Policy Modelling for Ageing in Emerging Economies: The Case of Indonesia. This project, in collaboration with the World Bank and the Indonesian Planning Authority, will support major social and economic policy development in a rapidly ageing region. It will break new ground by developing a cutting-edge economic policy model reflecting salient features of ageing in emerging economies, taking into account the wider implications for education, employment, formalisation, growth, and retirement. It w ....Policy Modelling for Ageing in Emerging Economies: The Case of Indonesia. This project, in collaboration with the World Bank and the Indonesian Planning Authority, will support major social and economic policy development in a rapidly ageing region. It will break new ground by developing a cutting-edge economic policy model reflecting salient features of ageing in emerging economies, taking into account the wider implications for education, employment, formalisation, growth, and retirement. It will bring the armoury of policy analysis instruments available to these countries up to the standard now enjoyed by the developed world. Indonesia, on the brink of major pension reform, will be used as a test bed. Data sets will be developed to allow the model structure to be applied to other emerging economies in Asia. Read moreRead less
Inequality, Trade, and Technology. This project aims to improve our understanding of the causes of rising income inequality in the world economy and in Australia since the early 1980s. We focus on the increasing building costs and imports of machinery as significant contributors to the increasing inequality. We hypothesize 1) that the increasing costs of buildings have reduced the demand for workers that are complementary to non-residential building capital; thus, reducing real wages; and 2) tha ....Inequality, Trade, and Technology. This project aims to improve our understanding of the causes of rising income inequality in the world economy and in Australia since the early 1980s. We focus on the increasing building costs and imports of machinery as significant contributors to the increasing inequality. We hypothesize 1) that the increasing costs of buildings have reduced the demand for workers that are complementary to non-residential building capital; thus, reducing real wages; and 2) that the marked increase in imports of machinery since the 1960s has reduced the demand for unskilled labour and widened the employment and wage gap between skilled and unskilled labour. Both factors may have driven the increasing inequality in Australia.
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Embrittlement-tolerant alloys for safe hydrogen transmission and storage. Hydrogen embrittlement in steels is a major impediment to a safe hydrogen economy. This project will determine how hydrogen affects the deformation behaviour of steel, providing the fundamental information that is required to develop alloys that can be safely used in infrastructure for a future Australian hydrogen industry. We will utilise new technologies that allow us, for the first time, to determine the position of hyd ....Embrittlement-tolerant alloys for safe hydrogen transmission and storage. Hydrogen embrittlement in steels is a major impediment to a safe hydrogen economy. This project will determine how hydrogen affects the deformation behaviour of steel, providing the fundamental information that is required to develop alloys that can be safely used in infrastructure for a future Australian hydrogen industry. We will utilise new technologies that allow us, for the first time, to determine the position of hydrogen atoms around micro-scale features and to compare it to local mechanical behaviour, determined by micro-mechanical tests. The systematic investigation of the effect of hydrogen on different micro-components within steel will allow the development of microstructure-guided alloy design principles.Read moreRead less
Can Spatial Fishery-dependent Data Be Used To Determine Abalone Stock Status In A Spatially Structured Fishery?
Funder
Fisheries Research and Development Corporation
Funding Amount
$562,128.00
Summary
With the advent of the Status of Australian Fish Stocks (SAFS) process, there is now a requirement to provide a stock ‘status’ determination in addition to the annual TACC determination. The ‘status’ reflects changes in the overall biomass, the fishing mortality, or in their proxies. This has led to disagreements among researchers, managers and industry, largely due to uncertainty around how best to derive a meaningful overall stock status indicator to meet the requirements of the SAFS reporting ....With the advent of the Status of Australian Fish Stocks (SAFS) process, there is now a requirement to provide a stock ‘status’ determination in addition to the annual TACC determination. The ‘status’ reflects changes in the overall biomass, the fishing mortality, or in their proxies. This has led to disagreements among researchers, managers and industry, largely due to uncertainty around how best to derive a meaningful overall stock status indicator to meet the requirements of the SAFS reporting process. These higher-level reporting processes are an important demonstration of sustainable management of Australian fisheries, but only if stock status determinations are accurate and defensible.
