Major Grants for funding commencing in 2015
Examples of Western Australian Discovery Projects
Western Australian (WA) research organisations will receive more than $16 million through
the Australian Research Council Discovery Projects scheme for 44 new research projects
commencing in 2015.
Some examples of the WA projects are provided below.
To view the summaries of all successful projects, visit the ARC announcements page.
Edith Cowan University
Lead Chief Investigator: Professor Lelia Green (DP150104734)
Summary: Children aged between zero and five are experiencing an extraordinary shift in
media consumption. They intuitively swipe screens and press buttons on tablet computers
and smartphones, using apps and accessing the internet. With an estimated five-fold
increase in their tablet usage (2012 to 2013), there is an urgent need for research and policy
development to maximise benefit and minimise risk. This project is intended to investigate
family practices and attitudes around very young children's internet use in Australia and the
United Kingdom, and is expected to contribute to public debate and evidence-based policy
in Australia, the United Kingdom and Ireland. It aims to develop recommendations for policy
makers and offers guidelines for parents of three age groups: zero to one, two to three and
four to five.
ARC funding: $365 211
Murdoch University
Lead Chief Investigator: Professor Simone Volet (DP150101142)
Summary: Australia's challenges in regard to scientific literacy and growth of student
enrolments in science need to be addressed at multiple levels, starting with the preparation
of future primary teachers. Promoting children's early interest in inquiry-based science is
essential, yet a challenge for many teachers. This project examines the complex and
dynamic interplay of cognitive, metacognitive and emotional processes in future primary
teachers' engagement in collaborative inquiry-based science activities. A comprehensive
intervention based on these insights aims to determine how scaffolding productive
engagement can improve the quality of primary teachers' preparation for inquiry-based
science.
ARC funding: $300 900
Murdoch University
Lead Chief Investigator: Professor Mark Beeson (DP150100217)
Summary: This project will analyse the bilateral economic relationship between Australia
and China. The principal focus will be on how economic relations have been conditioned by
distinctive patterns of economic and political organisation in each country. The approach will
draw on and extend the Varieties of Capitalism literature to provide a detailed analysis of the
institutional features of the Chinese and Australian economies, and how these institutions
condition the economic relationship between the two. By analysing the different policymaking
traditions and business structures the project aims to explain the challenges facing AustraliaChina economic ties, particularly over the minerals industry, foreign investment and free
trade agreement negotiations.
ARC funding: $154 418
Curtin University of Technology
Lead Chief Investigator: Professor Hong Hao (DP150104346)
Summary: Using precast segmental concrete columns in structures improves the
construction efficiency and site safety, leads to better construction quality control, and
reduces the construction cost, site disruption and environmental impacts. The performance
of segmental columns to resist earthquake and blast loads is not well studied yet. As a
structure might be subject to such loads during its service life, understanding its resistance
capacities is essential for structural safety. This project aims to perform experimental and
numerical investigations to study the performance of precast segmental concrete columns
under earthquake and blast loads, and develop analytical and design methods for
applications of such columns in building and bridge structures.
ARC funding: $593 400
The University of Western Australia
Lead Chief Investigator: Professor Eric May (DP150100341)
Summary: Increasing the allowable water content during the pipeline transportation of
carbon dioxide (CO2) would greatly increase the viability of carbon capture and storage but
would also increase the risk of CO2-hydrate blockages. Subsea methane (CH4) hydrate
sediments represent a tremendous new energy resource if blockages in production pipelines
can be avoided. Conventional oil industry approaches to hydrate avoidance are of limited
relevance and too expensive for these new applications. Formation probability distributions,
cohesive forces and agglomeration tendencies of CO2 and CH4 hydrates are intended to be
measured and integrated into predictive multi-phase flow models, enabling quantitative risk
assessments of blockages in CO2 transport or hydrate production pipelines.
ARC funding: $682 200
The University of Western Australia
Lead Chief Investigator: Associate Professor Robert McLaughlin (DP150104660)
Summary: This project aims to create new tools to quantify the structural and functional
properties of tissue. Combining multiple optical imaging technologies (multi-modal) into a
single, miniaturised probe, these tools could enable physiologists and biomedical
researchers to obtain new insight into disease. Encasing the highly miniaturised probe within
a medical needle is aimed to allow insertion of the 'needle probe' deep into tissue, extending
optical imaging to areas not previously accessible. The project could develop novel
quantification models to allow longitudinal assessment and comparison between subjects.
Validating the tools with specific biomarkers, it could provide outcomes in breast and liver
cancer, and a framework to explore other diseases.
ARC funding: $355 100
The University of Western Australia
Lead Chief Investigator: Professor Dr Mohammed Bennamoun (DP150100294)
Summary: This project addresses crucial limitations of existing vision systems for the robot
grasping of irregular objects in messy living environments. This project aims to undertake
fundamental research into novel three-dimensional vision algorithms, exploiting multiple
modalities (two-dimensional + three-dimensional + video) for scene labelling, object
classification, scene segmentation and grasp synthesis to enable future robots to operate in
unstructured environments with highly occluded and cluttered objects. It is expected to
significantly advance research and to have broad applications, including home robotics to
improve the quality of life of elders and people with special needs. These algorithms may
also be used in security (explosive manipulation) and agriculture (field crop harvesting).
ARC funding: $555 100
The University of Western Australia
Lead Chief Investigator: Associate Professor Michael Considine (DP150103211)
Summary: Dormancy is an important economic and ecological trait of many trees and crop
plants, including most commercially valuable fruit species. This project aims to: define
oxygen and radicals of oxygen as central cues of grapevine bud development and dormancy;
identify and model the developmental processes that occur during dormancy onset,
maintenance and release (bud burst); as well as to identify the molecular and biochemical
regulators of oxygen signals in bud dormancy. The knowledge generated could provide a
platform to test impacts of climate change on fruit and tree species, and lead to better
management of fruit and tree species in agricultural and ecological systems.
ARC funding: $384 900
Curtin University of Technology
Lead Chief Investigator: Associate Professor Geoffrey Jalleh (DP150101198)
Summary: This project builds on previous research that developed a psychological profile of
athletes susceptible to doping. The primary objective is to refine and pilot an intervention
involving psycho-educational activities and exercises that can be used to reduce an athlete's
susceptibility to doping. Current anti-doping programs focus on knowledge of banned
substances, reporting and testing requirements, and penalties for noncompliance. These
programs ignore psychological variables that may render an athlete susceptible to doping.
The successful application of the psychological anti-doping intervention is expected to
provide an internationally significant contribution to doping prevention and the social science
research on which it is based.
ARC funding: $247 985