Adelaide University researchers have received almost $9 million in grant funding through Australian Research Council programs
Ten academics were awarded grants in the ARC's Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA), and another three projects were supported through the Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities (LIEF) scheme.
DECRA projects foster collaboration with national and international teams to address critical knowledge gaps and deliver solutions to economic, environmental, social, and cultural challenges, with the University receiving more than $5 million across three years. Nearly $3.3 million LIEF funding will extend over three projects.
Adelaide University’s Deputy Vice Chancellor - Research and Innovation, Professor Anton Middelberg FTSE FNAI praised the successful researchers and their projects.
"Adelaide University aims to deliver future-making and partnered world-class research at scale and focus to transform our state's economy and contribute to solving global challenges," says Professor Middelberg.
"These ARC DECRA and LIEF projects align with our Signature Research Themes, which we look forward to building on in the future."
DECRA Recipients:
Dr Feiyue Gao, School of Chemical Engineering, received $463,829, to develop corrosion-resistant catalysts for stable seawater electrolysis, contributing to Australia’s renewable energy transition by enabling large-scale green hydrogen production.
Dr Jing He, School of Chemical Engineering, received $525,524 to address the heavy dependence on fossil fuels in protected cropping systems by integrating low-carbon energy solutions tailored to Australia’s diverse climate zones.
Dr Marta Khomyn, School of Accounting and Finance, was awarded $528,670 for her project which aims to assess the quality of financial benchmarks in Australia by developing new methods to detect and reduce price distortions.
Dr Anna Kotarba, College of Creative Arts, Design and Humanities, received $528,590 to research the impacts of climate change on Indigenous heritage in the Kaurareg Archipelago, southwestern Torres Strait, and develop an innovative, scalable framework to monitor at-risk sites.
Dr Wei Ren, School of Chemical Engineering, was granted $530,079 to help fund the design of a galvanic cell-inspired electrocatalytic reactor with tailored functional carbon electrodes, which will enable the simultaneous removal of heavy metals and organic pollutants from real-world mining and smelting industrial effluents.
Dr Barrie Shannon, School of Education, was awarded $512,765, to explore how LGBTQ+ young people’s everyday use of social media could be used to enhance the wellbeing benefits of sexuality and civics education.
Dr Ilaine Silveira Matos, School of Biological Sciences, received $468,999 to assess threatened plants’ risk of mortality in response to the combined effects of droughts and heatwaves, allowing experts to better predict when, where and which species will experience mortality.
Dr Shuibin Tu, School of Chemical Engineering, was granted $491,079 for the development of innovative strategies to enhance lithium-ion transportation and stability in commercial graphite, silicon and lithium metal anodes to advance battery technology.
Dr Xinyu Zhang, Australian Institute for Machine Learning, received $505,678 to advance generative models towards interactive artificial intelligence, so they may learn from inherent knowledge, integrate contextual perception, align seamlessly with human guidance and incorporate self-evaluation.
Dr Xiaogang Zhu, School of Compute Science and Information Technology, was granted $496,641 to enhance the reliability and cybersecurity of AI software infrastructures by developing bug-directed fuzzing techniques.
LIEF Recipients:
Associate Professor Lee Arnold (School of Physics, Chemistry and Earth Sciences) is the Chief Investigator of the AusOpAL project which aims to use next-generation innovations in luminescence dating to address limitations in the scope and capacity of the national geochronology portfolio. The project received $688,334.
Associate Professor Juraj Farkas, School of Physics, Chemistry and Earth Sciences, is leading a $1.3 million project to establish a reaction cell multi-collector mass spectrometry facility to enable a step change in research focused on novel isotope tracing of metals in geological, biological and man-made materials and settings.
Associate Professor Jiawen Li, School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, is the Chief Investigator on a project which aims to create a 3D printing facility for precision micro and nano photonics that enables high-speed and precise fabrication of complex optical micro-structures with nano-scale features, ultra-smooth surfaces and high-accuracy alignment. The research received $1.3 million.
The full list of DECRA recipients can be found here and details of LIEF funding can be found here.