ARC funding for ANU early career researchers

Research on how plants might handle climate change and how our galaxy was formed are among projects led by early career researchers at The Australian National University (ANU) to receive federal funding.

Researchers from ANU received a total funding of $7.9 million across 18 projects in the latest round of the Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) scheme.  

ANU Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation) Professor Keith Nugent warmly congratulated the funding winners. 

"Across diverse disciplines, these researchers are poised to unravel new insights, from potential dark matter discoveries to crucial developments in renewable energy storage," he said. 

"As an institution, we recognise the importance of ground-breaking research. I would like to congratulate the 18 DECRA award recipients from the ANU on their success, and also acknowledge and commend the dedication and efforts of all applicants who contributed to this highly competitive process." 

ARC Chief Executive Officer, Ms Judi Zielke PSM, said that funding support from the DECRA scheme is a strong investment into the growth of Australia's research and innovation capacity. 

"Increasing Australia's research and innovation capacity generates new knowledge and results in the development of new technologies, products and ideas, the creation of jobs, economic growth and an enhanced quality of life in Australia," she said. 

ANU projects to receive DECRA funding: 

• Dr Pascal Bercher - Automated modelling assistance for the creation of complex planning models, $445,047. 
• Dr Maria Tanyag - The international political thought of women's regional networks, $452,157. 
• Dr Yuxiang Qin - Synergy between future 21-cm experiments and physical cosmology, $442,000. 
• Associate Professor Kate Ogg - Mobilising litigation to effect legal, policy and social change, $426,000. 
• Dr Siobhan McDonnell - Not drowning, fighting?: UN climate governance and Pacific Island countries, $428,000. 
• Dr Emily Roycroft - Genomics of extinction and isolation on Australian island arks, $450,877. 
• Dr Sofia Samper Carro - Neanderthal hunting ability and the extinction of archaic humans, $456,802. 
• Dr Millicent Weber - Audiobooks and digital book culture, $467,463. 
• Dr Asilata Bapat - The geometry of braids and triangulated categories, $438,847. 
• Dr John Noel Viana - Anti-racist neuroethics for epistemic justice in mental health research, $435,875. 
• Dr Mirindi Eric Dusenge - Reducing uncertainty in prediction of leaf respiration in a changing world, $440,000. 
• Dr James O'Donnell - Demographic and life course drivers of social cohesion, $431,704. 
• Dr Ling Sun - Probing ultralight bosons with black holes and gravitational waves, $403,000. 
• Dr Diep Ganguly - Pioneering alpine epigenomics to discover adaptive genetic elements, $425,000. 
• Dr Sven Buder - How galactic mergers and their stellar survivors shaped our Milky Way, $459,000. 
• Dr Francis Markham - On the wealth of First Nations: Examining the Indigenous-settler wealth gap, $404,053. 
• Dr Teng Lu - Chemical and structural design for high-power energy storage materials, $456,547. 
• Dr Samantha Stanley - Investigating public support for climate aid in Australia and abroad, $432,251.  

More details of each project available at the ARC website.