Advancing resilience theory and practice for water resource management. Water resources in Australia and worldwide are under severe stress, for example from drought and water demand. This project aims to investigate how water and other natural resources can be managed to build resilience to such stresses. The project expects to develop advances in resilience theory that generate new model-based tools for resilient decision-making. These advances will be tested in a model of water resource manage ....Advancing resilience theory and practice for water resource management. Water resources in Australia and worldwide are under severe stress, for example from drought and water demand. This project aims to investigate how water and other natural resources can be managed to build resilience to such stresses. The project expects to develop advances in resilience theory that generate new model-based tools for resilient decision-making. These advances will be tested in a model of water resource management in north-central Victoria. Expected outcomes of the project include increased decision-maker capability to respond to threats to water and other natural resources. Such outcomes will help ensure the sustainability of increasingly highly stressed natural resources in Australia and worldwide.Read moreRead less
How does ecological disturbance shape the genetic diversity of natural populations? Environmental disturbances shape the dynamics of the world's ecosystems. However, we do not understand how they influence biodiversity at its most fundamental level, genetic diversity. This is important, because genetic diversity affects the fitness of individuals, the viability of populations and the adaptability of species. This project will study fire in the Australian environment to discover how disturbance a ....How does ecological disturbance shape the genetic diversity of natural populations? Environmental disturbances shape the dynamics of the world's ecosystems. However, we do not understand how they influence biodiversity at its most fundamental level, genetic diversity. This is important, because genetic diversity affects the fitness of individuals, the viability of populations and the adaptability of species. This project will study fire in the Australian environment to discover how disturbance affects genetic diversity. By integrating landscape genomics and computational modelling with long-term field studies, the research will significantly advance our understanding of how genetic diversity is distributed, and improve our ability to predict the responses of natural populations to changes in the frequency and severity of wildfire.Read moreRead less
Mega spatial-scale, multi time-scale, ensemble assessment of climate change driven coastal change in South Eastern Australia. Climate change driven variations in mean sea level, storm surges, and waves will change the world's coastline. This project will, for the first time, develop innovative modelling methods to quantify the integrated impact of these climate drivers on coastal erosion along Australia's most developed and populated coastline: Sydney to Brisbane.
Intellectual property and climate change: inventing clean technologies. By providing recommendations about intellectual property law, policy and practice to policy-makers and stakeholders, this project will promote research and development of clean technologies in Australia. It will also facilitate the transfer of such technologies in Australia and to developing countries and least developed countries.
Income and well-being: Evidence from international commodity price shocks. This project aims to examine the effects of income from international commodity price windfalls on peoples’ well-being. Exports of natural resources (iron, coal and copper) are an important source of income for the Australian economy. International prices for these commodities have declined in recent years, lowering national income. The project will analyse both objective and subjective measures of well-being at both the ....Income and well-being: Evidence from international commodity price shocks. This project aims to examine the effects of income from international commodity price windfalls on peoples’ well-being. Exports of natural resources (iron, coal and copper) are an important source of income for the Australian economy. International prices for these commodities have declined in recent years, lowering national income. The project will analyse both objective and subjective measures of well-being at both the cross-country time-series and the sub-national levels, tailored to the Australian economy. It is expected that the project’s findings will benefit academia, public policy makers and everyday people. The project will inform academics and policy makers about how income from international commodity price windfalls affects peoples' well-being.Read moreRead less
Declarative Networks: Towards Robust and Explainable Deep Learning. The aim of this project is to develop declarative machine learning techniques that exploit inherent structure and models of the world. Deep learning has become the dominant approach for machine learning with many products and promises built on this technology. But deep learning is expensive, opaque, brittle and relies solely on human labelled data. This project intends to make deep learning more reliable by establishing theory a ....Declarative Networks: Towards Robust and Explainable Deep Learning. The aim of this project is to develop declarative machine learning techniques that exploit inherent structure and models of the world. Deep learning has become the dominant approach for machine learning with many products and promises built on this technology. But deep learning is expensive, opaque, brittle and relies solely on human labelled data. This project intends to make deep learning more reliable by establishing theory and algorithms that allow physical and mathematical models to be embedded within a deep learning framework, providing performance guarantees and interpretability. This would likely benefit machine learning based products that can understand the world and interact with humans naturally through vision and language.Read moreRead less
Linking Stress Tolerance to Molecular Evolution of Grass Stomata. Salinity and drought are two detrimental environmental stresses, affecting agricultural productivity and ecosystem health in Australia and around the world. This project will focus on the evolutionary, physiological and molecular aspects of stomatal regulation between wheat, barley and their wild relatives for salinity and drought tolerance. This project will advance the scientific knowledge in the evolution of stomatal regulation ....Linking Stress Tolerance to Molecular Evolution of Grass Stomata. Salinity and drought are two detrimental environmental stresses, affecting agricultural productivity and ecosystem health in Australia and around the world. This project will focus on the evolutionary, physiological and molecular aspects of stomatal regulation between wheat, barley and their wild relatives for salinity and drought tolerance. This project will advance the scientific knowledge in the evolution of stomatal regulation in two staple crops wheat and barley. The project will also assist plant breeders with increasing crop salinity and drought tolerance for global food security.Read moreRead less
The hidden secondary metabolite biosynthetic potential of fungi. This proposal aims to develop synthetic biology tools to allow rapid access to the hidden metabolites encoded in fungal genomes and discover how they interact with plant and animal hosts. Genome sequencing reveals that fungi harbour vast hidden potential for biosynthesis of bioactive small molecules. The lack of tools to efficiently access this hidden potential has hindered the ability to develop this uncharted chemical diversity f ....The hidden secondary metabolite biosynthetic potential of fungi. This proposal aims to develop synthetic biology tools to allow rapid access to the hidden metabolites encoded in fungal genomes and discover how they interact with plant and animal hosts. Genome sequencing reveals that fungi harbour vast hidden potential for biosynthesis of bioactive small molecules. The lack of tools to efficiently access this hidden potential has hindered the ability to develop this uncharted chemical diversity for pharmaceutics and agriculture, and understand their biological roles in pathogens. Expected outcomes include sources of bioactive molecules and better management of fungal diseases in crops and humans.Read moreRead less
Frontiers of change: resources, access and political agency on the Cambodia-Vietnam borderland. Mainland Southeast Asia’s dynamic and asymmetrical development is transforming its societies and consuming its remaining forest frontiers. Like other developing regions, the synergies and tensions between transnational, national and local processes of change are highly conspicuous in its border areas, but poorly understood. This interdisciplinary project explores how local actors negotiate transnation ....Frontiers of change: resources, access and political agency on the Cambodia-Vietnam borderland. Mainland Southeast Asia’s dynamic and asymmetrical development is transforming its societies and consuming its remaining forest frontiers. Like other developing regions, the synergies and tensions between transnational, national and local processes of change are highly conspicuous in its border areas, but poorly understood. This interdisciplinary project explores how local actors negotiate transnational networks and markets on the Cambodia-Vietnam borderland and determine how these interactions will affect environments, socioeconomic vulnerability and local agency. It offers crucial new knowledge for more viable and sustainable policy on environment, development and security in this strategically important region.Read moreRead less
Understanding grassy woodlands as whole ecosystems. Restoring Australia's once vast grassy woodlands needs a sound understanding of the whole ecosystem and robust scientific evidence to inform conservation action. This project will generate such evidence by establishing a National Outdoor Laboratory to inform the sustainable management of our nation's precious remaining woodlands.