Australian Research Council awards 58 new Industry Fellowships

The Australian Research Council (ARC) has this month announced $22.5 million in research funding for 50 Early Career Industry Fellowships over three years under its Industry Fellowship Program, which aims to promote national and international collaboration between key stakeholders in research and innovation.

The Early Career Industry Fellowships should help to build innovation in the industry, community organisation, not-for-profit, and other government and publicly funded research sectors, and to facilitate the adoption, translation and commercialisation of Australian research over time. ARC Acting CEO Dr Richard Johnson said that offering the opportunity for early-career researchers to collaborate in an industry setting is critical to ensuring Australia’s capability to meet future industry-identified challenges.

“These early-career researchers will help create pathways to support academic researchers in establishing careers in an industry setting and industry-based researchers to work in a university environment,” Johnson said. “This plays an important role in increasing two-way mobility and skill-building in research collaboration, translation and commercialisation.

“The ARC has made this scheme flexible for early-career researchers, maintaining a diversity of career pathways and strategic alignment between universities and industry.”

Some of the awarded Early Career Industry Fellowships include:

• Dr Chantal Lanctot, Griffith University ($488,648): to determine the ecological impacts of firefighting chemicals used to control bushfires, providing scientific evidence needed to manage the safe use of firefighting chemicals around water catchments.
• Dr Molly Johnston, Monash University ($488,229): to address the gap between the demand and supply of donor eggs needed to service the needs of patients into the future and maintaining Australia’s position as a global leader in assisted reproduction.
• Dr Syamak Farajikhah, The University of Sydney ($461,518): to develop a portable device for point-of-need detection of multiple pathogens in food to reduce the risk of foodborne diseases.
• Dr Sailin Liu, The University of Adelaide ($411,291): to develop all-temperature aqueous zinc ion batteries (AZIBs) for applications in renewable and stationary energy storage, to promote clean and sustainable energy technology.
   

For a full list of recipients and their projects, click here.

The news was released just days after the ARC announced $27 million in research funding for eight Industry Laureate Fellowships over five years, bringing industry together with outstanding Australian researchers to translate exciting new ideas into real outcomes. Johnson said the new Industry Laureate Fellowships will help support strategic engagement between universities and industry, addressing industry-identified challenges and opportunities.

“These laureate researchers will help attract and retain researchers of international reputation within Australia, to strengthen Australia’s research capacity and competitiveness, and also to mentor early-career researchers to develop industry translation and commercialisation skills,” he said.

“I am looking forward to seeing the research outcomes and milestones achieved by these researchers, and how these will be translated for the benefit of the Australian community — from ecosystem conservation to safekeeping Indigenous cultural heritage.”

The Industry Laureate Fellows will receive funding beginning in 2024, and include:

• Professor Benjamin Boyd, Monash University ($3 million): to establish a new framework for selection of components for food structuring that will enable enhanced digestion of food and delivery of nutrients, enabling Australia to help solve the global issue of better food and nutrition.
• Professor Bruno David, Monash University ($3.6 million): to transform how coastal archaeological sites are researched, and to train a new generation of Aboriginal Sea Rangers to map, monitor and manage coastal landscapes threatened by erosion.
• Scientia Professor John Gooding, The University of New South Wales ($3.7 million): to partner with Nutromics Pty Ltd to better understand how electrochemical sensors operate and in turn bring this newfound technology to the market of wearable sensors for personal wellbeing.
• Professor Guoxiu Wang, University of Technology Sydney ($3.6 million): to solve the current issue of lithium-ion batteries self-combusting by introducing novel non-flammable and fireproof materials and gels inside batteries to make them safer.
   

For the full list of laureates and their projects, click here.

Image credit: iStock.com/melitas