Major Grants for funding commencing in 2015
Examples of New South Wales
Discovery Projects
New South Wales (NSW) research organisations will receive more than $87 million through
the Australian Research Council Discovery Projects scheme for 234 new research projects
commencing in 2015.
Some examples of the NSW projects are provided below.
To view the summaries of all successful projects, visit the ARC announcements page.
The University of Sydney
Lead Chief Investigator: Professor Michael Jacobson (DP150102144)
Summary: It is vital that students understand science given its relevance in important
economic and professional areas as well as for an informed democratic citizenry. This
project aims to conduct classroom-based research in which students learn content in the
Australian Curriculum - Science through the use of an innovative agent-based virtual
learning environment that supports authentic science inquiry activities to enhance
learning of difficult scientific knowledge and skills. The project also aims to develop
teacher professional development materials for teachers to enhance teacher capacity to
use innovative pedagogies and learning technologies in Australian schools.
ARC funding: $666 000
The University of New South Wales
Lead Chief Investigator: Professor Paul Munroe (DP150102417)
Summary: Coatings are frequently applied to components operating in harsh environments
to enhance durability. Often such coatings exhibit low toughness and poor corrosion
resistance that leads to premature failure. The aim of this project is to design, characterise
and test innovative coatings that exhibit unique architectures based on natural materials such
as teeth and nacre. It is envisaged that these coatings will be hard, tough and durable in
hostile, corrosive environments, and will thus, transform industries such as manufacturing,
mining and offshore oil exploration as well as enhance the lifetime of prosthetic devices.
ARC funding: $325 500
University of Technology, Sydney
Lead Chief Investigator: Professor Peter Aubusson (DP150101214)
Summary: Mobile technologies are ubiquitous in Australia but knowledge about their
widespread effective application for school education is patchy. This research investigates
the complex factors that promote or inhibit quality teaching and learning with mobile
technologies in secondary schools. This project brings together multidisciplinary expertise
to investigate mobile learning. It aims to support the development of effective teaching
practices and school initiatives that exploit mobile technologies to improve education
outcomes in mathematics and science. The project aims to establish cutting edge
instruments, validated and tested in Australian contexts, which can be adapted for future
large scale work in the field of technology-enhanced learning.
ARC funding: $305 500
The University of Newcastle
Lead Chief Investigator: Professor Scott Sloan (DP150104257)
Summary: The project aims to develop new computational methods and software for
simulating hydraulic fracture (commonly known as 'fracking'), which is now being used to
extract natural gas from some Australian coal seams. This form of natural gas recovery has
the potential to be a major economic driver, but the benefits are currently being tempered by
widespread community concern over possible adverse impacts on the environment. The
expected outcome is new methods, supported by scientific publications and software, which
can be used to guide the natural gas industry and inform regulatory authorities of the risks
inherent in hydraulic fracturing.
ARC funding: $453 900
University of Wollongong
Lead Chief Investigator: Professor Ian McLean (DP150103082)
Summary: The paradigms developed by scholars have a huge impact on the value of art.
After the Australian art world repositioned Aboriginal art from the frame of 'primitive art' to that
of contemporary art, the price of and market for Aboriginal art increased enormously.
However, Aboriginal art failed to penetrate the international contemporary art world because
the paradigms of contemporary art within which it was framed were outmoded. Through
examining the production of Aboriginal art from the perspectives of its producers and recent
globalised contemporary art practices, this project aims to develop a new theory of Aboriginal
art that is more aligned with the thinking of current curators who set the agenda at the upper
end of the market.
ARC funding: $122 259
The University of Sydney
Lead Chief Investigator: Dr Lorraine Smith (DP150101406)
Summary: Chronic condition healthcare contributes 70 per cent of Australia's healthcare
burden. Without a cure, chronic condition self-management is imperative. The dominant
medical approach prioritises compliance with medical and lifestyle regimes. There is little
evidence that patients' needs and wishes accord with the medical model. Drawing on
psychological and sociological insights, this unique project investigates how
self-management goals are negotiated and enacted, providing essential understanding of the
mismatch between experts and patients. The project aims to contribute new knowledge about
the complex interactions between individuals and healthcare providers and is expected to
result in a way forward for more effective chronic condition self-management.
