Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE240101337
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$433,000.00
Summary
Unpacking the policy process: alcohol policy in complex social environments. In pursuit of effective alcohol policies, experts have focused on promoting evidence-based solutions, assuming that policymakers will select policies on the basis of research evidence. However, this linear model of evidence-based policy rarely plays out when related to highly contested social issues such as alcohol use. We need new ways of thinking about influencing alcohol policy that account for and engage with the re ....Unpacking the policy process: alcohol policy in complex social environments. In pursuit of effective alcohol policies, experts have focused on promoting evidence-based solutions, assuming that policymakers will select policies on the basis of research evidence. However, this linear model of evidence-based policy rarely plays out when related to highly contested social issues such as alcohol use. We need new ways of thinking about influencing alcohol policy that account for and engage with the realities of policymaking in socially complex regions, particularly policy relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. This DECRA will address this critical gap in knowledge by generating knowledge on alcohol policy processes, with a view to informing more effective engagement in the alcohol policymaking process.Read moreRead less
A Randomised Placebo-controlled Trial Of Antibiotics To Prevent Urinary Tract Infection In Children
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$735,000.00
Summary
This study is needed to determine whether a common clinical practice long-term antibiotic treatment for children following urinary tract infection (UTI) - is safe and effective in preventing further UTI and if so, whether all appropriate children are being treated. UTI will affect about 10% of Australian children by high school age (88,000 children per year). Because UTI may damage the kidneys, the management priority for children with UTI has been prevention of further infection. Currently this ....This study is needed to determine whether a common clinical practice long-term antibiotic treatment for children following urinary tract infection (UTI) - is safe and effective in preventing further UTI and if so, whether all appropriate children are being treated. UTI will affect about 10% of Australian children by high school age (88,000 children per year). Because UTI may damage the kidneys, the management priority for children with UTI has been prevention of further infection. Currently this means the identification of children thought to be most at risk of recurrent UTI by renal tract imaging. Those found to have reflux of urine from the bladder to the kidney (present in about 30% of those with UTI) are then placed on antibiotics fro 2-5 years. Unfortunately there has never been a properly designed trial to test whether antibiotics do really prevent UTI and if so, whether children with reflux are the appropriate and only group requiring treatment. Long term antibiotics may in fact do more harm than good because of side effects like skin, bowel and blood problems and because resistant bacteria may develop. The design of this study involves the random allocation of placebo or antibiotic (cotrimoxazole, the usual antibiotic given in this case) to about 800 children after their first symptomatic UTI. These children are treated and followed for one year to determine the rate of futher UTI in both groups. Any difference in outcome between the two groups of children will be because of the antibiotic treatment. This study may prove long-term antibiotics are ineffective and therefore should not be routinely used. In this case investigation of children to detect vesicoureteric reflux would serve little purpose and should be abandoned. Alternatively antibiotic treatment may be shown as effective treatment for preventing further UTI and in this case the study will clearly identify those children who will benefit.Read moreRead less
Mothers' little helper: Alcohol use in working mothers. This project aims to generate unique insights into the strains that Australian working mothers face in their daily lives and the impact these strains have on their alcohol consumption. Using innovative methods to understand strains resulting from two major life domains, family and work, the project expects to generate new knowledge which can be used to develop interventions to address this important issue. The results of this study can prov ....Mothers' little helper: Alcohol use in working mothers. This project aims to generate unique insights into the strains that Australian working mothers face in their daily lives and the impact these strains have on their alcohol consumption. Using innovative methods to understand strains resulting from two major life domains, family and work, the project expects to generate new knowledge which can be used to develop interventions to address this important issue. The results of this study can provide significant benefits not only to the quality of life of working mothers in Australia but also has society-wide implications. This is due to alcohol use being a leading avoidable cause for productivity loss alongside other social, community and economic costs.Read moreRead less
The Macroderma initiative: conserving ghost bats and informing development. This project aims to improve methods for capturing biological information required for environmental assessments of highly mobile species and enable strategic environmental planning in Northern Australia. Using Australia’s iconic ghost bat as a focus, the project will test and apply emerging technologies to obtain key information on a species’ population status and its critical resources to inform assessments of ecologic ....The Macroderma initiative: conserving ghost bats and informing development. This project aims to improve methods for capturing biological information required for environmental assessments of highly mobile species and enable strategic environmental planning in Northern Australia. Using Australia’s iconic ghost bat as a focus, the project will test and apply emerging technologies to obtain key information on a species’ population status and its critical resources to inform assessments of ecological impacts of industry development. Important benefits of the project include information and tools for streamlining development approvals and accurately assessing risks to threatened species to improve outcomes for both our economy and our natural environment.Read moreRead less
School drug education for junior high school students in Victoria - Assessing the impact of a state-wide, evidence-based intervention
