Cosmopolitan development: the impacts of international volunteering. This project will provide new ways of thinking about the impact of international development volunteering. It examines how volunteering contributes to more equal partnerships between Australia and its neighbouring countries and how it transforms the ways volunteers and host organisations perceive and respond to global challenges.
Creating and sustaining a strong future for volunteering in Australia. This project seeks to answer the question of how to increase social participation by converting non-volunteers to the benefits of volunteering. In Australia today, communities and governments are increasingly dependent on volunteers to build social capital and deliver an increasing range of services. A world first, this project aims to create new theory by examining three levels of analysis: the micro level of the individual ....Creating and sustaining a strong future for volunteering in Australia. This project seeks to answer the question of how to increase social participation by converting non-volunteers to the benefits of volunteering. In Australia today, communities and governments are increasingly dependent on volunteers to build social capital and deliver an increasing range of services. A world first, this project aims to create new theory by examining three levels of analysis: the micro level of the individual volunteer or non-volunteer; the mezzo level of the volunteer-involving organisation; and the macro level of society. This innovative approach aims to identify, analyse and develop a tool to help organisations build Australia’s civil society and develop policy to create a sustainable volunteer sector into the future.Read moreRead less
Who You Know or Where You Go? The Role of Formal and Informal Networks in Finding Employment and Maintaining Wellbeing. Recent empirical studies have demonstrated that informal social networks improve well-being and labour market outcomes for the unemployed in Europe. However, no comparable Australian study has been conducted and there is little research on the role of the 'formal' networks represented by employment services programs in Australia or overseas. This project aims to explore unemplo ....Who You Know or Where You Go? The Role of Formal and Informal Networks in Finding Employment and Maintaining Wellbeing. Recent empirical studies have demonstrated that informal social networks improve well-being and labour market outcomes for the unemployed in Europe. However, no comparable Australian study has been conducted and there is little research on the role of the 'formal' networks represented by employment services programs in Australia or overseas. This project aims to explore unemployed people's formal and informal networks and the impact of those networks on employment status and wellbeing. This project aims to inform unemployment policy design and service delivery by providing a greater understanding of the role that social networks play in finding jobs and surviving unemployment.Read moreRead less
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
Managing at the Margins: Women Making it Work in Precarious Times. This project aims to investigate the economic, social and emotional impacts of precarious work on women. Focusing on the challenges that arise from juggling precarious work with care responsibilities and/or demands from the social support system, the project identifies the strategies women have to manage these demands, and the impacts these demands have on everyday lives across different life stages. By combining otherwise separa ....Managing at the Margins: Women Making it Work in Precarious Times. This project aims to investigate the economic, social and emotional impacts of precarious work on women. Focusing on the challenges that arise from juggling precarious work with care responsibilities and/or demands from the social support system, the project identifies the strategies women have to manage these demands, and the impacts these demands have on everyday lives across different life stages. By combining otherwise separate bodies of literature with innovative quantitative and qualitative data, the project seeks to generate new knowledge about the impacts of precarious work on women and families. This knowledge is expected to inform policies and services to improve women’s lives and promote economic inclusion and social cohesion.Read moreRead less
Designing Human Resource Practices that Promote the Retention of Volunteers. This project aims to examine the effects of human resources practices on the attraction and retention of high-quality volunteers. Volunteers provide essential health and educational services to the Australian population, which makes it important for non-profit organisations to develop effective human resource practices that attract and retain the best people. However, non-profit organisations often struggle to attract a ....Designing Human Resource Practices that Promote the Retention of Volunteers. This project aims to examine the effects of human resources practices on the attraction and retention of high-quality volunteers. Volunteers provide essential health and educational services to the Australian population, which makes it important for non-profit organisations to develop effective human resource practices that attract and retain the best people. However, non-profit organisations often struggle to attract and retain a sufficient number of volunteers. This project will examine the effects of three human resource practices on the thriving and organisational attachment of volunteers using theories of motivation and retention. This knowledge is intended to help governments and non-profit organisations improve on policies and procedures to manage Australia’s volunteer workforce sustainably.Read moreRead less