ARC funding: $325 877
University of Wollongong
Lead Chief Investigator: Professor Sandra Jones (DP150103727)
Summary: Young Australian women are drinking more and drinking in more harmful ways.
At the same time, advertisers are using new media (such as social network sites) and
messages (such as empowerment) to advertise alcohol to women. Using a combination of
quantitative, qualitative and experimental methods, this project will explore how alcohol is
advertised to Australian women (in both traditional and new media), and how this influences
their alcohol-related attitudes and behaviours. Answering these questions is expected to
enable development of recommendations for regulation of alcohol advertising messages,
creation of counter-advertising/social marketing messages, and production of alcohol
advertising literacy programs for secondary and tertiary students.
ARC funding: $289 201
The University of Sydney
Lead Chief Investigator: Dr Bernard Balleine (DP150104878)
Summary: The smooth integration of cognitive and emotional processes is necessary for
everyday decisions. Dysfunction in this integrative capacity accompanies dementia,
neurodegenerative conditions and major psychiatric disorders. This project seeks to
understand the neural bases of this integration in normal decision-making using cutting edge
behavioural, cellular, molecular and genetic tools to map the neural system, circuit and
cellular processes controlling the selection, evaluation and choice of goal-directed actions.
Such actions can, with continued practice, transition into relatively inflexible habits. Thus, this
project aims to investigate the neural processes that mediate this transition and how actions
and habits interact in normal decision-making.
ARC funding: $1 065 800
Australian Catholic University
Lead Chief Investigator: Professor Jacqueline Cumming (DP150101679)
Summary: The Australian Curriculum and Disability Standards for Education create high
expectations for education of students with disabilities. Teachers are to address the diversity
of student learning needs in their classes, and make adjustments to school-based
assessments that enable students with disabilities to demonstrate their learning. Recent
reports identify inconsistent practice in schools and the need for evidence-based guidance to
inform these adjustments. This longitudinal project involves researcher-teacher collaboration
and aims to identify effective assessment adjustments for secondary school students with
disabilities, develop system-level protocols for adjustments, and meet national goals of
improved education outcomes for these students.
ARC funding: $310 900
Macquarie University
Lead Chief Investigator: Dr Melanie Bishop (DP150101363)
Summary: This project aims to test whether the flow of beneficial genes from farmed oysters
into wild oysters can make natural oyster beds and the ecological communities that they
support more resilient to environmental change. Wild oysters are critical to the function of
coastal ecosystems. However, wild oyster populations are threatened by environmental
change in Australia and around the world. Selectively bred oysters bearing stress resistance
genotypes are now commercially farmed in many estuaries on Australia's east coast and may
be used to bolster wild oyster populations. This project endeavours to develop novel genetic
strategies to future-proof oysters. Thus, the outcome of this project has potential to benefit
entire ecosystems that depend upon oysters.
ARC funding: $347 900
The University of New England
Lead Chief Investigator: Dr William Coventry (DP150102441)
Summary: This longitudinal behaviour-genetic study of the National Assessment Program –
Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) results at Grades 3, 5, 7 and 9 will continue to document
the influence of genes and environmental factors on individual differences in school
achievement. It aims to strengthen the longitudinal aspects of the data, allowing the project to
identify sources of stability and change across the seven school years of the NAPLAN. It also
aims to increase numbers in the low and high tails of the score distributions, creating a
clearer picture of deficits like dyslexia and dyscalculia, and allow for firmer identification of
gene-by-environment interactions. The project aims to further illuminate any differential
effectiveness of schools and teachers on student outcomes, a topic of high public interest.
ARC funding: $202 700