Over $4.3 million in ARC fellowship funding for Deakin researchers

Five Deakin University researchers will share in $4,397,350 for new projects through Australian Research Council (ARC) Fellowships. The latest round of funding includes the Early Career Industry Fellowships, Mid-Career Industry Fellowships and Future Fellowships schemes.

Deakin’s successful projects cover a range of important topics including biodiversity and climate resilience, collaborative and reliable machine learning, heritage and displacement, protecting young people from novel gambling marketing strategies and management of alpine ecosystems.

The ARC Chief Executive Officer, Professor Ute Roessner, says that the funding support from these Fellowship schemes plays a vital role in building Australia’s research and innovation pipeline.

By investing in research capability, we enable the development of new knowledge and innovations that can translate into real-world impact, from improving education and environmental management to driving economic and social benefits.

Professor Ute Roessner

ARC Chief Executive Officer

Early Career Industry Fellowships

The Early Career Industry Fellowships scheme creates a pathway to support academic researchers in establishing careers in industry, and industry-based researchers to work in university settings, with the aim of increased two-way mobility and skill-building in research collaboration, translation and commercialisation.

'Scaling nature-positive agriculture to support species climate resilience' - $473,179

Dr Carla Archibald, Faculty of Science, Engineering and the Built Environment

As agricultural expansion and climate change pressure biodiversity, it is vital to identify at-risk species and develop targeted conservation actions. This project aims to enhance biodiversity and climate resilience by integrating conservation into agricultural supply chains across Australia.

By leveraging innovative methodologies and expert collaboration, Dr Archibald will create scalable, actionable conservation strategies tailored to specific species’ needs.

'Collaborative and reliable machine learning in Edge Computing environment' - $484,684

Dr Feifei Chen, Faculty of Science, Engineering and the Built Environment

This project aims to deliver a suite of methods and techniques to enable collaborative and reliable machine learning (ML) over 5G/6G networks. It will generate new approaches to tackle the scalability and security challenges in training ML models in Mobile Edge Computing where data processing occurs near end users.

Expected outcomes include novel techniques, mechanisms, and schemes for developing and deploying 5G/6G artificial intelligence (AI) applications with performance and privacy guarantees. It will drive Australia's 5G/6G initiatives by enabling edge AI applications in various areas such as smart cities and remote learning. It will strengthen post-COVID economic resilience and enhance Australia’s leadership in global 5G/6G research.

Future Fellowships

Future Fellowships reflects the Australian Government’s commitment to excellence in research by supporting excellent mid-career researchers to undertake high quality research in areas of national and international benefit.

‘Heritage and displacement: Intersections of exile, culture and conflict’- $1,286,828

Professor Benjamin Isakhan, Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation (ADI) and Faculty of Arts and Education

This project aims to investigate the intersections between heritage and displacement, and the differing ways these are understood by displaced people, governments and global agencies. Dr Isakhan will work to generate new knowledge via an innovative interdisciplinary approach that includes developing a novel conceptual framework, creating an original database and conducting interviews. Expected outcomes include unprecedented empirical insights into how displaced people from the Middle East perceive their heritage, and the extent to which this aligns with the policies of relevant actors.

‘Protecting young people from novel gambling marketing strategies’ - $970,859

Dr Hannah Pitt, Institute for Health Transformation (IHT) and Faculty of Health

Dr Pitt will work to understand the broad range of gambling marketing strategies that young people (16-24 years) are exposed to and influenced by, beyond televised advertising. This project expects to document how the gambling industry and their allies frame gambling using novel marketing strategies to shape gambling attitudes and resist regulatory reform. The work undertaken will build new insights into how young people interpret novel forms of gambling marketing, new frameworks to map and monitor gambling marketing strategies, and youth informed policy recommendations.

Mid-Career Industry Fellowships

The Mid-Career Industry Fellowships scheme creates a pathway to support academic researchers in establishing careers in industry, and industry-based researchers to work in university settings, with the aim of increased two-way mobility and skill-building in research collaboration, translation and commercialisation.

‘Combining snow science and seed ecology to better manage alpine ecosystems’ - $1,181,800

Associate Professor Susanna Venn, Faculty of Science, Engineering and the Built Environment

A/Prof Venn aims to determine how ongoing declines in snow affect the growth, development and regeneration of alpine plants. This project will fill an important knowledge gap about how a contraction of the snow season affects spring flowering, seed development, germination, seedling growth and seedling survival through summer. The project will provide tools to promote alpine ecosystem resilience amidst plant life cycle disruptions, of benefit to land managers and stakeholders.

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