Examples of Linkage Projects commencing in 2015
Australian Capital Territory
The Australian National University in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), will receive almost
$3 million through the Australian Research Council Linkage Projects scheme for eight new
research projects commencing in 2015.
Some examples of the ACT projects are provided below.
To view the summaries of all successful projects, visit the ARC website.
Australian National University
Lead Chief Investigator: Dr Andrew Kingston (LP150101040)
Summary: This project aims to build on two new ideas in data acquisition and 3D image
reconstruction to bring 3D X-ray microscopy or computed tomography (CT) into advanced
research use as well as common industrial applications. In the past 10 years, CT has
improved our understanding in areas ranging from the evolution of life and osteoporosis to
composite material failure and oil recovery. However, the full potential of CT remains
unrealised because crucial features in structure and composition are overlooked by simplistic
algorithms. Users cannot directly capture quantities of interest such as key compositional
variation or defects, and workflows are poorly adapted for large-scale use in industrial
fabrication or phenomics. This project aims to address these shortcomings using advanced
mathematics and algorithms.
Partner Organisation: FEI Company
ARC funding: $559 000 over three years
Australian National University
Lead Chief Investigator: Associate Professor Wojciech Lipinski (LP150101189)
Summary: This project seeks to advance the field of heat transfer in high-temperature
systems involving liquid metals, with emphasis on energy storage and solar power
technologies. The concept couples a tubular sodium boiler with a sodium chloride
phase-change storage system for continuous energy supply. Sodium chloride is low cost and
has a melting temperature suitable for a wide range of industrial processes. The project plans
to address the challenge of sodium stability in highly irradiated tubes by investigating mass,
momentum, energy and radiative transport in liquid metals. It is intended that this will inform
the design and testing of novel sodium boilers to provide stable and isothermal process heat
for continuous or on-demand production of power, chemical fuels and commodities.
Partner Organisation: Vast Solar Pty. Ltd.
ARC funding: $430 000 over three years
Australian National University
Lead Chief Investigator: Professor Howard Morphy (LP150100423)
Summary: This project, being conducted in collaboration with Indigenous communities and
regional museums in Australia and the United Kingdom, aims to develop and to pilot
approaches that facilitate Indigenous people’s access to and engagement with museum
collections and objects. Reconnecting Indigenous Australian communities with ethnographic
collections is central to contemporary museum practice. Yet, the historical dispersal of objects
across museums, nationally and internationally, makes relationship and reconnection a
challenge to communities and museums alike. The project seeks to address this and to
contribute to new museum practice and museum development in Australia.
Partner Organisations: National Museum of Australia; British Museum; Wagga Wagga City
Council
ARC funding: $699 310 over four years
Australian National University
Lead Chief Investigator: Professor Michael Djordjevic (LP150100826)
Summary: This project aims to reduce reliance on nitrogen fertilisers without reducing crop
yield. Global food security relies on using high-yielding grain varieties and nitrogen-based
fertilisers. Since 1950, fertiliser use has increased 20-fold but the yield benefits of this use are
declining. Crops only absorb 30–50 per cent of the applied fertiliser and the unused nitrogen
causes environmental damage which is costly to mitigate. The novel technology platform of
the project aims to develop new crops with more expansive root systems that use applied
nitrogen fertiliser more efficiently and new legume varieties that symbiotically fix more nitrogen
in an ecologically-sustainable way.
Partner Organisation: Monsanto Company
ARC funding: $240 870 over two years