iMATCH: Independent mobility, active travel and children's health. Policy interventions are used across Australia to improve children's independent mobility, to increase children's physical activity levels and social interaction, and to generate more sustainable travel behaviour, particularly for the journey to school. iMATCH provides a holistic and inter-disciplinary evaluation of policy interventions than is undertaken for most evaluations of school travel and children's travel behaviour polic ....iMATCH: Independent mobility, active travel and children's health. Policy interventions are used across Australia to improve children's independent mobility, to increase children's physical activity levels and social interaction, and to generate more sustainable travel behaviour, particularly for the journey to school. iMATCH provides a holistic and inter-disciplinary evaluation of policy interventions than is undertaken for most evaluations of school travel and children's travel behaviour policies and programs. By controlling for the influence of the built and social environment, the project will provide the necessary support to justify these policy interventions and to identify key improvements for their delivery, supporting more sustainable and healthy lifestyles for Australia's children.Read moreRead less
Developing and testing a decision system for identifying housing options, mapping preferences and evaluating priorities in the disability market. Disability housing is problematic, largely because stakeholders find it difficult to agree on priorities whilst incorporating consumer needs and wants for housing. This project seeks to develop a systematic approach to improve multi-stakeholder decision making that can increase the reliability of decisions and improve consumer outcomes. Innovation lies ....Developing and testing a decision system for identifying housing options, mapping preferences and evaluating priorities in the disability market. Disability housing is problematic, largely because stakeholders find it difficult to agree on priorities whilst incorporating consumer needs and wants for housing. This project seeks to develop a systematic approach to improve multi-stakeholder decision making that can increase the reliability of decisions and improve consumer outcomes. Innovation lies in its customer oriented design and application of business models in the disability sector as well as its integrated disciplinary approach. The research design has not been applied in the Australian research context and aims to provide a much needed blueprint for market investment to develop viable, consumer directed, disability housing options.Read moreRead less
Greening procurement of infrastructure construction: optimising mass-haul operations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This project will develop and prototype tools to reduce the high environmental impact of mass haul operations in road and rail infrastructure projects. Both contractors and clients need practical methods for calculating, optimising and procuring optimal solutions, because mass haul is one of the few areas where a contractor can reduce carbon dioxide impact.
Development of a predictive model for the retention of sports officials. The Australian sport system is facing a critical shortage of sports officials. Over five years the number of officials has declined by 120,000 (26%). Research has not examined the efficacy of organisational support strategies to arrest this decline. Based on commitment, stress and the mediating effect of organisational support this project addresses the retention issue by developing a predictive model of the factors that in ....Development of a predictive model for the retention of sports officials. The Australian sport system is facing a critical shortage of sports officials. Over five years the number of officials has declined by 120,000 (26%). Research has not examined the efficacy of organisational support strategies to arrest this decline. Based on commitment, stress and the mediating effect of organisational support this project addresses the retention issue by developing a predictive model of the factors that influence stay/leave behaviour of officials. The outcomes will contribute to a range of evidence-based strategies that will help maximise retention of officials. The project will enhance the sustainability of the Australian sport system and advance retention behaviour research in the emerging field of sport management.Read moreRead less
The Kids in Communities Study: national investigation of community level effects on children's developmental outcomes. This project (a cross-disciplinary collaboration) will investigate community level factors influencing early childhood developmental outcomes using a mixed methods approach in up to 10 communities across Australia. This will result in a potential set of measures or indicators that reflect communities that are good for children.
Evaluating the impact of Indigenous preferential procurement programs. This project aims to conduct a multi-disciplinary, multi-method evaluation of the implementation and impacts of Indigenous preferential procurement programs (IPPPs) on Indigenous businesses, Indigenous communities, procurers’ operations and outcomes. Bringing together researchers in partnership with corporate and government procurers, Indigenous data custodians and the Australian Bureau of Statistics we aim to produce a signi ....Evaluating the impact of Indigenous preferential procurement programs. This project aims to conduct a multi-disciplinary, multi-method evaluation of the implementation and impacts of Indigenous preferential procurement programs (IPPPs) on Indigenous businesses, Indigenous communities, procurers’ operations and outcomes. Bringing together researchers in partnership with corporate and government procurers, Indigenous data custodians and the Australian Bureau of Statistics we aim to produce a significant national program evaluation of IPPPs and the impact at the community level. The project aims to highlight ways in which IPPPs can be [re]designed to reduce implementation friction, facilitate access and participation among Indigenous businesses and help guarantee positive effects on Indigenous communities.Read moreRead less
Constructing Building Integrity: Raising standards through professionalism. This project aims to investigate the role of professions in rebuilding trust in residential building construction in Australia. In the wake of expensive and life-threatening building defects, this project expects to generate new knowledge about the functioning of individual professionals, professionals employed in multi-profession organisations, and professionals’ interaction with their institutional environment. Expecte ....Constructing Building Integrity: Raising standards through professionalism. This project aims to investigate the role of professions in rebuilding trust in residential building construction in Australia. In the wake of expensive and life-threatening building defects, this project expects to generate new knowledge about the functioning of individual professionals, professionals employed in multi-profession organisations, and professionals’ interaction with their institutional environment. Expected outcomes include practical recommendations for improved professional standards, a rigorous building integrity system and a means for measuring change. Anticipated benefits include greater awareness by professions, trades and regulators of their role in in delivering the public goods of a trustworthy construction industry.Read moreRead less
From innovators to mainstream market: a toolkit for transforming Australian housing and maximising sustainability outcomes for stakeholders. As a significant national asset, Australia's housing needs to provide economic, social and environmental value to occupants, owners and the broader society. Learning from innovation, this project will deliver strategies to improve the productivity of the housing sector and enhance the value proposition of sustainable homes for all stakeholders.
Open Standards design for improved road network information exchange. Open Standards design for improved road network information exchange. This project aims to design a draft digital open source performance-based construction contract specification for delivering road construction information to operational network asset management. This will be a common information exchange specification for all road agencies to standardise exchange of their assets data. Road network construction and maintenan ....Open Standards design for improved road network information exchange. Open Standards design for improved road network information exchange. This project aims to design a draft digital open source performance-based construction contract specification for delivering road construction information to operational network asset management. This will be a common information exchange specification for all road agencies to standardise exchange of their assets data. Road network construction and maintenance costs $21 billion annually, but the outcome of this project is expected to save $65 to $130 million annually through data harmonisation. This project is at the leading edge of information management for roads and is expected to change several international standards.Read moreRead less