Developing a national rural volunteering roadmap. This project aims to investigate the challenges affecting rural volunteering in Australia. Conducting a national analysis of volunteering demand and supply, this project expects to generate new interdisciplinary knowledge of the structural, demographic, organisational and personal factors affecting the sustainability of rural volunteering. Expected outcomes of this project include a world-first index of volunteering vulnerabilities and a spatial ....Developing a national rural volunteering roadmap. This project aims to investigate the challenges affecting rural volunteering in Australia. Conducting a national analysis of volunteering demand and supply, this project expects to generate new interdisciplinary knowledge of the structural, demographic, organisational and personal factors affecting the sustainability of rural volunteering. Expected outcomes of this project include a world-first index of volunteering vulnerabilities and a spatial map of volunteering unevenness, leading to the development of an evidence-based National Rural Volunteering Roadmap (2025-2035), which will guide our volunteering peak body partners, governments and rural communities to plan for and support rural volunteering over the longer-term.Read moreRead less
Computing probabilities of theories where these probabilities vary over time with applications in macroeconomics. This project will present a method to produce empirically based policy advice that accounts for the changing economic environment and that allows for a range of assumptions about how the economy works. The research and training will place Australia at the forefront of empirical macroeconomic research and strengthen international research networks. Policy making will be improved as: i ....Computing probabilities of theories where these probabilities vary over time with applications in macroeconomics. This project will present a method to produce empirically based policy advice that accounts for the changing economic environment and that allows for a range of assumptions about how the economy works. The research and training will place Australia at the forefront of empirical macroeconomic research and strengthen international research networks. Policy making will be improved as: it will use information that is more robust to false assumptions; it will quickly incorporate new information; and we will understand better why certain policies did or did not work at different times in the past. The research will impact upon other sciences such as physics and engineering that use the same underlying tools far more than do economists.Read moreRead less
Variation in the arginine vasopressin 1a receptor (AVPR1a) gene, the social environment, general health and wellbeing. The project aims to investigate how the arginine vasopressin 1a gene affects gene expression and influences social behaviour and ultimately health and wellbeing. This research will contribute to understanding the importance of individual differences in social policy and interventions aimed at improving health and wellbeing.
Digging deeper to improve yield stability. This project aims to provide innovative breeding solutions that harness the ‘hidden’ part of the plant, roots, to support the development of more productive crops in the face of climate variability. The project expects to generate new insights into the biology and genetics of root development in barley, a model cereal crop, by applying cutting-edge genome editing, phenotyping and genomics technologies. Anticipated outcomes include novel methodologies to ....Digging deeper to improve yield stability. This project aims to provide innovative breeding solutions that harness the ‘hidden’ part of the plant, roots, to support the development of more productive crops in the face of climate variability. The project expects to generate new insights into the biology and genetics of root development in barley, a model cereal crop, by applying cutting-edge genome editing, phenotyping and genomics technologies. Anticipated outcomes include novel methodologies to accelerate breeding for diverse production environments, with direct applications in barley, and other major cereals including wheat and oats. This should provide significant economic and social benefits to the Australian grains industry through yield stability amidst climate variability.Read moreRead less
Enabling Molecular Plant Breeding for Drought Adaptation Using Genome-to-Phenome Modelling Technologies. Effective molecular plant breeding for improved water productivity of sorghum would generate significant economic and social benefits for rural communities in NE Australia. There is a significant opportunity to expand the sorghum industry in the region. Despite the global financial crisis, global demand for meat continues to increase, generating strong demand from intensive livestock industri ....Enabling Molecular Plant Breeding for Drought Adaptation Using Genome-to-Phenome Modelling Technologies. Effective molecular plant breeding for improved water productivity of sorghum would generate significant economic and social benefits for rural communities in NE Australia. There is a significant opportunity to expand the sorghum industry in the region. Despite the global financial crisis, global demand for meat continues to increase, generating strong demand from intensive livestock industries for feed grain. Price is projected to return to high levels given continuing use of major feed grains for biofuel. A 10% increase in sorghum production would add net value of $48M annually, much via employment. The scientific content of this project positions Australia at the leading edge globally in this emerging research field. Read moreRead less
TraitCapture: Genomic modelling for plant phenomics under environmental stress. This project aims to develop software to integrate new hyper-spectral and 3D growth models of plant phenomics with population genomics to identify heritable developmental traits across varied environments. Genome wide association studies aim to then be used to identify causal genes. Functional structural plant models incorporating genetic variation will be used to predict growth under simulated stress environments. ....TraitCapture: Genomic modelling for plant phenomics under environmental stress. This project aims to develop software to integrate new hyper-spectral and 3D growth models of plant phenomics with population genomics to identify heritable developmental traits across varied environments. Genome wide association studies aim to then be used to identify causal genes. Functional structural plant models incorporating genetic variation will be used to predict growth under simulated stress environments. The research team unites international industry, the Australian Plant Phenomics Facility, and university statistical geneticists. TraitCapture software will use open standards applicable to both controlled and field environments enabling plant breeders to pre-select adaptive traits to increase crop productivity under environmental stress.Read moreRead less
ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language. Language is central to human existence and to the flow of information. The Centre will address the most critical questions about language: How do languages evolve? How different can languages be? How do our brains acquire and process them? How can technologies deal with the complexity and enormous variability of language in its central role in human information processing? What can Australia do to increase its linguistic abilities at a time ....ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language. Language is central to human existence and to the flow of information. The Centre will address the most critical questions about language: How do languages evolve? How different can languages be? How do our brains acquire and process them? How can technologies deal with the complexity and enormous variability of language in its central role in human information processing? What can Australia do to increase its linguistic abilities at a time of increasingly multilingual demands in trade and information? The Centre will also secure language heritage, develop new language technologies, connect policy with indigenous and migrant communities, and build strategies to help 1st and 2nd language learning and those isolated by language difficulties.Read moreRead less