Food systems, urban health equity and climate stabilisation: the need for a common agenda. This research will help address two great contemporary human struggles - achieving health equity and climate stabilisation. Action concerned with economic and social policy, food systems and urban living will improve Australian and global health, and help reduce social inequity such that communities are better able both to cope with the impacts of climate change and to avert further damage to the global en ....Food systems, urban health equity and climate stabilisation: the need for a common agenda. This research will help address two great contemporary human struggles - achieving health equity and climate stabilisation. Action concerned with economic and social policy, food systems and urban living will improve Australian and global health, and help reduce social inequity such that communities are better able both to cope with the impacts of climate change and to avert further damage to the global environment. Providing an evidence base that demonstrates, for the first time, what can be done in an integrated manner, will help mobilise political and popular support for a radical break with the compartmentalised and short term approach that dominates the political agenda at state, national and global levels.Read moreRead less
Addressing time scarcity: feasible strategies for a healthy future. Lack of time is the main reason people say they don't exercise, take public transport or eat healthy food, and for many Australians (especially parents who combine working with raising children) time pressure is acute. This program of research will provide ways to reduce time barriers, to make healthy and sustainable living more feasible.
Mental health, job quality and workforce participation: evidence from population health research to address complex problems and conflicting policies. Mental disorders such as depression are a major cause of disability. Improving mental health can increase productivity and workforce participation. However, the psychosocial quality of work is a factor that overlays the relationship between work and health. Poor quality work (for example, unreasonable time pressure, insecurity) increases the risk ....Mental health, job quality and workforce participation: evidence from population health research to address complex problems and conflicting policies. Mental disorders such as depression are a major cause of disability. Improving mental health can increase productivity and workforce participation. However, the psychosocial quality of work is a factor that overlays the relationship between work and health. Poor quality work (for example, unreasonable time pressure, insecurity) increases the risk of poor mental health, absenteeism, and exit from the workforce. This project will analyse data following people over time to investigate the long-term health and employment consequences of poor psychosocial job quality, and consider the special case of mature age workers. It will identify those individuals at greatest risk, and factors that can buffer against the adverse effects of poor quality work.Read moreRead less
Excessive sitting and population health: strengthening the science and the relevance to policy and practice. The majority of Australian adults spend most of their waking hours sitting; this increases the likelihood of developing diseases of inactivity, including diabetes, heart disease and some cancers. New research will investigate what factors encourage excessive sitting and what the health benefits are for people who deliberately do less sitting.
Research to enhance measurement, understanding, and policy regulatory approaches to emerging markets and trade in mothers' milk. Innovation affecting human milk supply challenges current regulation of infant food, but new markets in human milk assist the economic valuation of breastfeeding. Mothers are finding new ways to share their milk, and milk banking and human milk-based products are emerging as alternatives to commercial infant formula. This project builds on previous world-leading Austra ....Research to enhance measurement, understanding, and policy regulatory approaches to emerging markets and trade in mothers' milk. Innovation affecting human milk supply challenges current regulation of infant food, but new markets in human milk assist the economic valuation of breastfeeding. Mothers are finding new ways to share their milk, and milk banking and human milk-based products are emerging as alternatives to commercial infant formula. This project builds on previous world-leading Australian research into the economics of breastfeeding. It aims to increase understanding of markets in milk for infants and inform regulation of milk markets and milk exchange. It will investigate key features of these markets, how milk is priced, and how to access data on market prices which might improve the social and economic valuation of breastfeeding.Read moreRead less
The high conflict post-divorce shared-time family. Since the 2006 family law reforms encouraging shared-time parenting after separation, Australia has seen a marked increase in shared-time parenting where parents are in high conflict, and even where there are safety concerns. This project will examine how the children fare under shared-time parenting where their parents remain in conflict.
Ferroelectric piezoelectric materials and key problems associated with their applications in mechanical, electrical and optical energy transformations. This project aims to investigate the dynamic microstructure of ferroelectric piezoelectric materials in response to electrical fields or mechanical stresses, and therefore identify the factors enhancing the mechanical, electrical and optical couplings for intentional improvement and development of these materials for use in energy transformations ....Ferroelectric piezoelectric materials and key problems associated with their applications in mechanical, electrical and optical energy transformations. This project aims to investigate the dynamic microstructure of ferroelectric piezoelectric materials in response to electrical fields or mechanical stresses, and therefore identify the factors enhancing the mechanical, electrical and optical couplings for intentional improvement and development of these materials for use in energy transformations.Read moreRead less
Health and sustainability: Australia in a global context. Sustainable population health in Australia is threatened by emerging global and domestic forces, including rising costs of energy and food, linked with climate change and migration. Domestic factors include a growing, ageing population. Better understanding of these forces will enhance national capacity to respond and adapt to these risks.
Data sharing with strong privacy against inference attacks. This project aims to develop theories and techniques for strong protection of personal information in sharing large datasets such as national health data or census records. It intends to achieve this through developing new information theoretic methods for synthesising datasets with proven high fidelity and protection against re-identification and inference attacks, where attackers try to learn probability of sensitive data. The expecte ....Data sharing with strong privacy against inference attacks. This project aims to develop theories and techniques for strong protection of personal information in sharing large datasets such as national health data or census records. It intends to achieve this through developing new information theoretic methods for synthesising datasets with proven high fidelity and protection against re-identification and inference attacks, where attackers try to learn probability of sensitive data. The expected outcomes are algorithms for public and private sector data curators to dial up or down their data access arrangements based on privacy risks and fidelity demands linked with different data types and uses. This project intends to enable Australians to securely benefit from valuable data in decision making.Read moreRead less
Engineering Artificial Intelligence: A Spatial Representation and Reasoning Perspective. Spatial information is important in areas of national interest such as mining and exploration, environmental monitoring and planning, emergency response, and defence. Mission control centres, for instance, receive different forms of spatial data from satellites, radar, or people on the ground. They have to process the input data and make intelligent decisions in a very limited time. Intelligent systems that ....Engineering Artificial Intelligence: A Spatial Representation and Reasoning Perspective. Spatial information is important in areas of national interest such as mining and exploration, environmental monitoring and planning, emergency response, and defence. Mission control centres, for instance, receive different forms of spatial data from satellites, radar, or people on the ground. They have to process the input data and make intelligent decisions in a very limited time. Intelligent systems that are able to assist with processing different forms of spatial data efficiently and that offer reliable decision support are essential for improving the quality and reliability of such applications. This research enables future intelligent systems with these capabilities. This will directly benefit applications in areas of national interest.Read moreRead less