Australian abalone fisheries primarily use harvest control rules based around CPUE (Kg/Hr) to set TACC. However, with abalone, stable catch-rates may not indicate stable biomass and/or stable density. Catch-rates are frequently criticised because the effort needed to take a quantity of catch may be influenced by density but also by density independent factors such as conditions at the time of fishing, experience, and the ability of fishers to adjust their fishing strategy to maintain catch rates (diver behaviour driven hyper-stability). While there are many issues with the assumption that CPUE is a reliable proxy for abundance, it is assumed to be so despite the absence of robust data to validate use of CPUE in this way. In some jurisdictions CPUE is supplemented by sparse fishery-dependent size and density data. There is an urgent need to review common assumptions, methods and interpretations of CPUE as a primary indicator, and to determine whether inclusion of spatial fishery data could provide a ‘global’ indicator of stock status for abalone fisheries.
Objectives: 1. Characterise the statistical properties, coherence, interpretability and assumptions of spatial and classic indicators of fishery performance 2. Develop methods for inclusion of fine-scale spatial data in CPUE standardisations 3. Identify methods for detecting hyper-stability in CPUE 4. Determine feasibility of spatial data based stock status determination in spatially structured fisheries Read moreRead less
Wearable thermoelectric textiles for portable microelectronics. Wearable thermoelectrics enable the power generation from the temperature difference between human body and ambient temperature by using thermoelectric effect. This project aims to design eco-friendly wearable thermoelectric textiles to realize high-efficiency solid-state power generation and meet individual needs with human comfort and health. The target is to achieve a power density in the as-designed thermoelectric textiles by th ....Wearable thermoelectric textiles for portable microelectronics. Wearable thermoelectrics enable the power generation from the temperature difference between human body and ambient temperature by using thermoelectric effect. This project aims to design eco-friendly wearable thermoelectric textiles to realize high-efficiency solid-state power generation and meet individual needs with human comfort and health. The target is to achieve a power density in the as-designed thermoelectric textiles by the optimization of materials and device design. The outcome will open up a new platform for the green and sustainable charge for portable microelectronics, which will lead to an innovative technology for energy management, which will place Australia at the forefront of wearable electronics and textile industry.Read moreRead less
Unlocking Australia's offshore gas endowment. This project aims to develop practical new methods of predicting and detecting the formation of solids in gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) production. Australia has large offshore reserves of natural gas and has made the investments necessary to help fuel the global transition to cleaner, reliable energy sources. However, conventional engineering approaches of producing gas from deep-water reserves have reached the limits of viability because of t ....Unlocking Australia's offshore gas endowment. This project aims to develop practical new methods of predicting and detecting the formation of solids in gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) production. Australia has large offshore reserves of natural gas and has made the investments necessary to help fuel the global transition to cleaner, reliable energy sources. However, conventional engineering approaches of producing gas from deep-water reserves have reached the limits of viability because of the costs required to prevent solids forming in subsea pipelines or cryogenic LNG plants. The project’s expected outcome include sophisticated tools in open-access software based on these new predictive methods, and a step-change in Australia’s ability to access its offshore gas.Read moreRead less
Basement Jacks - Where's Your Stock At? Understanding Stock Structure And Connectivity Of Mangrove Jack In Northern Australia
Funder
Fisheries Research and Development Corporation
Funding Amount
$250,000.00
Summary
Mangrove Jack (Lutjanus argentimaculatus) are a long lived (>50 years), late maturing (~6 to 10 years) species that can grow to a large size (>1 metre). Their typical distribution in Australian waters extends from Perth, around the north of the continent to Sydney. Mangrove Jack spend several years as juveniles in freshwater and estuarine habitats before migrating to deeper, offshore waters as they near sexual maturity.
Mangrove Jack are popular amongst all fishing sectors; their aggre ....Mangrove Jack (Lutjanus argentimaculatus) are a long lived (>50 years), late maturing (~6 to 10 years) species that can grow to a large size (>1 metre). Their typical distribution in Australian waters extends from Perth, around the north of the continent to Sydney. Mangrove Jack spend several years as juveniles in freshwater and estuarine habitats before migrating to deeper, offshore waters as they near sexual maturity.
Mangrove Jack are popular amongst all fishing sectors; their aggressive feeding and tendency to aggregate (as both juveniles and adults) also makes them vulnerable to overfishing. Juvenile Mangrove Jack are primarily (but not exclusively) caught by Indigenous fishers, recreational fishers and charter boat clients around estuaries and inshore reefs, whereas adults are caught (occasionally in significant quantities) by offshore trawl operations to the west of Cape York.
