51 Monash University research projects have been awarded a combined total of more than $25 million in the latest Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Projects scheme.
Among the Group of Eight institutions, Monash has topped Australia with the highest number of applications awarded and ranked second in the total amount of funding.
The ARC Discovery Projects scheme aims to support excellent basic and applied research, and research training. It supports researchers with achieving economic, commercial, environmental, social and/or cultural benefits for Australia.
Funding has been awarded across a diverse range of faculties and disciplines, with funded Monash projects including:
Changing Institutions to Mitigate Gender Leadership Gaps: Power of Defaults ($344,400.00)
Investigators: Professor Erte Xiao, Professor Lata Gangadharan and Professor Nisvan Erkal
This project aims to improve diversity in organisations by investigating a simple yet novel institutional change that can increase women’s participation in leadership. It expects to generate new knowledge in the area of diversity and inclusion by showing how appropriate choice of defaults can reduce labour market gaps and inequality.
Imaging the youngest planets ($413,989.00)
Investigators: Dr Christophe Pinte and Professor Daniel Price
This project aims to characterise the youngest detected exoplanets with the world’s largest telescopes, including time already awarded on the James Webb Space Telescope. This will help develop state of the art computer algorithms for simulating fluid flow and data analysis techniques that can be applied to problems on earth.
Advancing Policy Design for Robots in Public Spaces ($608,385.00)
Investigators: Professor Michael Mintrom, Professor Lisa Grocott, Professor Sally Wyatt and Associate Professor Shanti Sumartojo
This project aims to explore how policy design can ensure robots operate safely in public space and protect public interests. It aims to develop a feasible, flexible, and replicable method for incorporating citizen experience and insights into policy design to manage the growing presence of robots in Australian public spaces.
Controllable quantum phases in two-dimensional metal-organic nanomaterials ($484,097.00)
Investigators: Associate Professor Agustin Schiffrin, Associate Professor Jennifer MacLeod, Associate Professor Pavel Jelinek and Assistant Professor Semonti Bhattacharyya
This project aims to design novel two-dimensional metal-organic nanomaterials and to control electronic quantum phases. It expects to generate new fundamental knowledge in advanced materials, solid-state physics and quantum nanoscience, laying the foundation for next-generation electronics and information technologies.
Monash University Interim President and Vice-Chancellor Professor Susan Elliott AM said the remarkable funding outcome was a reflection of Monash’s diverse research capabilities and excellence.
“Monash is driven to create innovative research that brings positive economic, environmental and cultural outcomes to the wider community. This funding will enable our brightest researchers to pave the way for meaningful national and international impact.”
Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Rebekah Brown said the number and breadth of research projects awarded will enable Monash researchers to continue to support a wide range of outcomes.
“Monash is home to so much research talent with ambitions and impact across many disciplines. This is evidenced by the fact that every single Faculty is represented in DP grants in this round. Congratulations to the recipients involved in the 51 projects on such a fantastic outcome.”
The 51 Monash funded projects are among a total of 421 projects funded across Australia, sharing a total of more than $220 million.
The full list of Monash recipients are below. Details on their research projects can be found .
