Twelve Discovery Project grants have been awarded across a wide range of subject fields, including humanities and the social sciences, law, biomedical and natural sciences, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and education.
La Trobe Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Industry Engagement, Professor Susan Dodds commented that it was great to see such a range of projects awarded in this round of funding, spanning a wide range of disciplines and some excellent cross disciplinary projects.
“This is a fantastic result for La Trobe researchers and their collaborators and demonstrates how we as a university are pursuing high quality research that advances knowledge and opens up potential benefits for our communities,” Professor Dodds said.
The Discovery Project grant recipients are:
Dr John Taylor- $299,266 (School of Humanities and Social Sciences)
Trust in Pacific Healthcare: Transforming research, policy and practice.
Understanding medical trust in non-Western contexts with particular reference to type 2 diabetes and COVID-19 interventions in Vanuatu, Fiji and Samoa, with a view to improving health outcomes.
Dr Madelaine Chiam - $635,187 (La Trobe Law School)
Shaping International Law in Global Transformations: Australian Experiences.
Examining how Australia influences the development of international law in times of global transformation.
Dr Kevin Huynh - $569,146 (School of Agriculture, Biomedicine and Environment)
Next generation high throughput lipidomics using adaptive modelling.
Developing a unique high-throughput method to capture the lipidomic profile of human plasma suitable for large human population screening.
Dr Amy Pennay - $294,000 (School of Psychology and Public Health)
From mainstream to margins: The denormalisation of underage heavy drinking.
Investigating the changes in, and contemporary experiences of, heavy drinking for underage young people in Australia.
Dr Jenna Crowe-Riddell - $430,000 (School of Agriculture, Biomedicine and Environment)
Plastic brains: Neural adaptations to changing environments in reptiles.
A study in comparative neurobiology, generating new knowledge on the evolution of brains in Australia’s diverse and extensive collection of reptiles, including goannas, dragons and venomous snakes.
Associate Professor Ivan Poon - $390,890 (School of Agriculture, Biomedicine and Environment)
Formation and clearance of endothelial cell derived exophers.
Generating fundamental new knowledge of how the cells that line the blood vessels release cellular wastes and their subsequent removal by immune cells.
Professor Lisa Brophy - $648,164.00 (School of Allied Health, Human Services and Sport)
Taking control: variations in forced psychiatric treatment in the community.
Developing a comprehensive understanding of the drivers underpinning variations in the use of legal orders to enforce psychiatric treatment in the community without consent.
Professor Emmanuel Kuntsche - $310,000.00 (School of Psychology and Public Health)
Using AI to reveal the true extent and context of alcohol exposure in videos.
Utilising an artificial intelligence algorithm to automatically identify and quantify alcohol prevalence in video content and generate new knowledge about the effects of this exposure on the audience.
Dr Jinli Cao - $450,000 (School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences)
Knowledge Graph driven Software Vulnerability Risk Discovery and Assessment.
Utilising advanced knowledge graphs and deep learning techniques to assist with defending both organisations and individuals from cyberattacks.
Associate Professor Amanda Cooklin - $220,000 (School of Nursing and Midwifery)
The Great Disruption of COVID-19: Reimagining the work family interface.
Highlighting new possibilities to reimagine and reduce parents’ work-family conflicts following the unprecedented disruption to Australian parents' work-care routines because of Covid-19.
Dr Matthew Meredith-Williams - $347,437 (School of Humanities and Social Sciences)
Early desert settlement of Arabia following out-of-Africa human dispersals.
Improving our understanding of the nature, timing and climatic context of early human expansion into Southwest Asia.
Professor Jo Lampert - $453,300 (School of Education)
Impact of teacher shortages on teachers remaining in hard to staff schools.
Investigating the lived experiences of teachers who remain in the profession in a time of unprecedented teacher shortages.
