Optimising Volunteer Management Strategy at the Australian Red Cross Blood Service (Victoria). This project reconceptualises volunteering as a ?cultural practice? (de Certeau 1984) to enable the Australian Red Cross Blood Service (ARCBS) to optimise its volunteer management through an enhanced understanding of who its volunteers are and why they volunteer for the ?blood bank?. Its operating premise is that knowing one's volunteer workforce is essential to their effective management. It builds on ....Optimising Volunteer Management Strategy at the Australian Red Cross Blood Service (Victoria). This project reconceptualises volunteering as a ?cultural practice? (de Certeau 1984) to enable the Australian Red Cross Blood Service (ARCBS) to optimise its volunteer management through an enhanced understanding of who its volunteers are and why they volunteer for the ?blood bank?. Its operating premise is that knowing one's volunteer workforce is essential to their effective management. It builds on the platform of volunteer studies established by social research and extends it via a critical reconsideration of the work of Michel de Certeau.Read moreRead less
Analysis of the structure of latin squares. The benefits to Australia of fundamental research in core disciplines such as mathematics are well documented. Discrete mathematics and combinatorics are boom disciplines of the computer age and this project seeks new knowledge concerning basic building blocks of combinatorial mathematics. The outcomes will be of interest to theoretical discrete mathematicians around the world, enhancing Australia's already high research profile in this important area ....Analysis of the structure of latin squares. The benefits to Australia of fundamental research in core disciplines such as mathematics are well documented. Discrete mathematics and combinatorics are boom disciplines of the computer age and this project seeks new knowledge concerning basic building blocks of combinatorial mathematics. The outcomes will be of interest to theoretical discrete mathematicians around the world, enhancing Australia's already high research profile in this important area of pure mathematical research. Importantly, the problems under investigation offer substantial opportunity for excellent postgraduate training, critical for the future of Australian research. Read moreRead less
Special Research Initiatives - Grant ID: SR200200677
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$180,000.00
Summary
Staying on Country: Infrastructure Needs for Remote Community Viability. This project introduces the concept of infrastructural biographies to revisit the history of remote community formations from the self-determination era to today. Using ethnographic approaches to understand infrastructural legacies, it aims to interrogate the governance and hardware requirements for supporting Indigenous residents to stay on country. The project will produce four case studies capturing community resilience ....Staying on Country: Infrastructure Needs for Remote Community Viability. This project introduces the concept of infrastructural biographies to revisit the history of remote community formations from the self-determination era to today. Using ethnographic approaches to understand infrastructural legacies, it aims to interrogate the governance and hardware requirements for supporting Indigenous residents to stay on country. The project will produce four case studies capturing community resilience efforts in northern and central Australia. Expected benefits include an enhanced understanding of infrastructural issues in relation to viability concerns, and improved policy strategies for Indigenous corporations, NGOs, and governments working on remote Indigenous governance, maintenance programs, and climate-readiness.Read moreRead less
Wellbeing not Winning: remote Indigenous identity and organised sport. This project examines the construction of Indigenous identity through organised sport in remote communities. Despite high profile successes of Indigenous people in elite sports, the effectiveness of relationships between remote communities and organised sport is not well understood. This project addresses the problem of how participation in organised sport affects identity and everyday life in remote Indigenous communities, b ....Wellbeing not Winning: remote Indigenous identity and organised sport. This project examines the construction of Indigenous identity through organised sport in remote communities. Despite high profile successes of Indigenous people in elite sports, the effectiveness of relationships between remote communities and organised sport is not well understood. This project addresses the problem of how participation in organised sport affects identity and everyday life in remote Indigenous communities, both positively and negatively. The project aims to provide an understanding of the role of organised sport in Indigenous identity construction in remote Australia and thus open opportunities for equitable and reconciliatory modes of participation.Read moreRead less
Integrating fire and predator management to conserve threatened species. This project aims to empower land managers to better conserve Australia’s threatened native animals by developing decision-support approaches that facilitate integrated management of threatening processes. The project will use a combination of novel predictive models, field experiments and data syntheses to assist land managers to better conserve Australia’s threatened native fauna. This project will benefit biodiversity co ....Integrating fire and predator management to conserve threatened species. This project aims to empower land managers to better conserve Australia’s threatened native animals by developing decision-support approaches that facilitate integrated management of threatening processes. The project will use a combination of novel predictive models, field experiments and data syntheses to assist land managers to better conserve Australia’s threatened native fauna. This project will benefit biodiversity conservation by enabling more effective allocation of limited conservation resources.Read moreRead less
