Vocal mimicry in songbirds. Many of the world’s largest clade of birds - the songbirds - incorporate vocal mimicry in their songs, but while scientific interest in vocal mimicry dates from Aristotle, limited progress has been made. With our unique research program we aim to provide an empirically based, theoretically informed understanding of avian vocal mimicry. In an important advance, we will examine both sexes to test long-held male-centric assumptions about evolutionary origins and maintena ....Vocal mimicry in songbirds. Many of the world’s largest clade of birds - the songbirds - incorporate vocal mimicry in their songs, but while scientific interest in vocal mimicry dates from Aristotle, limited progress has been made. With our unique research program we aim to provide an empirically based, theoretically informed understanding of avian vocal mimicry. In an important advance, we will examine both sexes to test long-held male-centric assumptions about evolutionary origins and maintenance of this trait. Crucially, we focus on lineages found only in Australia and PNG, where songbirds originated, to develop a robust scientific understanding of vocal mimicry across the entire songbird clade, and so provide an important new perspective on why and how song began.Read moreRead less
Transgenerational Consequences of Different Environmental Experiences. The project aims to deliver an integrative overview of behavioural, evolutionary and environmental epigenetics. In particular, by studying why stress-related experiences of organisms (e.g. exposure to toxins) can be passed onto the future generations regardless of its seemingly fitness-reducing impacts. It also aims to test if the seemingly beneficial effect of non-stress related experiences (e.g. environmental enrichment) ca ....Transgenerational Consequences of Different Environmental Experiences. The project aims to deliver an integrative overview of behavioural, evolutionary and environmental epigenetics. In particular, by studying why stress-related experiences of organisms (e.g. exposure to toxins) can be passed onto the future generations regardless of its seemingly fitness-reducing impacts. It also aims to test if the seemingly beneficial effect of non-stress related experiences (e.g. environmental enrichment) can be inherited transgenerationally. This project involves both research synthesis (e.g. meta-analysis) and experiments on zebrafish employing cutting-edge statistical, computational and molecular methods along with behavioural assays. Also, the outcomes of the synthesis are expected to guide future work in the field. Read moreRead less
Maternal contributions to offspring development in a changing climate. This project aims to investigate how maternal contributions to offspring developmental environments affect metabolism, learning, growth, and survival of offspring. This project expects to provide mechanistic and evolutionary insights into how changes in metabolic function, brought about by changes in the developmental environment, contribute to variation in learning and life-history. Expected outcomes include an in-depth unde ....Maternal contributions to offspring development in a changing climate. This project aims to investigate how maternal contributions to offspring developmental environments affect metabolism, learning, growth, and survival of offspring. This project expects to provide mechanistic and evolutionary insights into how changes in metabolic function, brought about by changes in the developmental environment, contribute to variation in learning and life-history. Expected outcomes include an in-depth understanding of how changes in maternal investment and hormones impact offspring developing in different thermal environments and how such changes are mediated by compromised physiological function – providing significant benefits in understanding population persistence in Australia's rapidly changing climate.Read moreRead less
Dynamic assessment of threats to marine megafauna in face of global change. This project aims to develop a global approach to synthesise global tracking datasets and deliver near real-time diagnostics on risks for marine megafauna at a global scale pushing forward a new frontier in dynamic marine spatial management to improve conservation. This project expects to increase our understanding of how marine megafauna movements vary with environmental changes and how much they overlap with threatenin ....Dynamic assessment of threats to marine megafauna in face of global change. This project aims to develop a global approach to synthesise global tracking datasets and deliver near real-time diagnostics on risks for marine megafauna at a global scale pushing forward a new frontier in dynamic marine spatial management to improve conservation. This project expects to increase our understanding of how marine megafauna movements vary with environmental changes and how much they overlap with threatening global human activities. Expected outcomes will demonstrate how big data in marine telemetry can be synthesised and translated into ecologically significant behaviours. This should provide significant benefits to address global scientific and societal problems highlighted in the Australian science and research priorities.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE240100131
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$539,000.00
Summary
Federated Omniverse Facilities for Smart Digital Futures. A world-first trans-disciplinary, -domain, and -institutional smart 3D omniverse R&D ecosystem AuVerse will be built in NSW, affiliated with Queensland, and accessible to academia and industry. AuVerse will support cloud-based, reality-virtuality-fused, immersive, interactive and secure future-oriented digital design, development, training and society. In the new era of digital innovation and paradigm shift, AuVerse will substantially boo ....Federated Omniverse Facilities for Smart Digital Futures. A world-first trans-disciplinary, -domain, and -institutional smart 3D omniverse R&D ecosystem AuVerse will be built in NSW, affiliated with Queensland, and accessible to academia and industry. AuVerse will support cloud-based, reality-virtuality-fused, immersive, interactive and secure future-oriented digital design, development, training and society. In the new era of digital innovation and paradigm shift, AuVerse will substantially boost Australia’s pivotal research leadership and business competitiveness in nurturing new-generation, collaborative and transformative digital R&D and talent pipeline. It will enable large-scale strategic business innovation and transformation including smart manufacturing and Industry 4.0.Read moreRead less