. Young people are faced with numerous and powerful influences to use both legal and illicit drugs, and drug education can play an important counterbalancing role in shaping a normative culture of safety, moderation and informed decision making in this group. The research will develop, implement and evaluate one all encompassing, evidence-based, drug education pr ....School drug education for junior high school students in Victoria - Assessing the impact of a state-wide, evidence-based intervention
. Young people are faced with numerous and powerful influences to use both legal and illicit drugs, and drug education can play an important counterbalancing role in shaping a normative culture of safety, moderation and informed decision making in this group. The research will develop, implement and evaluate one all encompassing, evidence-based, drug education program for junior high school students across Victoria. The study is unique in its size and scope and will be of national benefit because its findings will influence the nature of future drug education in all secondary schools in Australia.Read moreRead less
Automated groundwater level mapping: a tool for catchment scale estimation of aquifer storage changes, fluxes and hydrogeological properties. Cutting-edge groundwater mapping tools will be developed by this project and made freely available. Water table maps will be derived for Victoria and used to quantify aquifer properties, recharge and the groundwater balance. Fundamental limitations to quantitative groundwater management will be overcome and the Bureau of Meteorology intend to adopt the fin ....Automated groundwater level mapping: a tool for catchment scale estimation of aquifer storage changes, fluxes and hydrogeological properties. Cutting-edge groundwater mapping tools will be developed by this project and made freely available. Water table maps will be derived for Victoria and used to quantify aquifer properties, recharge and the groundwater balance. Fundamental limitations to quantitative groundwater management will be overcome and the Bureau of Meteorology intend to adopt the findings.Read moreRead less
Impacts of Banned Drinkers Register Re-introduction in Northern Territory. This project aims to investigate the impact of the re-introduction of the Banned Drinker Register in the Northern Territory, where rates of alcohol-related harm are more than twenty times that seen in other Australian states.
This interdisciplinary team will use qualitative and quantitative methods across urban and remote locations to answer complex questions about policy impact.
This Project expects to provide evidence ....Impacts of Banned Drinkers Register Re-introduction in Northern Territory. This project aims to investigate the impact of the re-introduction of the Banned Drinker Register in the Northern Territory, where rates of alcohol-related harm are more than twenty times that seen in other Australian states.
This interdisciplinary team will use qualitative and quantitative methods across urban and remote locations to answer complex questions about policy impact.
This Project expects to provide evidence to inform future policy introduction and refinement. It aims to enhance Aboriginal research capacity for investigating alcohol policy.
Benefits should include world’s best evidence on the impact of supply restriction policies on treatment needs and the massive levels of harm seen in the Northern Territory.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE130100159
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$160,000.00
Summary
Mobile Australian field isotope alliance. This project will enable a quantum leap in capacity to undertake, real-time, field-based studies of environmental processes using the natural isotope tracers of carbon, oxygen and hydrogen. This will enable the project to address a range of fundamental research questions in climate change, water resources, ecology and human impact in tropical Australia.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE220100852
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$455,766.00
Summary
Breathing streams: integrating aquatic emissions into carbon budgets. This project aims to determine the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by small streams across the Australian tropics, a potential hotspot for emissions of carbon dioxide and methane. The project expects to investigate the controls on gaseous emissions from stream to regional scales using a novel combination of gas tracer experiments, remote sensing techniques and machine learning algorithms. Expected outcomes include the devel ....Breathing streams: integrating aquatic emissions into carbon budgets. This project aims to determine the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by small streams across the Australian tropics, a potential hotspot for emissions of carbon dioxide and methane. The project expects to investigate the controls on gaseous emissions from stream to regional scales using a novel combination of gas tracer experiments, remote sensing techniques and machine learning algorithms. Expected outcomes include the development of a predictive model of gas exchange and the first estimate of gaseous emissions from the Australian tropics. This should provide significant benefits such as reducing uncertainties on the national carbon budget and avoiding misalignment of greenhouse gas abatement policies.Read moreRead less
Hydrogeological drivers and fate of spring flow in a semi-arid setting. In arid and semi-arid climates, aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems often rely on groundwater springs. Spring hydrology depends on complex relationships between underlying aquifers and surface conditions, leading to high uncertainties in understanding aquifer-spring-wetland hydrology, which is critical for spring ecosystem protection and to inform management of relevant groundwater-affecting activities. This project will appl ....Hydrogeological drivers and fate of spring flow in a semi-arid setting. In arid and semi-arid climates, aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems often rely on groundwater springs. Spring hydrology depends on complex relationships between underlying aquifers and surface conditions, leading to high uncertainties in understanding aquifer-spring-wetland hydrology, which is critical for spring ecosystem protection and to inform management of relevant groundwater-affecting activities. This project will apply novel hydrogeophysical and hydrochemical methods, and computer modelling, to investigate the source aquifer of, and fate of discharge from the Doongmabulla Springs Complex (DSC), located in an area of future development. Project results will inform spring vulnerability to development pressures and climate effects.Read moreRead less