Recipient | Project | Funding awarded |
Professor Julio Soria; Dr Callum Atkinson | Impact of roughness on adverse pressure gradient turbulent boundary layers. | $574,488.00 |
Dr Kathryn Hodgins; Dr Timothy Connallon; Dr Akane Uesugi; Professor Stephen Wright; Professor Allan Ellis | Some like it hot: the genetics of rapid adaptation to climate change. | $515,194.00 |
Dr Stewart King; Professor Jesper Gulddal; Dr Barbara Pezzotti; Dr Carlos Uxo Gonzalez; Professor Jarrod Hayes | World Crime Fiction: Making Sense of a Global Genre. | $265,773.00 |
Dr Christophe Pinte; Professor Daniel Price | Imaging the youngest planets. | $413,989.00 |
Associate Professor Ha Bui; Associate Professor Giang Nguyen | Mud pumping under rail tracks: from Micromechanics to Predictions. | $491,982.00 |
Professor Cameron Jones; Professor Dr Laurent Maron | Reactivity Enhanced Low-Valent Alkaline Earth Metal Compounds. | $540,000.00 |
Associate Professor Luca Fiorenza; Professor Dr Stefano Benazzi; Associate Professor Rachel Sarig | From foraging to farming. Human adaptations during major transitions. | $717,816.00 |
Professor Michael Mintrom; Professor Lisa Grocott; Professor Sally Wyatt; Associate Professor Shanti Sumartojo | Advancing Policy Design for Robots in Public Spaces. | $608,385.00 |
Professor Stuart Batten; Associate Professor Christopher Richardson | Charge-Controlled Materials for Separations of Important Resources. | $443,650.00 |
Professor Greg Stuart; Professor Ehsan Arabzadeh | Role of the superior colliculus in sensory processing. | $592,264.00 |
Dr Anna Margetts; Dr Lucien Brown; Dr Jill Vaughan; Professor Sotaro Kita | Where Gesture Meets Grammar: Crosslinguistic Multimodal Communication. | $435,520.00 |
Associate Professor Tara McDowell; Associate Professor Grace McQuilten; Dr Rimi Khan; Dr Michelle Antoinette | Care and Repair: Rethinking Contemporary Curation for Conditions of Crisis. | $268,119.00 |
Professor Alexander Heger; Dr Rosemary Mardling; Dr Lionel Siess | Binary stars and Planets. | $384,160.00 |
Professor Jessica Purcell | Geodesic arcs and surfaces for hyperbolic knots and 3-manifolds. | $459,575.00 |
Professor Paul Long; Dr Ash Watson; Dr Ali Alizadeh; Associate Professor Shane Homan; Dr Thomas Bartindale | Mapping Australian ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾made, Amateur & Do-it-Yourself Cultural Economies. | $561,545.00 |
Professor Jian-Feng Nie | Stronger, coarser-grained biodegradable zinc alloys. | $541,300.00 |
Associate Professor Agustin Schiffrin; Associate Professor Jennifer MacLeod; Associate Professor Pavel Jelinek; Assistant Professor Semonti Bhattacharyya | Controllable quantum phases in two-dimensional metal-organic nanomaterials. | $484,097.00 |
Associate Professor Bernhard Müller; Professor Alexander Heger; Dr Takashi Moriya | On the origin of very massive back holes. | $320,000.00 |
Professor Andrew Tomkins; Dr Eleanor Green | Fluid chemistry and critical mineral enrichment in salty metamorphic belts. | $260,041.00 |
Dr Matthieu Gresil; Professor Luke Connal; Dr François Tournilhac | Developing vitrimers: next generation reusable plastics. | $552,697.00 |
Professor Patrick Olivier; Ms Kristen Wallwork; Dr Reuben Kirkham; Professor Elizabeth Jones; Dr Thomas Bartindale; Dr Roisin McNaney; Associate Professor Genevieve Grant | (Re)Designing Digital Justice. | $599,969.00 |
Associate Professor Michelle Halls; Professor Martin Scanlon | How lipid binding proteins shape the activity of nuclear hormone receptors. | $720,000.00 |
Professor Jonathan Clough; Associate Professor Campbell Wilson; Associate Professor Lennon Chang | Improving Legal Frameworks to Support Online Child Sex Abuse Prosecutions. | $227,412.00 |
Professor Peter Currie; Dr Margo Montandon; Dr Jan Kaslin | How do stem cells get specified during embryonic muscle development? | $640,000.00 |
Professor Carla Sgro; Associate Professor Christen Mirth | Fitness and evolutionary consequences of developmental plasticity. | $450,703.00 |
Dr Jennifer Windt; Professor Naotsugu Tsuchiya; Dr Thomas Andrillon | The Dreamscape Project: Phenomenology and neurophysiology of dreams. | $595,895.00 |
