Research excellence continues with success in 2021 Australian Research Council grants

Western Sydney University has been awarded ARC Discovery and Linkage research grants to address national and international research priorities, such as forest and crop productivity under climatic change, waste management through the circular economy and population health and resilience.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice President (Research, Enterprise and International) Professor Deborah Sweeney said the University is extremely pleased to receive this extensive funding, and congratulated the recipients of the six Discovery Projects and three Linkage Projects, worth a combined $3.9 million.

A further five Discovery Projects and two Linkage Projects involving Western academics, submitted via other institutions, received an additional $3.5 million.

“All of these projects reflect a focus on developing insights that address major problems and opportunities in Australia and internationally, consistent with Western’s commitment to creating impact across western Sydney and our regions,” said Professor Sweeney.

ARC Discovery Grants

Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment

• Professor David Ellsworth - ‘Feast or famine: how Australian plants stay productive under low phosphorus’ ($399,000)
• Associate Professor Oula Ghannoum – ‘Can altered sugar sensing improve crop productivity?’ ($468,000)
• Professor Brajesh Singh and Professor Peter Reich – ‘Multitrophic interactions drive diversity-ecosystem function relationships’ ($555,000)

Institute for Culture and Society

• Professor Gay Hawkins and Dr Stephen Healy – ‘Investigating innovative waste economies: redrawing the circular economy’ ($309,001)
• Dr Emma Power (Institute for Culture and Society/School of Social Sciences) – ‘Shadow care infrastructures: sustaining life in the post-welfare city’ ($362,421)

MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development

• Dr Kiley Seymour (School of Psychology/MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development) – ‘Cortical layers: examining the role of feedback in human visual perception’ ($375,000)

ARC Linkage Grants

• Dr Fiona Cameron (Institute for Culture and Society) and Professor David Ellsworth (Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment) – ‘Curating museum collections for climate change mitigation’ ($520,582)
• Associate Professor Rebekah Grace (Translational Health Research Institute/TeEACH) and Dr Stacy Blythe (Translational Health Research Institute/School of Nursing and Midwifery) – ‘Upholding the right to cultural connection for children in care’ ($378,107)
• Dr Christopher Turbill (School of Science/Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment and Associate Professor Justin Welbergen (Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment) – ‘Vulnerability of Australian bats to white-nose syndrome’ ($543,024)

ARC Discovery Grants administered by other institutions

Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment

• Dr Anne Griebel– ‘Tree-mediated methane fluxes: a new frontier in the global carbon cycle’ (led by Southern Cross University) ($364,850)

MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development

• Professor Peter Keller – ‘Imaging the human cerebellum during motor learning and timing’ (led by The University of New South Wales) ($820,000)

School of Education

• Associate Professor Catherine Attard – ‘Improving middle leading practices in schools to enhance student learning’ (led by Griffith University) ($372,433)
• Professor Michael Singh – ‘Implementing Indigenous knowledge approaches in doctoral education’ (led by University of the Sunshine Coast) ($277,459)
• Associate Professor Jacqueline Ullman – ‘Understanding and addressing everyday sexisms in Australian universities’ (led by Edith Cowan University) ($214,024)

ARC Linkage Grants administered by other institutions

Institute for Culture and Society

• Distinguished Professor Ien Ang – ‘Diversifying Australian regional art museums’ (led by The University of New South Wales) ($338,927)

School of Social Sciences

• Dr Rae Dufty-Jones – ‘Settling well: a longitudinal study of refugees in regional Australia’ (led by the University of Wollongong) ($1,115,069)

ENDS

19 November 2020

Media Unit