More than $10.7 million was awarded to 17 University of Adelaide projects in the latest round of Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Projects grants.
The awarded projects include research that will benefit critical mineral extraction, battery technology, environmental remediation, herbicide resistance, and improving motor learning in older people.
Discovery Projects grants are awarded to individuals and research teams whose work contributes to the growth of Australia's research and innovation capacity.
"The wide berth of exceptional talent at the University of Adelaide is well reflected in these projects funded through the ARC's Discovery Project scheme," says the University's Professor Anton Middelberg, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research).
"Our world-class research continues to contribute to the solutions for some of society's most challenging problems, while building Australia's future and knowledge base."
The full list of funded University of Adelaide projects are:
A team led by Professor Nigel Cook was awarded $894,043 to develop machine learning algorithms for a computational toolkit that can predict trace element behaviour, solubility limits, and copper-iron-sulphide speciation, and which will be adaptable to other sulphide systems.
Professor Paul Thomas and Professor Dr Anna Lindholm were awarded $803,784 to develop new genetic biocontrol technology to address the negative impact of invasive mammals on Australian agriculture and the environment.
A team led by Associate Professor Jonathan Tyler was awarded $751,276 for a project which will help to develop records of climate and environment on Kangaroo Island to inform sustainable fire management and biodiversity conservation both on the island and across south-eastern Australia.
A team led by Professor Zaiping Guo was awarded $727,100 to develop scientific design principles for high-performance solid-state lithium batteries via extensive theoretical modelling and cutting-edge characterisation techniques.
A team led by Dr Amy Clair was awarded $693,896 for international comparative, quantitative and qualitative analyses to provide new insights and a roadmap to support Australia to provide current and future generations with good housing outcomes.
A team led by Dr Cameron Shearer was awarded $693,889 for a project that will develop a patentable new technology to transform environmental remediation methods.
Dr Tatiana Soares da Costa and Dr Lesley Cheng were awarded $666,653 to investigate how plant communication via extracellular vesicles may mediate herbicide resistance to develop new strategies for monitoring of resistance, targets for resistance circumvention, and restoration of herbicide susceptibility in resistant weeds.
A team led by Professor Alan Collins was awarded $661,834 to study ancient rocks that formed in different oceans to gain insight on the evolution of oceanic dissolved oxygen and understand its impact on how complex cells evolved, and links to major critical metal deposits.
Emeritus Professor Stephen Tyerman and Professor Rainer Hedrich were awarded $658,069 for a project that will improve wheat nutrient use via the plant nitrogen-potassium-water nexus, providing significant benefits to farmers by creating new options for improved nutrient use efficiency in economically relevant plants, while also reducing the need for costly fertilisers.
Professor Yan Jiao and Dr Damien Voiry were awarded $618,299 for a project which will leverage a combination of advanced molecular modelling for electrocatalyst/electrolyte prediction and experimental synthesis for performance testing to address the critical knowledge gap in sustainable chemistry regarding converting CO2 into propylene.
A team led by Associate Professor John Semmler was awarded $574,888 for a project that will use a novel form of non-invasive brain stimulation combined with multimodal techniques to investigate how synchronising brain oscillations at specific frequencies can improve motor learning in older adults.
A team led by Professor Simon Holford was awarded $555,092 to develop a systematic, process-oriented approach to define geological controls on the origin and transport of natural hydrogen and provide a framework for identifying drilling targets and quantifying exploration risks.
A team led by Dr Alexander Francke was awarded $545,825 for a project that will track 600,000 years of flooding and aridification in Australia's deserts to understand how tropical rainfall promotes excessive wet pulses and floods in Australia's iconic dry desert interior.
A team led by Professor Ching Tai Ng was awarded $544,078 to develop a new inspection technology for structures with hard-to-inspect conditions, using fully non-contact nonlinear laser ultrasonics.
Dr Benjamin Liffner and Associate Professor Danny Wilson were awarded $529,832 to investigate two evolutionarily divergent parasites relevant to human and livestock health: Plasmodium, a mosquito-transmitted parasite that causes malaria, and Cryptosporidium, a gastrointestinal parasite.
A team led by Professor Amanda Nettelbeck was awarded $461,067 for a project focusing on transcultural and gendered histories of Australia's railways, which will contribute to a digital story map with the aim of making Australia's transcultural and gendered railway heritage accessible to new audiences.
Professor Lisa Hill was awarded $403,272 to explore how Epicureanism impacted the British contribution to early modern political liberalism, classical political economy, and utilitarianism by assessing how it affected the works of seven key thinkers: Hobbes, Locke, Mandeville, Hume, Smith, Bentham and Mill.
More details about the 2025 ARC Discovery Projects - Round 1 are available, including a full list of all the researchers involved in each project.
