Improved monitoring of aquatic pollutants in national water resources. Clean water is predicted to become the world’s most valuable asset during this century, necessitating the improved monitoring of Australia’s limited water resources. Using a new and integrated monitoring approach, this project expects to develop and implement novel passive sampling technologies to monitor a range of water pollutants, specifically toxic ionised organic chemicals of emerging concern. The outcomes of this projec ....Improved monitoring of aquatic pollutants in national water resources. Clean water is predicted to become the world’s most valuable asset during this century, necessitating the improved monitoring of Australia’s limited water resources. Using a new and integrated monitoring approach, this project expects to develop and implement novel passive sampling technologies to monitor a range of water pollutants, specifically toxic ionised organic chemicals of emerging concern. The outcomes of this project will create cost-effective tools to advance the detection of emerging chemicals in drinking, ground, surface and waste waters. The technology will benefit millions of Australians by safeguarding essential water resources.Read moreRead less
Understanding Australia by analysing wastewater during the Census 2021 . This project aims to utilise the Australian Census 2021, a unique opportunity to link exposure to chemical and biological hazards with catchment socio-demographic data via systematic wastewater analysis. The project is expected to advance our capabilities to identify emerging hazards and understand factors that affect spatiotemporal trends in hazards across Australia. Moreover, in a world first, the project aims to assess c ....Understanding Australia by analysing wastewater during the Census 2021 . This project aims to utilise the Australian Census 2021, a unique opportunity to link exposure to chemical and biological hazards with catchment socio-demographic data via systematic wastewater analysis. The project is expected to advance our capabilities to identify emerging hazards and understand factors that affect spatiotemporal trends in hazards across Australia. Moreover, in a world first, the project aims to assess chemical fate on a national level by linking sales/use with fate and release from wastewater treatment plants and assess treatment efficiency at >100 plants around Australia. The project expects to provide insight for government, wastewater managers and industry into hazards that may affect environmental and human health.Read moreRead less
Australian Laureate Fellowships - Grant ID: FL120100108
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,849,770.00
Summary
Surrogate ecology: when and where can it work to improve environmental management? New empirical analyses and new ecological theory will be used to discover where, when and how to best apply surrogates. New capacity will be built in surrogate ecology and the results used to significantly enhance the effective management and monitoring of environments and biodiversity both in Australia and worldwide.
Establishing advanced networks for air quality sensing and analyses. Establishing advanced networks for air quality sensing and analyses. This project aims to develop innovative, cost-effective, high resolution air quality networks. Recent developments in sensor technologies improve the ability to harvest atmospheric data. This project will develop, validate and implement methods for high sensitivity atmospheric sensing and apply cutting-edge statistical and analytic techniques to the data sets, ....Establishing advanced networks for air quality sensing and analyses. Establishing advanced networks for air quality sensing and analyses. This project aims to develop innovative, cost-effective, high resolution air quality networks. Recent developments in sensor technologies improve the ability to harvest atmospheric data. This project will develop, validate and implement methods for high sensitivity atmospheric sensing and apply cutting-edge statistical and analytic techniques to the data sets, unprecedented in scope and resolution. Outcomes include an open access database to quantify and visualise intra-urban air pollution and human exposure and develop air quality maps and smoke pollution management tools. It is expected to advance the evidence-based management of air as a resource, increasing economic prosperity and enhancing human health and quality of life.Read moreRead less
The melioidosis agent Burkholderia pseudomallei in the anthropogenic environment of northern Australia. This project will analyse environmental factors contributing to the persistence of the soil bacterium and melioidosis agent, Burkholderia pseudomallei in the anthropogenic environment. This will increase understanding of the consequences of land use manipulations upon these bacteria and will suggest remediation measures to reduce the risk of exposure.