Expectations and commitments in the Australia-USA alliance. This project aims to investigate the gap between the high expectations of mutual support and the lack of detailed security commitments in the Australia-US Alliance. The project intends to use a focused approach that captures thematic aspects of the alliance through project frames and historical slices across time. Expected outcomes can advance understanding of how alliances operate as security institutions. The outcomes can help to prom ....Expectations and commitments in the Australia-USA alliance. This project aims to investigate the gap between the high expectations of mutual support and the lack of detailed security commitments in the Australia-US Alliance. The project intends to use a focused approach that captures thematic aspects of the alliance through project frames and historical slices across time. Expected outcomes can advance understanding of how alliances operate as security institutions. The outcomes can help to promote a more informed national conversation about the costs and benefits of Australia's security relationship with the United States of America (USA) and contribute to debates over the future of the Australia-USA Alliance during a period of strategic uncertainty.Read moreRead less
Special Research Initiatives - Grant ID: SR180100005
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$1,225,000.00
Summary
Remediation of PFAS contaminated soil using soil washing and immobilisation. This project aims to assess the applicability of soil washing and immobilisation as cost-effective techniques for the remediation of per- and poly-fluroalkyl substance (PFAS) contaminated Australian soils. The project expects to establish the efficacy of the remediation of a range of PFASs, including many polyfluorinated precursors of perfluorinated, chemically-persistent legacy pollutants which are of concern. The proj ....Remediation of PFAS contaminated soil using soil washing and immobilisation. This project aims to assess the applicability of soil washing and immobilisation as cost-effective techniques for the remediation of per- and poly-fluroalkyl substance (PFAS) contaminated Australian soils. The project expects to establish the efficacy of the remediation of a range of PFASs, including many polyfluorinated precursors of perfluorinated, chemically-persistent legacy pollutants which are of concern. The project will provide a scientific basis for understanding the benefits and limitations associated with soil washing and immobilisation techniques and a more comprehensive understanding of future liabilities associated with formation of PFASs from precursors remaining in remediated soils. Collaboration with stakeholders will ensure benefits are captured both commercially and environmentally, as well as removing a potential and on-going health threat to communities exposed to these contaminants.Read moreRead less
Towards Generalisable and Unbiased Dynamic Recommender Systems. This project aims to develop the foundations, including models, methodology, and algorithms for building generalisable and unbiased dynamic recommender systems to facilitate intelligent decision-making, prompt contextualised and personalised strategic plans, and support context-aware action recourse. To ensure that fundamental principles, such as fairness and transparency, are respected, a set of algorithms and techniques are propos ....Towards Generalisable and Unbiased Dynamic Recommender Systems. This project aims to develop the foundations, including models, methodology, and algorithms for building generalisable and unbiased dynamic recommender systems to facilitate intelligent decision-making, prompt contextualised and personalised strategic plans, and support context-aware action recourse. To ensure that fundamental principles, such as fairness and transparency, are respected, a set of algorithms and techniques are proposed to develop recommender systems in a more responsible manner. The result of this project will not only maintain Australia's leadership in this frontier research area, but also serve as an excellent vehicle for the education and training of Australia's next generation of scholars and engineers.Read moreRead less
Special Research Initiatives - Grant ID: SR200200385
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$262,359.00
Summary
Transforming Democracy in the Bush: A Study of Politics in Rural Australia. This project aims to examine changing patterns of political participation and representation in rural Australia. Almost one third of our population lives outside major cities yet little is known about the democratic dynamics unfolding in rural Australia as it faces major demographic, economic and environmental change. Through in-depth case research this project will analyse how rural Australians participate in politics, ....Transforming Democracy in the Bush: A Study of Politics in Rural Australia. This project aims to examine changing patterns of political participation and representation in rural Australia. Almost one third of our population lives outside major cities yet little is known about the democratic dynamics unfolding in rural Australia as it faces major demographic, economic and environmental change. Through in-depth case research this project will analyse how rural Australians participate in politics, the interests they seek to advance and the efficacy of their political and civic activities. Expected outcomes include strengthened research capacity in rural politics, new frameworks for assessing how democracy is transforming, and reform pathways to enhance the engagement of diverse constituencies in our political system.Read moreRead less