From saving one of our oldest native trees from disease to learning more about Jupiter-like planets and the atmospheric makeup of other planets, innovative research projects have been given a boost at the University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ).
Three UniSQ-led projects were awarded a combined total of $1.7 million through the Australian Research Council's (ARC) 2025 Discovery Projects scheme.
The scheme supports individual researchers or research teams to innovate and expand Australia's knowledge base and research capability.
- Associate Professor Sambasivam Periyannan and Professor Levente Kiss were awarded $780,000 to investigate genes and molecular pathways associated with disease development and resistance in Bunya pines.
- Professor Rob Wittenmyer and Professor Jonti Horner were awarded $567,816 to investigate the detailed properties of Jupiter analogs, their influence on other planets in those systems, and which nearby stars are most likely to host another Earth.
- Dr Chelsea Huang, Dr George Zhou and Dr Duncan Wright were awarded $423,636 to measure the atmospheric makeup of planets around other stars. The project will tackle fundamental questions like how planets form and how their early formation and evolution shape their atmospheres.
UniSQ researchers will also contribute to externally-led projects such as Associate Professor Park Thaichon in Griffith University's 'Mitigating the dark side of AI-powered virtual influencers' and Professor Lara Lamb in Western Sydney University's 'The legacy of coastal infrastructure: reclamations and seawalls'.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation) Professor John Bell congratulated the researchers on their funding success.
"This result reflects our researchers' ambition to understand some of the most challenging and complex problems in our world and beyond," Professor Bell said.
