Today, the Australian Research Council (ARC) Chief Executive Officer, Ms Judi Zielke PSM, is pleased to announce more than $220.2 million of funding for 421 research projects to be undertaken as part of the ARC Discovery Projects scheme.
The projects represent research excellence across a broad range of fields, including developing accessible playgrounds for children with vision impairment, understanding the risk of microplastics in Australian agricultural soils, and preventing the loss of sensitive data in the Australian community by malware.
“The Discovery Projects will share funding that supports excellent basic and applied research to expand Australia’s knowledge base and research capability, and enhance the scale and focus of research in the Australian Government priority areas.” Ms Zielke said.
“Many ARC-funded Discovery Projects also enhance international research collaborations, such as the project based at LaTrobe University, involving universities in England and Norway, that will investigate differences of speech and gesture across languages to promote better cross-cultural understanding of communication in multilingual Australia,” said Ms Zielke.
“Individual researchers and research teams will be supported by ARC funding to provide economic, commercial, environmental, social and/or cultural benefits to the Australian community.”
Ms Zielke said research funded by the ARC’s National Competitive Grants Program such as those awarded under the Discover Projects scheme, delivers excellent outcomes, with every $1 of research that the ARC funds generating $3.32 in economic output back into the Australian community.
Some of the hundreds of successful Discovery Projects to commence in 2024 include:
Monash University ($344,400): to study biases embedded in leadership selection processes that keep the glass ceiling intact. The insights of this research will benefit current and future generations of Australians by overcoming an institutional factor that contributes to gender gaps.
Charles Darwin University ($351,000): to understand how extreme weather events are affecting Australians’ residential choices and to provide crucial information for essential service provision, infrastructure planning, disaster management and strengthening the Australian community’s resilience.
University of South Australia ($212,611): to create a greater awareness of disability and increase the capacity to combat ableism and discrimination for emerging Australian disabled writers.
University of Technology, Sydney ($754,626): to deliver critical new knowledge on the causes of marine pathogen outbreaks that threaten Australia’s $1.6 billion aquaculture industry by identifying environmental triggers of devastating disease events in oyster aquaculture farms and outbreaks of severe illness among seafood consumers.
Australian National University ($672,233): to improve regulation of chicken farming and export in our geographical region by reducing livestock disease risks and economic loss and protecting the health of Australians.
Southern Cross University ($581,715): Collaborating with Elders, this project will translate into a co-designed child and youth-led educational framework for teaching and learning climate change with Country in primary and secondary schools.
For a full list of funded Discovery Projects for 2024, including a snapshot of funding by state and territory, please view the ARC announcement kit here.
