Posted: 10 December 2024
The Australian Research Council (ARC) today announced more than $342 million in funding for 536 new projects under the 2025 ARC Discovery Projects scheme.
ARC Acting Chief Executive Officer, Dr Richard Johnson, said the ARC Discovery Projects scheme supports excellent basic and applied research to expand Australia’s knowledge base and research capability.
“Discovery grants support individual researchers and research teams in research projects that provide economic, commercial, environmental, social and/or cultural benefits to the Australian community,” Dr Johnson said.
The projects represent research excellence in diverse areas, including better understanding cellular and molecular specialisation in plant leaves for more climate resilient crops; developing 3D-printing techniques that could lead to safe, high-energy lithium metal batteries; and investigating how remote schools can better support First Nations students to complete school.
Research projects funded by the ARC’s National Competitive Grants Program such as those awarded under the Discovery Projects scheme have been found to generate $3.32 in economic output for every $1 of research funding.
For this round of Discovery Project funding, the ARC implemented a two-stage approach for grant applications. The first stage involved a streamlined expression of interest (EOI), with an expedited assessment process. Shortlisted applicants were invited to complete a full application for the second stage.
“By dividing the scheme into two stages, the ARC eased the burden on researchers applying for funding through a simpler and shorter EOI process,” Dr Johnson said.
Some of the 536 successful Discovery Projects to commence in 2025 include:
Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education ($999,608): – to determine what schools can do to retain remote Aboriginal high school students to support transition to work and further study, including strategies to improve literacy and numeracy, work readiness, confidence and transition to life beyond school.
University of Tasmania ($582,472): – to develop a new method to calibrate Antarctic glacier models which are used to project future sea levels, enabling improved sea-level projections that can be fed into the Australian ice-sheet modelling groups that inform the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) sea-level projections.
Curtin University ($289,886): – will explore the resource potential of carbonatites, a rare type of magmatic rock often associated with significant deposits of critical minerals, notably rare earth elements that are in increasing demand for electric motors and generators.
University of New South Wales ($151,346): – aims to address the weaponisation of the tax and transfer system in Australia by perpetrators of intimate partner financial abuse. The project will collaborate with researchers in the US, where ‘innocent spouse relief’ provisions offer relief on grounds of financial abuse.
University of Canberra ($1,004,964): – working under the cultural guidance of Traditional Owners, this project will explore new, eco-friendly laser techniques for cleaning and conserving ancient Aboriginal rock art in World Heritage Kakadu Park, which is threatened by damaging and disfiguring dirt and biological growths.
Monash University ($464,003): – seeks to overcome the current limitations of Homomorphic Encryption (HE), an emerging encryption technology with the potential to significantly reduce the likelihood of cloud computing data privacy breaches, by devising practical cryptographic algorithms for safeguarding a range of HE-based cloud computation applications against active attacks.
For a full list of funded Discovery Projects for 2025, including a snapshot of funding by state and territory, please view the Grant Announcement Kit.
For more information on the Discovery Projects scheme, please visit the ARC website.
