Monash University: $8.9m in DECRA grants awarded to Monash early career researchers

Twenty-one Monash researchers have been awarded more than $8.9 million under the ARC Discovery Early Career Research Award (DECRA) scheme.

The DECRA scheme aims to support Early Career Researchers with strengthening their research skills, enhancing national and international research collaboration and supporting high quality and supportive research environments.

The researchers include Dr Pirooz Zareie, from the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, who will use multidisciplinary collaborations to determine how T cells respond to antigens; Dr Kalin Stefanov, from the Faculty of IT, whose project aims to create the largest Auslan dataset to support the Australian Deaf community and promote advancements in this research area; and Dr Nicholas Ferns, from the Faculty of Arts, who will look into the connections between Australia’s post-war development and the decolonisation of Papua New Guinea that dictated post-war global politics.

The $8.9 million awarded to Monash University is among $85.8 million awarded to 200 projects by the Australian Government under the DECRA scheme.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Rebekah Brown congratulated Monash’s Early Career Researchers and their faculties on this year’s DECRA results.

“I am thrilled so many of our bright and talented Early Career Researchers have been recognised with these awards, which will enable them to pursue research with impact across a diverse range of disciplines. Congratulations to everyone involved.”