Deep Learning Attacks and Active Defences: A Cybersecurity Perspective. The belief that deep learning technology is imperative for economic development, military control, and strategic competitiveness has accelerated its development across the globe. However, experience has revealed the disappointing fact that deep learning models are vulnerable to a range of security attacks. Hence, a series of methodologies and defence strategies will be devised that make deep learning systems robust to these ....Deep Learning Attacks and Active Defences: A Cybersecurity Perspective. The belief that deep learning technology is imperative for economic development, military control, and strategic competitiveness has accelerated its development across the globe. However, experience has revealed the disappointing fact that deep learning models are vulnerable to a range of security attacks. Hence, a series of methodologies and defence strategies will be devised that make deep learning systems robust to these attacks. The methodologies require analysing attack lifecycles to identify them in their early stages. With this knowledge, active defence methods and forensic strategies can be developed to ensure efficient defences and prevent further attacks. Moreover, the outputs will be generalisable to most deep learning services.Read moreRead less
Non-urban water governance: rethinking compliance and enforcement. This project aims to critically evaluate the practices and strategies of non-urban water compliance and enforcement in Australia and internationally, to identify and develop innovations for water governance. New law and policy knowledge is expected from its fusion of empirical data and regulatory theory. The project expects to advance applied regulatory theory by identifying improvements in compliance and enforcement to help solv ....Non-urban water governance: rethinking compliance and enforcement. This project aims to critically evaluate the practices and strategies of non-urban water compliance and enforcement in Australia and internationally, to identify and develop innovations for water governance. New law and policy knowledge is expected from its fusion of empirical data and regulatory theory. The project expects to advance applied regulatory theory by identifying improvements in compliance and enforcement to help solve environmental issues. It will also lead to policy reforms for delivering more effective, efficient and politically-acceptable compliance outcomes for non-urban water management that will benefit water regulators and the sustainability and productivity of Australia's agricultural industry.Read moreRead less
Balance and reinforcement: privacy and fairness in high intelligence models. The aim of this project is to develop a series of privacy preservation methods to achieve a new balance between privacy and fairness in highly accurate intelligence models. The main issue in achieving this goal is that high-accuracy intelligence technologies have resulted in significant privacy violations and are very vulnerable to issues of unfairness. This project will analyse the privacy risks associated with intelli ....Balance and reinforcement: privacy and fairness in high intelligence models. The aim of this project is to develop a series of privacy preservation methods to achieve a new balance between privacy and fairness in highly accurate intelligence models. The main issue in achieving this goal is that high-accuracy intelligence technologies have resulted in significant privacy violations and are very vulnerable to issues of unfairness. This project will analyse the privacy risks associated with intelligent systems and devise mechanisms to mutually reinforce both privacy and fairness based on the theoretical foundations laid by our analysis. These outcomes will enable model owners to effectively protect their intellectual property and offer services to users in a private, fair, and accurate manner.Read moreRead less
Reverse chemical proteomics: harnessing yeast display for drug discovery. This project aims to develop a technique that can rapidly identify the cellular protein targets of biologically active natural products. This project expects to provide fundamental biological and chemical insights into Australia's unique biodiversity that will facilitate the development of new therapeutic agents and agrochemicals based on leads provided by Nature. Expected outcomes of this project include an optimised and ....Reverse chemical proteomics: harnessing yeast display for drug discovery. This project aims to develop a technique that can rapidly identify the cellular protein targets of biologically active natural products. This project expects to provide fundamental biological and chemical insights into Australia's unique biodiversity that will facilitate the development of new therapeutic agents and agrochemicals based on leads provided by Nature. Expected outcomes of this project include an optimised and validated platform technology for accelerating drug discovery and development. This should substantially reduce the costs associated with fighting human and animal diseases, leading to improved health, productivity and quality of life.Read moreRead less
A peptide platform to fight pests threatening global food security. This project aims to develop a platform technology for the efficient design of new crop protection agents based on peptides to protect Australia’s food security. It will be first applied against the highly destructive fall armyworm, currently spreading alarmingly in Australia. The project is significant because insect pests cause huge economic and environmental impacts. Peptides are a new generation of crop protection agents tha ....A peptide platform to fight pests threatening global food security. This project aims to develop a platform technology for the efficient design of new crop protection agents based on peptides to protect Australia’s food security. It will be first applied against the highly destructive fall armyworm, currently spreading alarmingly in Australia. The project is significant because insect pests cause huge economic and environmental impacts. Peptides are a new generation of crop protection agents that are potentially more effective and sustainable than chemical pesticides. Expected outcomes are a new rapid response technology and associated lead molecules to protect against current and emerging pests. Major benefits are increased food security, improved crop yields and a more sustainable agriculture industry. Read moreRead less