Helping Central Banks Measure Unobserved Variables Using Real-time Forecasts. The project addresses structural measurement problems confronted routinely by central bankers. The techniques developed, and the estimates provided, will aid directly the Partner Organisations (the Reserve Bank of Australia, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand and Norges Bank) and other central banks in formulating monetary policy. The analysis will allow interest rates in Australia and elsewhere to be set with greater pre ....Helping Central Banks Measure Unobserved Variables Using Real-time Forecasts. The project addresses structural measurement problems confronted routinely by central bankers. The techniques developed, and the estimates provided, will aid directly the Partner Organisations (the Reserve Bank of Australia, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand and Norges Bank) and other central banks in formulating monetary policy. The analysis will allow interest rates in Australia and elsewhere to be set with greater precision. The techniques developed in this project will facilitate the understanding and communication of monetary policy within the central banks concerned, and enhance communication of monetary policy strategy to the public.Read moreRead less
Modelling stock market liquidity in Australia and the Asia Pacific Region. This project will develop new methods of assessing stock market liquidity in Australia and the Asia-Pacific region. These methods will use high frequency transactions-based data provided by the industry partner, SIRCA. The data will be the basis of smart information real time algorithms for measuring market liquidity. They will incorporate generalizations and extensions of recent developments in time series econometrics, ....Modelling stock market liquidity in Australia and the Asia Pacific Region. This project will develop new methods of assessing stock market liquidity in Australia and the Asia-Pacific region. These methods will use high frequency transactions-based data provided by the industry partner, SIRCA. The data will be the basis of smart information real time algorithms for measuring market liquidity. They will incorporate generalizations and extensions of recent developments in time series econometrics, and will be calibrated and evaluated statistically. The novel methods will be crucial to market participants and to regulators, who will be able to apply them to assess market depth and liquidity, and reduce trading costs substantially.Read moreRead less
A new paradigm for catchment management: detection, forecasting and management of water catchments with multiple steady states. Understanding the response and recovery of Australia's water catchments to climatic change and variability is become increasingly urgent. Our catchments are vulnerable because there is a fundamental gap in our understanding of how they recover from high or low rainfall periods. This project will: a) advance water management concepts; b) build tools to understand how and ....A new paradigm for catchment management: detection, forecasting and management of water catchments with multiple steady states. Understanding the response and recovery of Australia's water catchments to climatic change and variability is become increasingly urgent. Our catchments are vulnerable because there is a fundamental gap in our understanding of how they recover from high or low rainfall periods. This project will: a) advance water management concepts; b) build tools to understand how and when catchments might switch to new states when hit by a disturbance; and c) identify how best to build the buffering capacity to reduce the chance of a switch occurring. The project will make Australia's groundwater and streamflow resources more secure and make Australian researchers and water resource managers world leaders in the emerging science of catchment resilience.Read moreRead less
The importance of price and perceived quality to the demand for fresh fruits and vegetables. It is estimated that the direct and indirect cost of diet-related diseases to Australia is between $2-3 billion per annum. One of the most important things that can be done to prevent diet-related disease is to encourage the population to eat more fruits and vegetables. The aim of this project is to examine the effect of price and perceived quality on the type and quantity of fruits and vegetables cons ....The importance of price and perceived quality to the demand for fresh fruits and vegetables. It is estimated that the direct and indirect cost of diet-related diseases to Australia is between $2-3 billion per annum. One of the most important things that can be done to prevent diet-related disease is to encourage the population to eat more fruits and vegetables. The aim of this project is to examine the effect of price and perceived quality on the type and quantity of fruits and vegetables consumed, especially among low-income households. The project will employ modelling techniques that are novel to this product group and that will provide valuable insights to the constraints and opportunities for increasing fruits and vegetables intake, as well as benchmarks for future research.Read moreRead less