The Australian Research Council (ARC) will be supporting 196 new early career research projects in Australian Government priority areas such as advanced manufacturing, cyber security, defence, food, beverage and agribusiness, medical technologies and pharmaceuticals, mining equipment, resource technology and services, critical minerals processing, oil, gas and energy resources, recycling and clean energy and space.
ARC Chief Executive Officer, Professor Sue Thomas, has welcomed the approval by the Minister for Education and Youth, the Hon Alan Tudge MP of $83 million in funding through the ARC's Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) scheme.
Professor Thomas said researchers in the early stages of their careers will benefit from the dedicated funding support provided by the DECRA scheme.
'The DECRA scheme provides our promising early career researchers the opportunities and resources to advance their research and build diverse career pathways.'
Some of the DECRA research projects that will commence in 2022 include:
- Dr Tessa Lord from the University of Newcastle will lead a project to bank spermatogonial stem cells to safeguard Australian native fauna.
- Dr David Saxby from Griffith University will lead a project to solve a major technological problem: our inability to study human skeletal, muscular, and neural function in the real world by creating wearable sensors.
- Dr Lauren Arundell from Deakin University will lead a project aimed at understanding the impact that screen behaviours have on children and to design effective behavioural strategies to mitigate negative impacts.
- Dr Carla Verdi from The University of Sydney will lead a project to design and engineer crucial building blocks for quantum technologies, such as more secure communication systems and precision sensors.
- Dr Masoumeh Zargar from Edith Cowan University will lead a project to develop membrane structures specifically designed to remove microplastics from aquatic and wastewater treatment systems.
Each DECRA recipient will receive salary support of around $106,000 per year for 3 years and up to $50,000 in additional funding per year for other costs essential to their project.
For a full list of funded DECRA projects please view the ARC website.
