ANU receives $18.4m in ARC Discovery Project funding

Research teams from the Australian National University (ANU) have received $18.4m funding through the 2022 Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Projects scheme.

The ANU was awarded funding across 40 projects, with a success rate of 27.2 per cent. 

Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Keith Nugent said he was delighted to see that the University's awarded amount this year was on an upward trajectory.

"I am thrilled to see the ANU success rate increase, and heartily congratulate all those who have received funding in this round across six of our colleges," he said. 

"This demonstrates the extraordinary depth and reach of the excellent research output we are seeing from the ANU across subject matter, including energy conversion, environmental impact, net zero, agriculture, space, colonialism and linguistics. 

"I look forward to seeing the results of these projects over the next several years." 

The ARC Chief Executive Officer, Ms Judi Zielke, said that the Discovery Projects scheme supports individual researchers or research teams to innovate and build the 'new' knowledge essential for a knowledge-based economy.

"Funding these cutting-edge research projects will expand the knowledge base and research capacity in Australia." Ms Zielke said. 

Of the 40 successful applications from the ANU, the College of Science (CoS) received 21, the College of Arts and Social Sciences (CASS) secured nine, the College of Asia and the Pacific (CAP) and the College of Health and Medicine (CHM) had three each, and both the College of Business and Economics (CBE) and the College of Engineering, Computing and Cybernetics (CECC) received two successful applications each. 

ANU Discovery Projects include:

·      Valuing Torres Strait knowledge through sustainable digital returns

·      Voices of regional Australia: The linguistic patterning of local attachment

·      Locally structured polar-photofunctional materials for energy conversion 

·      Revealing the impacts of super-charged photosynthesis on leaf respiration

·      The ethics of Net Zero

·      Genome evolution and adaptation of the multinuclear wheat stripe rust fungus

·      COVID-19, health and labour market marginalisation

·      Reliable and accurate statistical solutions for modern complex data

·      Connecting ocean tides to the large-scale ocean circulation

·      A systemic environmental impact metric for companies and investors

·      Relativistic particles in star-forming galaxies

·      Challenging colonialism: Australians who helped us embrace human equality

·      Uncovering an evolutionary advanced mechanism of gene expression control

·      Space for Australia on the periodic table: creating new superheavy elements

Visit the ARC website for a full list of projects.