Improving payments for ecosystem services efficacy. This project aims to improve the cost-effectiveness of payments for ecosystem services (PES) programs in settings where deforestation risk is high. The project introduces a field experiment in Uganda in order to determine effective methods for monitoring compliance and setting payment levels. The project intends to examine whether program impacts are undermined by displacement of deforestation and if there are poverty reduction trade-offs inher ....Improving payments for ecosystem services efficacy. This project aims to improve the cost-effectiveness of payments for ecosystem services (PES) programs in settings where deforestation risk is high. The project introduces a field experiment in Uganda in order to determine effective methods for monitoring compliance and setting payment levels. The project intends to examine whether program impacts are undermined by displacement of deforestation and if there are poverty reduction trade-offs inherent in program design. The project expects to establish the costs of foregone production from land enrolled in the program, which are largely unknown. The findings will support efforts to create low cost technologies to solve conservation challenges and assist with the efficient allocation of scarce resources for environmental protection in both Australian and international contexts.Read moreRead less
The Molecular Basis of Nanoparticle Resistance in Mixed-Species Biofilm. The project aims to understand how the globally significant mixed-species growth of pathogens develop resistance to silver nanoparticle, currently one of the most important alternative antimicrobials to antibiotics. The integrated research is to elucidate, for the first time, the nanoparticle multi-targeting toxicity on mixed-species bacterial community and how, in turn, the bacteria activate their cell-to-cell signalling f ....The Molecular Basis of Nanoparticle Resistance in Mixed-Species Biofilm. The project aims to understand how the globally significant mixed-species growth of pathogens develop resistance to silver nanoparticle, currently one of the most important alternative antimicrobials to antibiotics. The integrated research is to elucidate, for the first time, the nanoparticle multi-targeting toxicity on mixed-species bacterial community and how, in turn, the bacteria activate their cell-to-cell signalling for a synergistic defence to adapt to the nanoparticle toxicity. The pioneering knowledge is the foundation for technologies targeting the interspecies metabolite cross-talking to overcome the resistance phenomena, ensuring a long-term efficacy of the alternative antimicrobial on the difficult-to-control pathogenic growth.Read moreRead less
Discovery and directed evolution of small molecule biosensors. This project aims to address the need for novel small molecule biosensing capability in diverse fields including food and wine production, environmental monitoring, biocatalysis, and diagnostics using a synthetic biology approach. The significance of this work is the development of new biosensors by a strong interdisciplinary team contributing bioinformatics to identify new biosensors, innovative protein engineering approaches, and c ....Discovery and directed evolution of small molecule biosensors. This project aims to address the need for novel small molecule biosensing capability in diverse fields including food and wine production, environmental monitoring, biocatalysis, and diagnostics using a synthetic biology approach. The significance of this work is the development of new biosensors by a strong interdisciplinary team contributing bioinformatics to identify new biosensors, innovative protein engineering approaches, and cutting-edge directed evolution methodologies. Intended outcomes include enhanced institutional capacity for interdisciplinary collaboration; discovery of fundamentally important bacterial sensors; and development of synthetic regulatory circuits enabling outgrowth of non-biological biocatalysis industries.Read moreRead less
Sustainable Australian food production within secure global supply chains. This project aims at exploring future pathways for the Australian food system to remain secure under future disruptive changes, environmentally and socially sustainable, and able to offer healthy food choices. It will reveal the connections among food supply chains, diets and human health, and portray a food system that achieves public health and sustainability goals while positioning Australia securely into the global su ....Sustainable Australian food production within secure global supply chains. This project aims at exploring future pathways for the Australian food system to remain secure under future disruptive changes, environmentally and socially sustainable, and able to offer healthy food choices. It will reveal the connections among food supply chains, diets and human health, and portray a food system that achieves public health and sustainability goals while positioning Australia securely into the global supply chain network. These goals will be achieved by creating the Australian Food Lab, which will provide a collaborative research platform for environmental scientists, economists, public health experts, and food industry representatives for investigating issues pertaining to the future of our food system.Read moreRead less
CRISPR-based pathway activation for bioactive molecule discovery in fungi. Fungi produce an incredible array of unique bioactive molecules, many of which have contributed greatly to humanity (e.g. the antibiotic penicillin, which has saved millions of lives since its discovery). DNA sequencing has revealed many fungi contain the genetic instructions to produce new molecules that have not been seen previously. However, these genes are “switched off" by default and cannot be accessed. This project ....CRISPR-based pathway activation for bioactive molecule discovery in fungi. Fungi produce an incredible array of unique bioactive molecules, many of which have contributed greatly to humanity (e.g. the antibiotic penicillin, which has saved millions of lives since its discovery). DNA sequencing has revealed many fungi contain the genetic instructions to produce new molecules that have not been seen previously. However, these genes are “switched off" by default and cannot be accessed. This project will develop innovative new methods to "hot-wire" these genes, allowing them to turn on and produce a treasure trove of new bioactive molecules. The outcomes of this project will transform our abilities to tap into the hidden potential of fungi to generate new lead molecules for the agricultural and medical industries.Read moreRead less