Enhancing Behaviour Change Via Incentives: Improving Childhood Obesity Outcomes
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$62,335.00
Summary
This research will systematically review studies evaluating child-focused incentive-based strategies, and qualitatively evaluate a current goal-setting and rewards scheme. The research will determine the effectiveness of incentives on diet and exercise-related behaviour change in children and adolescents, and provide qualitative data to translate real world research into policy - building the evidence base and inform policy and practice for reducing childhood obesity.
Deadly Liver Mob: Engaging Aboriginal People In Viral Hepatitis, HIV And Sexual Health Services
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$848,441.00
Summary
Rates of blood-borne viruses and sexually transmissible infections are high among the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population. A local initiative in western Sydney has trialed a new approach to engagement and care of Aboriginal people. We will implement this approach in services across NSW and evaluate its effectiveness as a sustainable and acceptable model for engaging Aboriginal people in care and develop an implementation plan for future roll-out to other services.
Evaluation Of A Financial Incentive To Improve The Use Of Preventive Medicines By People With Asthma
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$137,860.00
Summary
Rising costs are threatening the future viability of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. New approaches are needed to address this challenge, including developing financial incentives for consumers to use effective low cost medicines in preference to higher cost alternatives. This study will develop a consumer incentive for use of low cost asthma preventer medicines, model the economic effects of this and bring together stakeholders to examine the policy and practice changes needed to implement ....Rising costs are threatening the future viability of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. New approaches are needed to address this challenge, including developing financial incentives for consumers to use effective low cost medicines in preference to higher cost alternatives. This study will develop a consumer incentive for use of low cost asthma preventer medicines, model the economic effects of this and bring together stakeholders to examine the policy and practice changes needed to implement the incentive.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE180101503
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$357,996.00
Summary
Using improved markets to reduce over-extraction of groundwater. This project aims to investigate the key aspects needed for a successful groundwater market, including extraction limits, innovative trading systems and reasonable transaction costs. The outcomes of the project can contribute to environmental benefits that minimise short-term financial losses to irrigators. The project also expects to enhance the capacity of water agencies to implement cap and trade systems that can reduce over-ext ....Using improved markets to reduce over-extraction of groundwater. This project aims to investigate the key aspects needed for a successful groundwater market, including extraction limits, innovative trading systems and reasonable transaction costs. The outcomes of the project can contribute to environmental benefits that minimise short-term financial losses to irrigators. The project also expects to enhance the capacity of water agencies to implement cap and trade systems that can reduce over-extraction.Read moreRead less
Governance and economic incentives for reducing the contribution of tropical deforestation to climate change. The project will contribute toward global efforts to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, thus mitigating the potential economic and environmental impacts of future climate change on Australia. Australia's neighbours will benefit from the project by putting them in a better position to gain financial transfers for foregone benefits of deforestation, and by insights on better systems o ....Governance and economic incentives for reducing the contribution of tropical deforestation to climate change. The project will contribute toward global efforts to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, thus mitigating the potential economic and environmental impacts of future climate change on Australia. Australia's neighbours will benefit from the project by putting them in a better position to gain financial transfers for foregone benefits of deforestation, and by insights on better systems of governance. The positive effects enjoyed by neighbouring countries are likely to translate into improved relations with Australia. At the level of international negotiations, the research will support Australia's ambitions for a meaningful post-Kyoto climate change agreement.Read moreRead less
Ambient spatial intelligence: Spatial analysis and event detection in environmental geosensor networks. This project will design and test innovative new decentralised algorithms for responding to spatiotemporal queries in environmental monitoring networks. The research is essential for constructing larger, denser, and more reliable networks, helping to embed spatial intelligence within the environment itself (ambient spatial intelligence). The project builds on Australia's existing research exce ....Ambient spatial intelligence: Spatial analysis and event detection in environmental geosensor networks. This project will design and test innovative new decentralised algorithms for responding to spatiotemporal queries in environmental monitoring networks. The research is essential for constructing larger, denser, and more reliable networks, helping to embed spatial intelligence within the environment itself (ambient spatial intelligence). The project builds on Australia's existing research excellence in geographic information science. By making smarter use of spatial information, the project will further strengthen Australia's world-leading spatial information industry, and support sustainable and economic environmental management through important applications like conservation contracts and carbon sequestration monitoring.Read moreRead less
Benefits and costs of non-market valuation for environmental management. Benefits from environmental policies are often unpriced “non-market values” (NMVs). Environmental agencies struggle to know how best to measure these relatively intangible benefits, but doing so is important to ensure value for money from public investments. Environmental economists have developed and applied a wide range of methods for estimating NMVs. The methods vary in their comprehensiveness, accuracy and cost. Yet no ....Benefits and costs of non-market valuation for environmental management. Benefits from environmental policies are often unpriced “non-market values” (NMVs). Environmental agencies struggle to know how best to measure these relatively intangible benefits, but doing so is important to ensure value for money from public investments. Environmental economists have developed and applied a wide range of methods for estimating NMVs. The methods vary in their comprehensiveness, accuracy and cost. Yet no rigorous tool is available to assess (a) which NMV method is best to implement, accounting for its cost and its potential to improve decisions, or (b) whether any NMV method improves decisions enough to warrant its cost. In creating such a tool, this project will deliver a key breakthrough in environmental economics.Read moreRead less
Intersections between science and law: the implementation of threatened species legislation in Australia. This project will evaluate the effectiveness of techniques currently used in threatened species legislation in Australia. By combining the skills of experts in law and ecology, we will assess the role of science and scientists in decision-making processes and the extent to which decision-makers apply the precautionary principle when faced with scientific uncertainty. The project will analy ....Intersections between science and law: the implementation of threatened species legislation in Australia. This project will evaluate the effectiveness of techniques currently used in threatened species legislation in Australia. By combining the skills of experts in law and ecology, we will assess the role of science and scientists in decision-making processes and the extent to which decision-makers apply the precautionary principle when faced with scientific uncertainty. The project will analyse the existing legislative techniques and possible alternatives in the context of the current theoretical debate about the respective advantages of reflexive law (which facilitates self-regulation) and top-down command-and-control regulation.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
Redesigning Landcare policy to better coordinate across landholders. This project aims to study how landscape-sensitive economic incentives and social norms can be leveraged to enhance the short- and long-term effectiveness of conservation programs. It will yield new knowledge for innovative designs in conservation contracting that is urgently needed to address worsening environmental threats in Australia and worldwide. In collaboration with Nobel laureate Vernon Smith’s team, new methods and pr ....Redesigning Landcare policy to better coordinate across landholders. This project aims to study how landscape-sensitive economic incentives and social norms can be leveraged to enhance the short- and long-term effectiveness of conservation programs. It will yield new knowledge for innovative designs in conservation contracting that is urgently needed to address worsening environmental threats in Australia and worldwide. In collaboration with Nobel laureate Vernon Smith’s team, new methods and protocols will improve our ability to generate better data and better understand how social and incentive mechanisms can constructively interact to facilitate collaborative environmental action. Results will help make the achievement of environmental targets and the use of public funds more cost-effective. Read moreRead less