The sustainability of Mangrove Jack is assessed under the national Status of Australian Fish Stocks (SAFS) reporting framework, which relies on an understanding of the stock structure of each focal species. Previous genetic analyses using mitochondrial and microsatellite markers suggest that Mangrove Jack form a single homogeneous stock in Australian waters. However, these analytical tools often lack the resolution necessary to detect fine-scale stock structure in larval dispersing fishes. This in turn compromises current stock assessment approaches for Mangrove Jack (undertaken at the jurisdictional or management unit level) as there may be a spatial mismatch between the area of the assessment unit/s and the true stock structure of this species; a situation confounded by a limited understanding of the dynamics of ontogenetic migration/connectivity in Mangrove Jack.
This being the case, there is a pressing need to examine the population structure and connectivity of Mangrove Jack across its Australian range. This will be achieved through a combination of cutting-edge genetic methods (i.e. single nucleotide polymorphisms), otolith micro-chemistry and parasite analyses, in order to address the national FRDC priority “Resolving stock uncertainty for priority species (including Mangrove Jack)”. Objectives: 1. Determine the stock structure of Mangrove Jack across northern Australia 2. Describe the level of inshore/offshore connectivity of Mangrove Jack between Carnarvon and Cape York (encompassing areas prospected by demersal trawl fisheries) 3. Increase stakeholder participation in fisheries research 4. Improve community awareness of fishery management practices Read moreRead less
Removing Seabirds From The Otterboard Trawler Danger Zone.
Funder
Fisheries Research and Development Corporation
Funding Amount
$150,000.00
Summary
The conservation status of seabirds means that any level of interaction is of serious concern. The only known mitigation strategy known to reduce interactions to almost zero is to not discard biological material (discards and offal) while fishing gear is in the water. In late March AFMA advised industry that vessels fishing south of 38.00 (the Victorian southern coast) would not be able to discard biological material while fishing. This regulation is to be rolled out in two phases starting ....The conservation status of seabirds means that any level of interaction is of serious concern. The only known mitigation strategy known to reduce interactions to almost zero is to not discard biological material (discards and offal) while fishing gear is in the water. In late March AFMA advised industry that vessels fishing south of 38.00 (the Victorian southern coast) would not be able to discard biological material while fishing. This regulation is to be rolled out in two phases starting executed in July and September 2019. AFMA contend that this will reduce catches on impacted (southern) trawlers by 20% but SETFIA believes that this might be up to 40%. AFMA and SETFIA agree that the SETF's revenue will reduce by $6-12m from $40m to $28-34m in its current form. Additional AFMA management costs associated with seabird mitigation will bring 2019/20 levies to $3m which will be 9-11% of revenue. SETFIA and AFMA have agreed that in principle exemptions can be granted IF vessels can prove that seabirds are no longer attracted to the area where trawl warps enter the water (the "danger" zone). The purpose of this urgent application is to seek emergency funding to fund innovation around how trawl vessels might stop birds from entering this danger zone. Without a solution it is likely that given the increase in levies of $0.5-1.0m and decrease in revenue, many southern trawl vessel operations will cease to be profitable and leave the fishery. Further, small New Zealand trawlers are not subject to any seabird mitigations; this fleet is the main competitor to SETF sales. As vessels exit the fishery the levy base will be spread across remaining vessels and the fishery may be reach a tipping point in which it collapses. The SETF is the major supplier of local finfish to the Sydney and Melbourne fish markets and it the largest Commonwealth managed finfish fishery in Australia. Objectives: 1. Development of strategies to remove seabirds from the danger zone (between trawl warps and the water), i.e. achieve exemptions from the "no biological material discharge while fishing" rule 2. When successful distribute these strategies to other trawl fishers allowing them to duplicate them where possible Read moreRead less
Structural safety guidelines for accidental hydrogen explosion hazards . This project aims to develop structural safety guidelines to mitigate hydrogen explosion hazards which can be identified as a major safety concern due to the higher demand worldwide for sustainable energy sources with no carbon emission. The world’s growing demand for hydrogen and Australia’s National Hydrogen Strategy to develop the industry will make Australia a core player in hydrogen production creating a massive econom ....Structural safety guidelines for accidental hydrogen explosion hazards . This project aims to develop structural safety guidelines to mitigate hydrogen explosion hazards which can be identified as a major safety concern due to the higher demand worldwide for sustainable energy sources with no carbon emission. The world’s growing demand for hydrogen and Australia’s National Hydrogen Strategy to develop the industry will make Australia a core player in hydrogen production creating a massive economic opportunity. However, the high flammability and low ignition energy of hydrogen makes it vulnerable to accidental explosions. Hence, this project will address the lack of safety protocols in Australian Standards related to the handling of hydrogen by producing essential design recommendations.Read moreRead less