The Australian Research Council has awarded $46.6 million in grant funding to dozens of new collaborative research projects through the latest round of its annual Linkage Program.
ARC chief executive Ute Roessner announced the 75 Linkage Project grants on Thursday, with the University of Queensland and the University of New South Wales among the biggest recipients of project funding.
The Linkage Projects program part-funds projects between researchers and business, industry, community organisations and other publicly funded research agencies.
The projects will also receive an additional $65.9 million in cash and in-kind support from more than 170 partner organisations.
The 75 new Linkage Project grants have mostly flowed to engineering and information and computing sciences, which represented $15.6 million of the $46.6 million in grant funding.
A $1.2 million project at the Australian National University to look at large-scale forest disturbance and community composition shifts under climate change will receive the most funding.
The university will partner with the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy the Environment and Water; the Australian Capital Territory’s Environment Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate; and a US university, among others.
The ARC has also funded two Monash University projects with $1.2 million each to investigate Aboriginal artefact collections and improve breeding programs for marsupials and monotremes.
The University of Queensland will also receive funding for two projects: a $1.2 million project to improve sustainable tailings rehabilitation and a $1.1 million project to improve plant biodiversity.
“This latest round of funding supports projects that will help build Australia’s future, from advancing the transition to net zero, to promoting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge systems,” Professor Roessner said.
Projects led by New South Wales universities received the most funding ($15.9 million), followed by Victorian universities ($12.2 million) and Queensland universities ($9.8 million).
No applications were made under the program by universities from the Northern Territory or Tasmania.
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