Estimating per capita use and release of chemicals by wastewater analysis. This project aims to systematically collect and analyse wastewater to assess human exposure to chemicals including drugs, pharmaceuticals, lifestyle chemicals and environmental pollutants. By combining temporal sampling from key sewage treatment plants with comprehensive nationwide sampling over the week of the 2016 census day, the project expects to estimate the per-capita human exposure to chemicals in the Australian po ....Estimating per capita use and release of chemicals by wastewater analysis. This project aims to systematically collect and analyse wastewater to assess human exposure to chemicals including drugs, pharmaceuticals, lifestyle chemicals and environmental pollutants. By combining temporal sampling from key sewage treatment plants with comprehensive nationwide sampling over the week of the 2016 census day, the project expects to estimate the per-capita human exposure to chemicals in the Australian population. Accurate and objective per-capita based consumption and release estimates for a wide range of chemicals is intended to provide a baseline against which to measure changes in our chemosphere.Read moreRead less
Reducing glyphosate exposure from high use practices. This project aims to investigate methods of reducing occupational exposure to glyphosate, a ubiquitous pollutant of emerging concern. This will be achieved through developing new cost-effective analytical and sampling tools and refining methods for integrating human exposure (biomonitoring) data with surveillance data on the pathways of glyphosate exposure from high use. The project will generate new targeted knowledge on (sub) population-spe ....Reducing glyphosate exposure from high use practices. This project aims to investigate methods of reducing occupational exposure to glyphosate, a ubiquitous pollutant of emerging concern. This will be achieved through developing new cost-effective analytical and sampling tools and refining methods for integrating human exposure (biomonitoring) data with surveillance data on the pathways of glyphosate exposure from high use. The project will generate new targeted knowledge on (sub) population-specific chemical exposures in Australia, and globally. Such data are critical to inform public health and chemical regulation policy, and provide clear guidance aimed at reducing exposures, to assess the effectiveness of existing regulations, and provide a framework for implementing surveys in the future.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE120100161
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
Accumulation and half-lives of brominated flame retardants. This project seeks to determine, in vivo, previously unknown half-lives for brominated flame retardants, chemicals used in numerous, everyday products. This is vital for predicting the duration of human contamination with these persistent, toxic, bioaccumulative chemicals and assessing effectiveness of legislation to reduce human exposure.
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE210100137
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$881,758.00
Summary
Australian Environmental Specimen Bank: advancing specimen bank capability. The aim of this LIEF is to advance Australia’s specimen banking capabilities through a new, enhanced national facility, the Australian Environmental Specimen Bank (AESB). The AESB would be founded on a unique current archive of human and environmental samples established by the partners to the LIEF. Importantly, the AESB would be managed as a nationally available (to all public sector researchers), operationally self-fun ....Australian Environmental Specimen Bank: advancing specimen bank capability. The aim of this LIEF is to advance Australia’s specimen banking capabilities through a new, enhanced national facility, the Australian Environmental Specimen Bank (AESB). The AESB would be founded on a unique current archive of human and environmental samples established by the partners to the LIEF. Importantly, the AESB would be managed as a nationally available (to all public sector researchers), operationally self-funded resource for integrated exposure research into the future. The archive is expected to support longitudinal and cross-sectional studies to assess trends in exposure to chemical and biological hazards in the Australian population, identify emerging hazards, and provide a scientific basis for policy and regulatory actions.Read moreRead less
'Streamlining search and destroy': development of a robust prioritisation framework for weed eradication using Hawkweed species. Introduced species are one of the greatest threats to our biodiversity and agriculture, as evidenced by the ARC’s National Research Priority: Safeguarding Australia. This project will advance Australia’s ability to protect itself from invaders by developing tools that guide cost-effective detection and response. Our project will have a direct effect on the planning a ....'Streamlining search and destroy': development of a robust prioritisation framework for weed eradication using Hawkweed species. Introduced species are one of the greatest threats to our biodiversity and agriculture, as evidenced by the ARC’s National Research Priority: Safeguarding Australia. This project will advance Australia’s ability to protect itself from invaders by developing tools that guide cost-effective detection and response. Our project will have a direct effect on the planning and management of Hawkweed control in Victoria and New South Wales. The framework delivered will have direct application to numerous other weeds (and relevance to other pests and diseases) within and beyond Australia. Read moreRead less