Deakin ARC Discovery indigenous Award to help empower global communities

Using Australia, Kenya and Papua New Guinea as case studies, the award will enable Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation researcher Professor Yin Paradies to investigate how Indigenous peoples can negotiate power imbalances and the best ways for policy makers, development workers and corporations to engage effectively and ethically with them.

The award is part of almost $7 million in new research funding awarded to the University as part of the ARC 2018 grants program announced today by Education Minister the Hon. Simon Birmingham.

The new funding will also support research for a further 13 Discovery projects, four Discovery Early Career Researcher Awards (DECRAs) and one Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities (LIEF) grant.

Deakin Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research Professor Peter Hodgson congratulated all new research award recipients, noting the funding would underpin important investigations across a raft of key disciplines including culture and society, materials innovation, sciences, health, psychology and education.

“I’m delighted that the capacity of Deakin researchers to make a difference to the national and international communities we serve, from the sciences to the humanities, has been recognised,” Professor Hodgson said.

“These awards are a much-deserved acknowledgement that high level research underpins all future advances for Australia and the globe, and these projects each play a vital part in improving the world around us.”

The 13 Discovery projects include:

Professor Tiffany Walsh, Institute for Frontier Materials, Interfacial design for high performance carbon fibre polymer composites;

Professor Martine Powell, School of Psychology, Determining elements that underpin learning of child-witness interviewing;

Dr Euan Ritchie, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Leader of the pack: social structure and predator management;

Professor Fethi Mansouri, Aflred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, A transcultural approach to belonging and engagement among migrant youth;

Professor Tong Lin, Institute for Frontier Materials, Microstructure, effect on energy harvesting ability of electrospun fibres;

Professor Katherine Buchanan, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Revisiting the ontogeny of vocal learning in birds: from neuron to fitness;

Dr Yamini Narayanan, Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Animals and urban planning: Indian cities as Zoöpolises;

Professor Maria Forsyth, Institute for Frontier Materials, Multifunctional and environmentally friendly corrosion inhibitor systems;

Professor Shahram Akbarzadeh, Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation,  Women’s NGOs and gender sensitive policy change in Iran;

Professor Russell Tytler, School of Education, Enriching mathematics and science learning: an interdisciplinary approach;

Professor Craig Olsson, School of Psychology, The intergenerational origins of social and emotional wellbeing;

Professor Wanlei Zhou, School of Information Technology, Enhancing information credibility using mathematical prediction; and

Professor Andrew Bennett, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Genomic diversity, tolerance and ecology of wildlife disease.

The ARC Discovery Indigenous 2018 award for Professor Paradies is titled Beyond recognition: postcolonial relationality across difference.

ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award recipients are:

Dr Ludovic Dumee, Institute for Frontier Materials, Development of two-dimensional nanoporous membranes

;Dr Trina Hinkley, School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Impact of screen time on preschoolers’ social skills and cognitive function;Dr

Greg Kowalski, School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Phosphatidylserine: a regulator of muscle and mitochondrial biology?; and

Dr Victoria Stead, Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Labour, race and belonging: strengthening Rural Workforces and Communities.

Deakin’s Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities (LIEF) 2018 recipient is IFM’s Professor Maria Forsyth, who will work with Associate Professor Patrick Howlett, Dr Daniel Fabijanic and Professor Peter Hodgson, in collaboration with Monash University and RMIT University. Their project is titled: A glow discharge optical emission spectrometer for challenging surfaces.

Funding is being provided by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council’s National Competitive Grants Program.