials, manufacturing and processing techniques and products for energy, health, communications, transport, and manufacturing. These new analytical tools will be communicated at specialist workshops and schools for materials scientists, engineers and crystallographers and put into practice in Australia’s microscopy and materials characterisation facilities.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Ovarian somatic cells: guardians of gamete survival and quality . This project will define the DNA repair capacity of granulosa cells in primordial follicles, compared to growing follicles, in the context of exogenous and endogenous DNA damage. Longevity, combined with the arrested state of their chromosomes render oocytes and their supporting granulosa cells in primordial follicles vulnerable to DNA damage. As oocytes are irreplaceable, to ensure fertility and health of the future generations it is imperative that the health of these primordial follicles is maintained throughout reproductive life. This discovery research will generate entirely new knowledge regarding the mechanisms underpinning oocyte quality, with implications for improving mammalian female fertility. Field of research: 3215 - Reproductive Medicine Granulosa cells are essential for supporting egg development and female hormone production. As such, defective granulosa cell proliferation and function can cause infertility and hormone deficiency, leading to range of negative outcomes including impaired growth and development in animals. Granulosa cells are unique and cannot be replaced by any other cell types, but surprisingly little is known about their essential properties or how their functional integrity is maintained. This project expects to expand our knowledge of how granulosa cells use DNA repair to maintain function over their prolonged lifespan. It will also determine the importance of these processes for fertility and endocrine function. These advancements are essential for development of new assisted reproductive technologies, which can improve agricultural breeding practices and support conservation projects for endangered animals. Additionally, this work will foster international collaborations and train young Australian researchers in cutting-edge techniques to expand Australia’s capacity and capability in this crucial area of reproductive biology research. Beyond the scientific community, the outcomes of this research will be shared with the broader public through social media platforms and various media outlets. The Monash public relations office, committed to aiding the communication of research findings, will support these dissemination efforts.