Arresting declines of arboreal mammals in the tropical savannas. This project aims to evaluate the hypothesis that arboreal species are limited by the abundance of tree hollows, and that historical increases in the frequency of intense fires may be reducing hollow abundance. Northern Australia’s mammals are in severe decline, and arboreal species are among those that have fared worst. There is abundant anecdotal evidence that a decline in hollow abundance is the cause. Working with the Western A ....Arresting declines of arboreal mammals in the tropical savannas. This project aims to evaluate the hypothesis that arboreal species are limited by the abundance of tree hollows, and that historical increases in the frequency of intense fires may be reducing hollow abundance. Northern Australia’s mammals are in severe decline, and arboreal species are among those that have fared worst. There is abundant anecdotal evidence that a decline in hollow abundance is the cause. Working with the Western Australian Department of Parks and Wildlife in the Kimberley, the last region on the Australian mainland with an intact mammal fauna, the project aims to explore management options for increasing the availability of hollow denning sites for arboreal mammals (e.g. fire management, artificial nest boxes), and evaluate the likely impact of such actions on mammal populations across northern Australia.Read moreRead less
ARC Centre of Excellence for Indigenous Futures. ARC Centre of Excellence for Indigenous Futures. The ARC Centre of Excellence for Indigenous Futures aims to transform and improve the life chances of Indigenous Australians by utilising Indigenous knowledges in unique trans-disciplinary cross-sector designed research to enhance our understanding about the complex nature of Indigenous intergenerational inequity. The Centre expects to generate new knowledge to enable evidence-based policy formulati ....ARC Centre of Excellence for Indigenous Futures. ARC Centre of Excellence for Indigenous Futures. The ARC Centre of Excellence for Indigenous Futures aims to transform and improve the life chances of Indigenous Australians by utilising Indigenous knowledges in unique trans-disciplinary cross-sector designed research to enhance our understanding about the complex nature of Indigenous intergenerational inequity. The Centre expects to generate new knowledge to enable evidence-based policy formulation and implementation including best practice models. The Centre will be entirely led by Indigenous researchers working with communities, government agencies and practitioners to strengthen the delivery of outcomes and linkages intentionally focused on all four of the National Agreement Close The Gap -2020’s Priority Reform areas.Read moreRead less
Creating fauna-friendly cities and towns - The ecology and conservation of insectivorous bats in Melbourne. Urbanisation is a principal threat to the conservation of biodiversity worldwide. Information on the response of plants and animals to an increasingly urbanized world is essential to prevent the loss of natural assets, ensure environmental sustainability and promote human health and well-being. This research will combine extensive field surveys with state-of-the art modeling to identify th ....Creating fauna-friendly cities and towns - The ecology and conservation of insectivorous bats in Melbourne. Urbanisation is a principal threat to the conservation of biodiversity worldwide. Information on the response of plants and animals to an increasingly urbanized world is essential to prevent the loss of natural assets, ensure environmental sustainability and promote human health and well-being. This research will combine extensive field surveys with state-of-the art modeling to identify their ecological requirements. Importantly, the research will engage with local councils, park managers and community organizations to educate the wider community and ensure research outcomes are adopted. The study design will ensure that the findings are applicable to other urban areas across Australia and around the world. Read moreRead less
Movement ecology of granivores: informing fire management of savannas. This project aims to examine the decline in granivorous finches across north Australia and test the hypothesis that an increasingly nomadic lifestyle, associated with tracking grass seed availability over larger spatial scales, is the cause. The project also aims to evaluate how fire affects rangeland functioning, particularly grass diversity, to improve fire management of tropical savannas in northern Australia. This project ....Movement ecology of granivores: informing fire management of savannas. This project aims to examine the decline in granivorous finches across north Australia and test the hypothesis that an increasingly nomadic lifestyle, associated with tracking grass seed availability over larger spatial scales, is the cause. The project also aims to evaluate how fire affects rangeland functioning, particularly grass diversity, to improve fire management of tropical savannas in northern Australia. This project will provide new tools and technologies that will monitor mobile small vertebrates. Expected outcomes will improve the understanding of tropical savanna functioning and fire management. The research aligns with ‘savanna burning’ methodologies and carbon sequestration goals in north Australia.
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Aboriginal patch burning and the quest for sustainable fire management. This project aims to document historical changes in the spatial grain of the patch burning mosaic in an Arnhem Land savannah with an unbroken history of management by Aboriginal people, and in adjacent areas where traditional management has ceased. The mosaic's spatial grain will be inferred by mapping the individual ages of the long-lived conifer Callitris intratropica. Prior research has shown that Callitris individuals c ....Aboriginal patch burning and the quest for sustainable fire management. This project aims to document historical changes in the spatial grain of the patch burning mosaic in an Arnhem Land savannah with an unbroken history of management by Aboriginal people, and in adjacent areas where traditional management has ceased. The mosaic's spatial grain will be inferred by mapping the individual ages of the long-lived conifer Callitris intratropica. Prior research has shown that Callitris individuals can be reliably aged, and population structures are very sensitive to fire regimes: saplings only establish if unburnt for 10 years. This research is expected to provide the first direct test of the hypothesis that Aboriginal people maintained fine-grained fire mosaics in savannas, and inform bushfire policy debates.Read moreRead less