Small States' use of law of the sea litigation against greater powers. This project will investigate how small States are using law of the sea dispute settlement mechanisms to gain political advantages in conflicts with greater powers, including Security Council permanent members. It is important to understand how the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea can be leveraged to defend coastal State rights in strategic disputes concerning sovereign rights, unresolved boundaries, and military affairs. ....Small States' use of law of the sea litigation against greater powers. This project will investigate how small States are using law of the sea dispute settlement mechanisms to gain political advantages in conflicts with greater powers, including Security Council permanent members. It is important to understand how the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea can be leveraged to defend coastal State rights in strategic disputes concerning sovereign rights, unresolved boundaries, and military affairs. This research will better equip lawyers and policy makers to understand how such strategic litigation strengthens or undermines the rules based order at sea. The project will assist Australia to maintain its leading role in defending that maritime order and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea as its cornerstone.Read moreRead less
Informal Lawmaking in Maritime Security: New Directions in Ocean Governance. This project will investigate the rapidly increasing contribution of informal lawmaking to promoting maritime security and to developing new forms of ocean governance. It is important to assess this form of international cooperation in response to key maritime security concerns, such as the freedom of navigation, boat migration, illegal fishing and transnational crimes, to demonstrate the impact of diverse actors, insti ....Informal Lawmaking in Maritime Security: New Directions in Ocean Governance. This project will investigate the rapidly increasing contribution of informal lawmaking to promoting maritime security and to developing new forms of ocean governance. It is important to assess this form of international cooperation in response to key maritime security concerns, such as the freedom of navigation, boat migration, illegal fishing and transnational crimes, to demonstrate the impact of diverse actors, institutions and networks on governance. This research will facilitate how international lawyers and policymakers can currently influence the operation of international law to improve maritime security responses and will better equip Australia to preserve its leadership role internationally in promoting a rules-based order at sea.Read moreRead less
Do regional climate models rain too much? This project aims to provide a best-practice, in-depth assessment of the climate model simulations that are used to support regional climate change impact assessments. The focus will be on rainfall and the hydrological cycle as these aspects are especially impacts-relevant. Innovation comes from the application of a common benchmarking framework which includes observational uncertainty and process-based understanding to address common modelling limitatio ....Do regional climate models rain too much? This project aims to provide a best-practice, in-depth assessment of the climate model simulations that are used to support regional climate change impact assessments. The focus will be on rainfall and the hydrological cycle as these aspects are especially impacts-relevant. Innovation comes from the application of a common benchmarking framework which includes observational uncertainty and process-based understanding to address common modelling limitations. Any model failings identified will feed into model development strategies and support enhanced decision-making informed by regional climate model simulations.Read moreRead less
The Blue Economy and International Law. States, regional bodies and international financial institutions are seeking new economic opportunities from the sea. Both national and globally-shared ocean resources are marked for the pandemic recovery amidst escalating threats including marine plastics pollution, climate change and overfishing. The Blue Economy promises to deliver growth that aligns with environmental and human welfare goals. This project aims to provide the first detailed analysis of ....The Blue Economy and International Law. States, regional bodies and international financial institutions are seeking new economic opportunities from the sea. Both national and globally-shared ocean resources are marked for the pandemic recovery amidst escalating threats including marine plastics pollution, climate change and overfishing. The Blue Economy promises to deliver growth that aligns with environmental and human welfare goals. This project aims to provide the first detailed analysis of the laws and practices relating to the Blue Economy. It will investigate treaties and other instruments from trade, development, fisheries, climate and environmental organisations. The findings will provide guidance to Australia, the Indo-Pacific region and the international community.Read moreRead less
Regulating and countering structural inequality on digital platforms. This project aims to find legal, ethical, technical, and commercial opportunities to counter inequality online. It uses machine learning and custom data collection tools to create new knowledge about how digital platforms—including search engines, social media, peer economy, and news platforms—can help to tackle misogyny, racism, and other forms of structural discrimination. It uses this knowledge to investigate the extent to ....Regulating and countering structural inequality on digital platforms. This project aims to find legal, ethical, technical, and commercial opportunities to counter inequality online. It uses machine learning and custom data collection tools to create new knowledge about how digital platforms—including search engines, social media, peer economy, and news platforms—can help to tackle misogyny, racism, and other forms of structural discrimination. It uses this knowledge to investigate the extent to which private sector digital platforms can be expected to monitor and regulate the actions of their users, what responsibilities they have to avoid contributing to discrimination, hatred, intolerance and abuse, and how the law should develop to ensure that our digital environment is more equal and fair. Read moreRead less
