$115 million for 150 Future Fellows

Minister for Education Christopher Pyne has announced $115 million in funding for 150 projects under the Australian Research Council’s (ARC) Future Fellowships scheme. The scheme promotes research in areas of critical national importance by supporting outstanding mid-career researchers to conduct their work in Australia.

The Abbott government committed to the ongoing support of the scheme in the 2014-15 Budget, said Pyne, with 100 four-year Fellowships to be awarded from 2015. This week’s funding round was enabled by the allocation of an extra $135.3 million in the 2013-14 Budget.

The University of Melbourne was awarded the most Fellowships of any institution, with 22 projects receiving funding of over $17 million. It was followed by The University of Queensland, which received 16 Fellowships worth $12.5 million, including two highly sought-after Professorial Future Fellowships from only 12 awarded nationally.

Highlights include:

• $880,000 for Associate Professor Vipul Bansal, from RMIT University, whose research aims to better understand silver resistance in bacteria and also to examine the ability of bacteria to form silver nanoparticles.
• $772,000 for Dr Matthew Tucker, from the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Cell Walls at The University of Adelaide, who will use next-generation molecular methods to identify ways to improve crop quality and yield for better food, fuel and fibres.
• $764,000 for Dr Gretta Pecl, from the University of Tasmania, to address critical knowledge gaps of why and how species respond in vastly different ways to environmental change.

RMIT researcher Vipul Bansal.

“The Fellowships awarded today cover a broad range of research disciplines that will deliver benefits for not only our local area, but also the nation,” said Pyne.

“Be it improving robotics, fighting malaria or obesity, preparing for drought, rescuing Indigenous languages or analysing our galaxy and ancient stars, a Future Fellow is receiving the keys that will unlock their future today.”

A breakdown of the Future Fellowships recipients can be found online.