Dr Claire Blewitt; Professor Helen Skouteris; Professor Susan Edwards; Dr Heather Morris; Dr Hannah Kirk | Educator-child interactions and childhood social and emotional learning. | $525,095.00 |
Dr Darshini Ayton; Associate Professor Yen Ying Lim; Associate Professor Chris Moran; Dr Clarissa Giebel | Consumer and Community Involvement Process Implementation Model. | $609,004.00 |
Professor Peter Currie; Professor Katherine Trinajstic; Dr Frank Tulenko; Professor Shawn Burgess | The developmental and evolutionary origins of vertebrate fins and limbs. | $592,436.00 |
Associate Professor Nicole Black; Professor David Johnston; Professor Leonie Segal; Dr Trong Anh Trinh | Economic analysis of child maltreatment and child protection. | $402,980.00 |
Associate Professor Fay Anderson; Associate Professor Laura Jobson; Dr Stephanie Brookes; Dr Deb Anderson; Associate Professor Alexandra Wake | Australian Journalism, Trauma and Community. | $834,416.00 |
Associate Professor Daniel Horsley; Professor Darryn Bryant; Associate Professor Barbara Maenhaut; Professor Peter Dukes | Fractional decomposition of graphs and the Nash-Williams conjecture. | $429,118.00 |
Professor Dana Kulic; Dr Pamela Carreno Medrano; Dr Michael Burke | Human models for accelerated robot learning and human-robot interaction. | $535,664.00 |
Dr Qi Zhang | Molecular mechanism of the PRC-dependent RNA degradation by the rixosome. | $544,187.00 |
Associate Professor Jesper Levinsen; Dr Dmitry Efimkin; Professor Xiaoqin Li | Polarons in flatland. | $378,030.00 |
Professor Ruth Jeanes; Dr Karen Lambert; Associate Professor Justen O’Connor; Dr Dawn Trussell | United on the field? Enhancing equity and inclusion in community sport. | $404,954.00 |
Professor Neil Selwyn; Dr Michael Phillips; Dr Carlo Perrotta; Dr Joanne Blannin | Supporting teachers and teaching in the age of Artificial Intelligence. | $378,719.00 |
Professor Geoffrey Webb; Dr Daniel Schmidt; Professor Eamonn Keogh | Efficient and effective methods for classifying massive time series data. | $519,930.00 |
Dr Benjamin Wong; Professor James Morley; Dr Qazi Haque; Dr Qingyuan Du | Implications of Global Economic Forces for Domestic Monetary Policy. | $309,037.00 |
Professor Erte Xiao; Professor Lata Gangadharan; Professor Nisvan Erkal | Changing Institutions to Mitigate Gender Leadership Gaps: Power of Defaults. | $344,400.00 |
Professor Elizabeth Manias; Professor Tracey Bucknall; Professor Alison Hutchinson; Professor Simon Bell; Associate Professor Juanita Breen; Professor Velandai Srikanth; Dr Guncag Ozavci | Engaging residents and families in aged care facilities. | $463,939.00 |
Associate Professor Paula Michaels; Dr Ema Hrešanová | Medical Internationalism: Cuba and Eastern Europe, 1959-1999. | $618,424.00 |
Professor Huanting Wang | Unlocking the ion selectivity of lithium superionic conductor membranes. | $620,357.00 |
Professor David Wood; Associate Professor Vida Dujmovic | The Global Structure of Sparse Networks. Graph theory (the mathematics of networks) models many real-world problems and is a major area of modern mathematics. | $382,911.00 |
Dr Daniel Priebbenow; Dr David Leitch | Data Driven Discovery of New Catalysts for Asymmetric Synthesis. | $460,000.00 |
Professor Dragan Gasevic; Dr Zachari Swiecki; Dr Yi-Shan Tsai; Dr Jia Rong; Dr Mladen Rakovic; Dr Gerald Nagtzaam; Professor Jelena Jovanovic; Professor Sanna Järvelä | Assessments for writing with generative artificial intelligence. | $637,912.00 |
Associate Professor Craig Smith; Professor Richard Behringer | New insights into female reproductive tract formation and tubulogenesis. | $508,798.00 |
Professor Yves Zenou | New methods in network economics to study environment-friendly behaviours. | $327,852.00 |
Dr Anne-Marie Peters; Professor Dr Simon Verhulst; Dr Melissah Rowe | Early-life climate sensitivity: direct and indirect mechanisms. | $662,704.00 |
Professor Dr Tanja Junkers; Dr Athina Anastasaki | Sustainable Reversible Polymerisation. | $511,041.00 |
Professor Dr Tanja Junkers | Data Driven Polymer Synthesis. | $536,041.00 |
