Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE0561224
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$267,767.00
Summary
14CHRONOS (Chronologies from High-ResolutiON Organic Separations): a centre for radiocarbon dating of specific compounds for the environmental and archaeological sciences. Accurate timekeeping is central to the environmental and archaeological sciences. Radiocarbon dating is the leading geochronological technique for events of the past 50,000 years, but the issue for sample contamination remains a major source of concern. Avoidance of contaminants can be achieved through the identification of sp ....14CHRONOS (Chronologies from High-ResolutiON Organic Separations): a centre for radiocarbon dating of specific compounds for the environmental and archaeological sciences. Accurate timekeeping is central to the environmental and archaeological sciences. Radiocarbon dating is the leading geochronological technique for events of the past 50,000 years, but the issue for sample contamination remains a major source of concern. Avoidance of contaminants can be achieved through the identification of specific biomolecular compounds that unambiguously formed part of the original sample, and the isolation of these biomolecules for radiocarbon dating using accelerator mass spectrometry. Here we request funds to establish Australia's first compound-specific radiocarbon dating facility, to obtain ages of high accuracy for key studies of climate and landscape change, evolutionary biology and archaeology.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE170100106
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$780,000.00
Summary
A global fireball observatory. This project aims to expand the Desert Fireball Network (DFN) and build a Global Fireball Observatory. Nearly everything known about the origin and evolution of the solar system comes from analysis of meteorite falls, but scientists have almost no constraint on where they come from. This project will address this constraint by tracking hundreds of meteorite falls, and pinpointing each one’s origin in the solar system. Benefits include capitalising on the innovation ....A global fireball observatory. This project aims to expand the Desert Fireball Network (DFN) and build a Global Fireball Observatory. Nearly everything known about the origin and evolution of the solar system comes from analysis of meteorite falls, but scientists have almost no constraint on where they come from. This project will address this constraint by tracking hundreds of meteorite falls, and pinpointing each one’s origin in the solar system. Benefits include capitalising on the innovations and technologies that underpinned the DFN, and leveraging a NASA partnership for administrative support and advanced instrumentation development. Tracking for space situational awareness is also expected to benefit Australian national security.Read moreRead less
Life ways of the first Australians. The project will enhance national cultural heritage assessment and management in the west Kimberley. This is a Australian Government priority because of planned Liquid Natural Gas and other developments in this region. Through the project officer positions, Indigenous communities will gain training and skills that will lead to sustainable livelihoods in cultural tourism or employment opportunities in government cultural heritage agencies. The project directly ....Life ways of the first Australians. The project will enhance national cultural heritage assessment and management in the west Kimberley. This is a Australian Government priority because of planned Liquid Natural Gas and other developments in this region. Through the project officer positions, Indigenous communities will gain training and skills that will lead to sustainable livelihoods in cultural tourism or employment opportunities in government cultural heritage agencies. The project directly addresses the National Research Priority goal of responding to climate change and variability by advancing knowledge and understanding of past climates, and assisting in better modelling of future climate change in our region. The project will provide postgraduate training in fieldwork and analysis for four APAIs.Read moreRead less
Preventing and reversing population declines of northern quolls. This project seeks to develop novel effective strategies to halt and reverse declines in northern quolls by improving their ‘toad-smart’ behaviour. The spread of cane toads threaten northern quolls, which are marsupial predators. We cannot halt the toad invasion, but we can train quolls not to eat cane toads. Trained quolls can survive long term in toad-infested landscapes, and their offspring can learn not to eat toads. This proje ....Preventing and reversing population declines of northern quolls. This project seeks to develop novel effective strategies to halt and reverse declines in northern quolls by improving their ‘toad-smart’ behaviour. The spread of cane toads threaten northern quolls, which are marsupial predators. We cannot halt the toad invasion, but we can train quolls not to eat cane toads. Trained quolls can survive long term in toad-infested landscapes, and their offspring can learn not to eat toads. This project builds on this work by focusing on cultural and genetic transmission of toad-smart behaviour. The project could save numerous quoll populations from extinction.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE0882836
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$160,000.00
Summary
A novel isotope facility to characterise high-molecular-weight fractions of natural organic matter in soils, sediments, water, petroleum and coal. This facility will improve our ability to forecast environmental responses to future climate change, and help Australia manage current threats to its biodiversity. Furthermore, this research will increase the ability to identify crude oil sources, to the benefit of petroleum exploration in Australia. This facility will also contribute to an improved u ....A novel isotope facility to characterise high-molecular-weight fractions of natural organic matter in soils, sediments, water, petroleum and coal. This facility will improve our ability to forecast environmental responses to future climate change, and help Australia manage current threats to its biodiversity. Furthermore, this research will increase the ability to identify crude oil sources, to the benefit of petroleum exploration in Australia. This facility will also contribute to an improved understanding of controls on water quality and will help to protect our precious freshwater resources, already under intense pressure from climate change. Importantly, this project will enable students and young professionals to be trained in state-of-the-art technology, leading to quality scientists ready for employment in industry.
