UON secures close to $3 million in ARC Linkage Funding

Friday, 6 May 2016

The University of Newcastle (UON) was today awarded close to $3 million in competitive research funding by the Australian Research Council (ARC) in its 2016 Linkage Projects scheme.

UON secures close to $3 million in ARC Linkage Funding

Eight UON research teams will receive funding to work in collaboration with business and industry partners on innovative projects under the scheme, which provides funding to support research and development (R&D).

Professor Kevin Hall, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation) said the award of close to $3 million was an excellent result given the strong competition for prestigious ARC funding, and is recognition of UON’s strength in innovation and industry engagement.

"Today's announcement by the ARC is a reflection of UON’s strong history of working successfully with industry and business in our region, nation-wide and across the globe, and reaffirms UON’s reputation in the sector as a strong partner delivering real outcomes for business and industry.”

"This funding demonstrates that the University is well aligned with the nation’s National Innovation and Science Agenda to drive innovation through strong collaboration with industry and business, and will enable our researchers to seek solutions which will make a difference," Professor Hall said.

The UON recipients of the 2016 ARC Linkage Project scheme including:

  • Lead investigator Associate Professor Sarah Wright, School of Environmental and Life Sciences, and Dr Paul Hodge, in partnership with the Jaliigirr Biodiversity Alliance Inc., $380,957 to collaboratively look at Caring for Country approaches to develop and trial Indigenous-led natural resource management (NRM) that draw on Indigenous ways of working and being with the land.
  • Lead investigator Dr Anna Giacomini, School of Engineering (Civil Engineering), with Professor Stephen Fityus and Laureate Professor Scott Sloan, in partnership with the University of Parma, Italy, ACARP, Glencore Coal Assets Australia Pty Ltd and Specialised Geo Pty Ltd, $274,972 to develop and validate a new, robust and cost-effective method for evolving geotechnical hazard assessment of rock slopes.
  • Lead investigator Professor Robert Melchers, School of Engineering (Civil Engineering), in partnership with the University of New South Wales, Pacific Engineering Systems International Pty Ltd, and Defence Science and Technology Organisation, $550,000 to seek to integrate current structural response analysis methods with current aged-structure assessment techniques to provide new insight into the remaining life of maritime assets.
  • Lead investigator Associate Professor Jianglong Yu, School of Engineering (Chemical Engineering), and Professor Behdad Moghtaderi, in partnership with Sinosteel Anshan Research Institute of Thermo-Energy Co. Ltd, $230,000 to develop a novel integrated dry cleaning technology for combined removal of sulphur oxides and nitrogen oxides from combustion flue gases.
  • Lead investigator Professor George Kuczera, School of Engineering (Environmental Engineering), in partnership with the University of Melbourne and the University of Tasmania, and Melbourne Water Corporation, $450,000 to develop and apply new methods to scale forest water use from plot to catchment-level using relationships between plot-level annual evapotranspiration and stand biophysical and biochemical properties detectable using unmanned aircraft systems and other remote sensing platforms.
  • Lead investigator Laureate Professor John Aitken, Pro Vice-Chancellor Faculty Health and Medicine, in partnership with the University of Sydney, Texas A&M University, Nusep Holdings Ltd, Hunter Valley Equine Research Centre Ltd, Harness Racing Australia Inc., EquiBreed NZ Ltd, Scone Equine Hospital Pty Ltd, and CellOxess. $560,000 to improve methods of detecting and managing infertility in both stallions and mares, connecting Australia’s horse breeders with one of the world’s leading reproductive Priority Research Centres at the University of Newcastle to transform the Australian Equine Industry into a global leader.
  • Lead investigator Professor Behdad Moghtaderi, School of Engineering (Chemical Engineering), with Dr Kalpit Shah and Associate Professor Jianglong Yu, in partnership with Tara Green Energy Pty Ltd, $309,000 to bring together some of Australia’s leading energy researchers and renewable energy developers to take on the unresolved challenge of developing a simple, robust and cost-effective method for tar removal from biomass gasification processes.

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