Understanding communication about advance care planning across the lifespan. This project aims to understand how people communicate about advance care planning for children, adolescents, and adults. This project expects to generate new knowledge by using leading social scientific and linguistic methods to analyse real-world advance care planning conversations and documents. Expected outcomes include detailed knowledge about challenges people encounter in these conversations and how to manage the ....Understanding communication about advance care planning across the lifespan. This project aims to understand how people communicate about advance care planning for children, adolescents, and adults. This project expects to generate new knowledge by using leading social scientific and linguistic methods to analyse real-world advance care planning conversations and documents. Expected outcomes include detailed knowledge about challenges people encounter in these conversations and how to manage these challenges. Over 170,000 Australians die each year, most from serious illness. This project should provide significant benefits to future initiatives for enhancing communication about advance care planning, especially in relation to young Australians, older Australians, and Australians with disabilities.Read moreRead less
Early Career Industry Fellowships - Grant ID: IE230100268
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$476,053.00
Summary
Supporting successful educational pathways of First Nations students. The aim of this study is to develop strategies to prevent the steep drop in school attendance rates of First Nation students as they transition from primary to secondary school. The project expects to generate effective culturally embedded support strategies. In partnership with communities, industry partners and schools we propose to consult, codesign and assess the effectiveness of peer-mentoring of primary school students b ....Supporting successful educational pathways of First Nations students. The aim of this study is to develop strategies to prevent the steep drop in school attendance rates of First Nation students as they transition from primary to secondary school. The project expects to generate effective culturally embedded support strategies. In partnership with communities, industry partners and schools we propose to consult, codesign and assess the effectiveness of peer-mentoring of primary school students by those from the same community who have successfully reached senior grades. The outcome is the evaluation of students’ experiences and ongoing attendance and attainments. Significant benefits are for students’ ongoing school engagement and academic success. Cultural and economic benefits are for all Australians.Read moreRead less
Encoding Interactions and Printability into Hairy Colloidal Biomaterials. Printing mixtures of live cells and biomaterials (or 'BioInks') to make bespoke engineered tissues has the potential to enable personalised platforms for therapeutic discovery and organ replacement. Using a novel high throughput approach to materials synthesis, BioInk design and process optimisation, this project aims to discover new biomaterials and printing nozzles to help realise this potential. It will produce new insi ....Encoding Interactions and Printability into Hairy Colloidal Biomaterials. Printing mixtures of live cells and biomaterials (or 'BioInks') to make bespoke engineered tissues has the potential to enable personalised platforms for therapeutic discovery and organ replacement. Using a novel high throughput approach to materials synthesis, BioInk design and process optimisation, this project aims to discover new biomaterials and printing nozzles to help realise this potential. It will produce new insights in colloid science, cell-laden biomaterials design, and BioInk processing. Structure-property-function guides for colloid-based BioInks and quality-assured bioprinting as outcomes represent significant benefits for researchers and industries alike engaged in biofabrication, cell therapy and biotherapeutics.Read moreRead less
Self-reinforced biopolymer composites. This project will pioneer high performance and biodegradable composites using self-reinforced biopolymer composites. Composites can have poor properties due to interfacial issues, and this reduces their performance. By producing a fully self-reinforced (where the fibre and the polymer are the same type of polymer) polymer composites, the project will develop a way to improve properties, increase the use of biobased materials, and improve recyclability and b ....Self-reinforced biopolymer composites. This project will pioneer high performance and biodegradable composites using self-reinforced biopolymer composites. Composites can have poor properties due to interfacial issues, and this reduces their performance. By producing a fully self-reinforced (where the fibre and the polymer are the same type of polymer) polymer composites, the project will develop a way to improve properties, increase the use of biobased materials, and improve recyclability and biodegradability. Outcomes include greater understanding of design of self-reinforced biopolymer composites structure, processing and properties. This will produce opportunities for high performance biobased composite manufacturing and a growing circular plastics economy for Australia.Read moreRead less
Bioplastics in the environment: lifetimes and toxicology. Globally, governments are implementing policies to drive a move to a circular economy. In the process, new materials are being introduced whose potential impacts need to be understood before they are widely used. This project pioneers investigations into the rate and extent of biodegradation of biodegradable plastics in aquatic and soil environments and the associated ecotoxicology of this process. In particular, it aims to quantify the e ....Bioplastics in the environment: lifetimes and toxicology. Globally, governments are implementing policies to drive a move to a circular economy. In the process, new materials are being introduced whose potential impacts need to be understood before they are widely used. This project pioneers investigations into the rate and extent of biodegradation of biodegradable plastics in aquatic and soil environments and the associated ecotoxicology of this process. In particular, it aims to quantify the extent to which the surfaces of these materials accumulate environmental pollutants via adsorption and other mechanisms. The outcomes will include conceptual models of biodegradation across environments, including lifetimes and likely impacts, critical information for framing a sustainable plastics industry.Read moreRead less