Overcoming Violence and Building Peace in Conditions of Complexity in PNG . The project is an investigation of the drivers and inhibitors of three inter-related forms of violence in Papua New Guinea - tribal fighting, sorcery accusation related violence and family and sexual violence. The harm caused by these forms of violence is systemic and ongoing, with widespread negative impacts for women, men and children across multiple dimensions of social and economic development. The project will produ ....Overcoming Violence and Building Peace in Conditions of Complexity in PNG . The project is an investigation of the drivers and inhibitors of three inter-related forms of violence in Papua New Guinea - tribal fighting, sorcery accusation related violence and family and sexual violence. The harm caused by these forms of violence is systemic and ongoing, with widespread negative impacts for women, men and children across multiple dimensions of social and economic development. The project will produce new knowledge about how violence and peace-making initiatives emerge, connect, spread and disperse, and generate new conceptual models to better analyse the dynamics of violence and peace across time and space. These theoretical insights will inform better violence prevention initiatives for Papua New Guinea and beyond.Read moreRead less
How do humans affect the nature and impacts of Australian heatwaves? This project aims to provide more accurate information on the human signal behind heatwaves and their impacts, by deriving a comprehensive approach of the detection and attribution of climate extremes. The project expects to generate robust estimates of the human signal behind high-impact events, and an innovative, versatile methodology that can be applied to any extreme event and its impacts. With the specific application to A ....How do humans affect the nature and impacts of Australian heatwaves? This project aims to provide more accurate information on the human signal behind heatwaves and their impacts, by deriving a comprehensive approach of the detection and attribution of climate extremes. The project expects to generate robust estimates of the human signal behind high-impact events, and an innovative, versatile methodology that can be applied to any extreme event and its impacts. With the specific application to Australian heatwave impacts on human health, key knowledge should support more targeted and accurate mitigation policies, minimising the strain on resources when future heatwaves occur. This should help in safeguarding future generations from deadly impacts of heatwaves.Read moreRead less
Understanding the neural basis of gaze behaviour in the human brain. Selecting where to look is a necessary step in human vision that is vital for guiding social behaviours. For example, although we inadvertently look toward faces in our environment, especially faces expressing emotion, we do not know how this is accomplished. This project aims to define the mechanisms responsible for detecting and prioritising faces in the human brain. The results are expected to advance our understanding of ho ....Understanding the neural basis of gaze behaviour in the human brain. Selecting where to look is a necessary step in human vision that is vital for guiding social behaviours. For example, although we inadvertently look toward faces in our environment, especially faces expressing emotion, we do not know how this is accomplished. This project aims to define the mechanisms responsible for detecting and prioritising faces in the human brain. The results are expected to advance our understanding of how vision operates in daily life, and augment theories of how the prioritisation of social cues might differ in people living with Anxiety disorders. It is anticipated that the project outcomes will also inform the development of artificial vision systems that can interpret social meaning in visual environments.
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Unlocking digital innovation: Intellectual Property and the Right to Repair. This project aims to investigate the role that Intellectual Property (IP) plays in the rights and capacities of Australians to repair their smart goods. This project will generate new knowledge with regards to how IP can contribute to emerging regulatory approaches to the 'Right to Repair', which has consequences for a more efficient and sustainable use of Australia's resources. Expected outcomes include advanced knowle ....Unlocking digital innovation: Intellectual Property and the Right to Repair. This project aims to investigate the role that Intellectual Property (IP) plays in the rights and capacities of Australians to repair their smart goods. This project will generate new knowledge with regards to how IP can contribute to emerging regulatory approaches to the 'Right to Repair', which has consequences for a more efficient and sustainable use of Australia's resources. Expected outcomes include advanced knowledge and understanding of IP and the role it can play in rebalancing manufacturer and consumer relationships in digital consumables and in Australia's future environmental sustainability. This will enhance Australia's economy and society through legal, economic, and environmental regulatory reform.Read moreRead less
Understanding the role of mental imagery in cognition and behaviour. This project aims to develop objective physiological methods to measure mental imagery, uncover its brain mechanisms using neuroimaging and show how it biases cognition. It has long been suspected that mental imagery biases cognition, visual working memory and perception. However, showing this has been difficult due to a lack of measurement techniques. Here this is overcome by developing novel assay technologies and applying th ....Understanding the role of mental imagery in cognition and behaviour. This project aims to develop objective physiological methods to measure mental imagery, uncover its brain mechanisms using neuroimaging and show how it biases cognition. It has long been suspected that mental imagery biases cognition, visual working memory and perception. However, showing this has been difficult due to a lack of measurement techniques. Here this is overcome by developing novel assay technologies and applying them to the extremes of imagery, Aphantasia (no imagery) and Hyperphantasia (strong and vivid imagery). Expected outcomes include new measurement tools for generations of scientists, understanding the brain mechanisms of imagery and showing how our cognition (memory, risk, investing) is biased by mental imagery. Read moreRead less