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The recognition, interpretation and management of significant rock art and related dreaming (Jukurrpa) sites on the Canning Stock Route, Western Australia. The Canning Stock Route is an iconic linear transect of profound importance to a variety of parties: the original inhabitants of the Western Desert, surveyors and drovers who used it in the 20th century and more recently tourists and outback adventurers. Systematic documentation, mapping and synthesis of Indigenous cultural values of the Cann ....The recognition, interpretation and management of significant rock art and related dreaming (Jukurrpa) sites on the Canning Stock Route, Western Australia. The Canning Stock Route is an iconic linear transect of profound importance to a variety of parties: the original inhabitants of the Western Desert, surveyors and drovers who used it in the 20th century and more recently tourists and outback adventurers. Systematic documentation, mapping and synthesis of Indigenous cultural values of the Canning Stock Route will provide a unique resource of benefit to traditional custodians as well as the wider community. Accurate information on sites, places and landscapes and their cultural and scientific values should underpin successful management, protection of sites and sustainable use of the Canning Stock Route into the future.Read moreRead less
ARC Research Network for a Secure Australia. The Research Network for a Secure Australia (RNSA) is a multi-disciplinary collaboration established to strengthen Australia's research capacity for protecting critical infrastructure from natural or human-caused disasters including terrorist acts. The RNSA will facilitate a knowledge-sharing network for research organisations, government and the private sector to develop research tools and methods to mitigate emerging safety and security issues relat ....ARC Research Network for a Secure Australia. The Research Network for a Secure Australia (RNSA) is a multi-disciplinary collaboration established to strengthen Australia's research capacity for protecting critical infrastructure from natural or human-caused disasters including terrorist acts. The RNSA will facilitate a knowledge-sharing network for research organisations, government and the private sector to develop research tools and methods to mitigate emerging safety and security issues relating to critical infrastructure. World-leaders with extensive national and international linkages in relevant scientific, engineering and technological research will lead this collaboration. The RNSA will launch various activities to foster research collaboration and nurture young investigators.Read moreRead less
Assessing the ecosystem-wide risks of threatened species translocation. Assessing the ecosystem-wide risks of threatened species translocation. This project aims to develop the first quantitative risk assessment framework to improve decisions about moving threatened species to new places. Moving threatened plants and animals to new environments, or reintroducing them where they previously persisted, is a growing focus of conservation. Moving species can have unanticipated effects on other specie ....Assessing the ecosystem-wide risks of threatened species translocation. Assessing the ecosystem-wide risks of threatened species translocation. This project aims to develop the first quantitative risk assessment framework to improve decisions about moving threatened species to new places. Moving threatened plants and animals to new environments, or reintroducing them where they previously persisted, is a growing focus of conservation. Moving species can have unanticipated effects on other species in the ecosystem. Although the International Union for Conservation of Nature deems ecosystem-wide risk assessments essential for conservation translocations, no framework exists to assess these risks and inform these decisions. New tools for assessing the risks of conservation translocations are expected to improve global and local conservation outcomes.Read moreRead less
Diagnosing river health using invertebrate traits and DNA barcodes. Diagnosing river health using invertebrate traits and DNA barcodes. This project aims to develop indices that link change in invertebrate communities to specific environmental stressors, and combine these indices with innovative, low cost molecular approaches to species identification to rapidly identify the causes of decline. River health assessment methods, usually based on aquatic invertebrates, identify if rivers are impaire ....Diagnosing river health using invertebrate traits and DNA barcodes. Diagnosing river health using invertebrate traits and DNA barcodes. This project aims to develop indices that link change in invertebrate communities to specific environmental stressors, and combine these indices with innovative, low cost molecular approaches to species identification to rapidly identify the causes of decline. River health assessment methods, usually based on aquatic invertebrates, identify if rivers are impaired but must be developed to identify the causes of decline. The intended outcomes are improved sustainable water resource management within and among states, and improved natural resource policy development.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE100100211
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$650,000.00
Summary
The Big Australian Speech Corpus: An audio-visual speech corpus of Australian English. Contemporary speech science and technology are driven by the availability of large speech corpora. While audio databases exist for languages spoken in America, Europe and Japan, there is currently no large auditory-visual database of spoken language, and certainly not one for Australian English. Here we will establish the Big Australian Speech Corpus, which will support a speech science research and developmen ....The Big Australian Speech Corpus: An audio-visual speech corpus of Australian English. Contemporary speech science and technology are driven by the availability of large speech corpora. While audio databases exist for languages spoken in America, Europe and Japan, there is currently no large auditory-visual database of spoken language, and certainly not one for Australian English. Here we will establish the Big Australian Speech Corpus, which will support a speech science research and development using Australian English and facilitate the development of Australian speech technology applications from automatic speech recognition and text-to-speech synthesis used in taxi and other ordering services, to hearing prostheses and talking head aids for learning-impaired children, and a range of security and forensic applications.Read moreRead less