Increasing advance personal planning by older adults. This project aims to increase the uptake of advance personal planning among people aged 65 years or over in the community by developing, implementing and evaluating a community action model. People have a legal right to engage in advance personal planning, a process that helps them discuss and document their financial, personal and health preferences, in case they later lose the ability to make or communicate decisions. Few people plan ahead, ....Increasing advance personal planning by older adults. This project aims to increase the uptake of advance personal planning among people aged 65 years or over in the community by developing, implementing and evaluating a community action model. People have a legal right to engage in advance personal planning, a process that helps them discuss and document their financial, personal and health preferences, in case they later lose the ability to make or communicate decisions. Few people plan ahead, even though it can reduce the likelihood of financial exploitation, family conflict and unwanted medical care. This project aims to provide a model of community action to build capacity and collaboration across social services and improve the wellbeing of older people.Read moreRead less
Digital mediation of children’s interactions with the more than human world. This project aims to investigate how children deploy digital devices to interact with the "natural" world and how this influences their literate practices, emotional engagement and identities. The project intends to examine these issues longitudinally across Australia and Finland, and in relation to key contextual issues of social class, material conditions, and pedagogical approach. Expected outcomes include identifyin ....Digital mediation of children’s interactions with the more than human world. This project aims to investigate how children deploy digital devices to interact with the "natural" world and how this influences their literate practices, emotional engagement and identities. The project intends to examine these issues longitudinally across Australia and Finland, and in relation to key contextual issues of social class, material conditions, and pedagogical approach. Expected outcomes include identifying ways of educating students through mobile digital technologies that connect them in emotional, creative and engaging ways with the "natural" world. This should provide significant benefits as children contribute as co-researchers in establishing a set of protocols for using digital technologies to both maximise learning in "nature" and mitigate harm to the environment.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE190101512
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$383,960.00
Summary
Inclusive community planning for people with disabilities in regional areas. This project aims to produce new knowledge to foster inclusion of people with disabilities in local community planning practice in regional areas. Exclusion of people with disabilities in local communities persists despite the national disability reform agenda. This project will place spatial justice thinking and critical disability theory within a community planning and development context to examine the concept as a s ....Inclusive community planning for people with disabilities in regional areas. This project aims to produce new knowledge to foster inclusion of people with disabilities in local community planning practice in regional areas. Exclusion of people with disabilities in local communities persists despite the national disability reform agenda. This project will place spatial justice thinking and critical disability theory within a community planning and development context to examine the concept as a scaled phenomenon. Using participatory research methods, the project will directly engage persons with disabilities and community planners in co-producing an adaptive model of practice. The project outcomes will help to create more inclusive, healthy, and resilient communities that enable people with disabilities to lead ordinary and fulfilling lives.Read moreRead less
Targeting TGF-beta proteins to control animal reproduction. This project aims to develop a suite of novel biologics to control fertility in female mammals. This project expects to demonstrate that targeting a single class of ovarian proteins will enhance or inhibit egg production. The expected outcomes of this project are to (1) transform the breeding of livestock animals, which should provide significant benefits to the agricultural industry, through increased herd/flock sizes, and (2) provide ....Targeting TGF-beta proteins to control animal reproduction. This project aims to develop a suite of novel biologics to control fertility in female mammals. This project expects to demonstrate that targeting a single class of ovarian proteins will enhance or inhibit egg production. The expected outcomes of this project are to (1) transform the breeding of livestock animals, which should provide significant benefits to the agricultural industry, through increased herd/flock sizes, and (2) provide a non-surgical method of contraception in companion/feral species, which should address the large unmet need for fertility control in these animals.
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Strengthening Health Workforce Migration to Australia and Canada. The project aims to define skilled migration trends in relation to the key fields (medicine, nursing and dentistry). Australia is one of very few countries with an explicit policy to import migrant health professionals. The project plans to assess if the goal of domestic self-sufficiency is likely to be met by 2025 and examine the risk of a ‘two tier’ health workforce developing (with conditionally registered migrants servicing pa ....Strengthening Health Workforce Migration to Australia and Canada. The project aims to define skilled migration trends in relation to the key fields (medicine, nursing and dentistry). Australia is one of very few countries with an explicit policy to import migrant health professionals. The project plans to assess if the goal of domestic self-sufficiency is likely to be met by 2025 and examine the risk of a ‘two tier’ health workforce developing (with conditionally registered migrants servicing patients in undersupplied sectors and sites). It then aims to propose changes to make the migration and health policy systems more effective and ethical in future compared to Canada (Australia’s key global competitor for skilled migrants), through evidence-based policy reform.Read moreRead less