RMIT receives over $6 million in ARC funding
RMIT University researchers have been awarded grants of more than $6 million from the latest round of Australian Research Council (ARC) funding.
Fourteen RMIT research projects received funding ranging from $166,967 to $492,609 as part of the ‘Discovery Projects’ scheme, while nearly $1 million was granted for two RMIT Linkage Project Grants.
The Discovery Projects scheme provides grant funding to support research projects that may be undertaken by individual researchers or research teams.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Innovation Professor Calum Drummond said the grants awarded to RMIT reflected the University’s strong research community.
“RMIT aims to conduct research of impact that helps shape the world,” he said.
“These grants recognise that our researchers continue to make a real and positive difference that will benefit our whole community.
“Well done to all our researchers who have been successful.”
One Discovery project led by Professor Sarah Bekessy will use $427,000 of funding to develop a novel architectural model that embeds environmental science, working with nature to design cities that are more resilient to environmental upheavals.
Bekessy intends to overcome substantial theoretical and technical challenges to embed quantitative ecology into architectural design processes.
The project is expected to develop case studies which represent a template for more habitable, liveable and sustainable cities.
Another project which was successful in receiving a Discovery Project grant is Deep Timetable: A Noongar Rail History.
Led by Professor Paul Carter, $395,838 of funding will be used to clarify the impact of the railway on Noongar people and Country.
Rail infrastructure across south-western Western Australia exploited an older network of Aboriginal pathways.
Carter will work closely with Noongar knowledge custodians to reconstruct this overlooked history using Noongar narrative framework.
The project will advance a new relational logic and a history that enhances the capacity of regional planning and development authorities in their future relationship with Indigenous people.
Linkage Grant success
The Linkage Projects Grants Scheme funds collaborative research and development projects between higher education researchers and partner organisations.
RMIT has received two ARC Linkage Project Grants totalling $986,738 for research partnerships projects:
- Ambitious and Fair: Strategies for a sustainable visual arts sector. This project aims to strengthen the visual art industry’s economic ecosystem.
- Photonic chip inertial movement sensors. This project aims to create a new class of optical inertial movement sensors using integrated photonic chip technology.