Making a difference—outcomes of ARC funded research

Making a difference Outcomes of ARC supported research 2016–17

THE AUSTRALIAN RESEARCH COUNCIL

The Australian Research Council (ARC) is a Commonwealth entity within the Australian Government. The ARC’s purpose is to grow knowledge and innovation for the benefit of the Australian community through funding the highest quality research, assessing the quality, engagement and impact of research and providing advice on research matters. The ARC funds research and researchers under the National Competitive Grants Program (NCGP). The NCGP consists of two elements—Discovery and Linkage. Within these elements are a range of schemes structured to provide a pathway of incentives for researchers to build the scope and scale of their work and collaborative partnerships. The majority of funding decisions under the NCGP are made on the basis of peer review. The ARC evaluates the quality of research undertaken in higher education institutions through the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) program. ERA is an established evaluation framework that identifies research excellence in Australian higher education institutions by comparing Australia’s research effort against international benchmarks. ERA assesses quality using a combination of indicators and expert review by research evaluation committees. The ARC is also responsible for developing and implementing an Engagement and Impact (EI) assessment announced by the Australian Government in December 2015 as part of the National Science and Innovation Agenda. EI will assess the engagement of researchers with end-users, and show how universities are translating their research into economic, social, environmental and other impacts.

ISBN 978-0-9943687-3-7 (print) Published: June 2017

All material presented in this publication is provided under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia licence (creativecommons.org/licenses) with the exception of the Commonwealth Coat of Arms, the Australian Research Council logo, images, signatures and where otherwise stated. For the avoidance of doubt, this means this licence only applies to material as set out in this document. The details of the relevant licence conditions are available on the Creative Commons website as is the full legal code for the CC BY 3.0 AU licence (http:creativecommons.org/licenses). Requests and enquiries regarding this licence should be addressed to ARC Legal Services on +61 2 6287 6600. Front cover image: Stock image—Sheep in the backyard with washing on the line against morning fog. Image courtesy: © 2016 Terry Cooke, used under license from Austockphoto. Inside cover: Stock image—Outback Australia. Image courtesy: ©iStockphoto.com/jandrielombard. Back cover images: ©Tane Sinclair-Taylor / tane-sinclair-taylor.com, image courtesy: ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies; Photo assets within the project database, image courtesy: ABC Archives; A ‘radio colour’ view of the sky above a ‘tile’ of the Murchison Widefield Array radio telescope, located in outback Western Australia. The Milky Way is visible as a band across the sky and the dots beyond are some of the 300,000 galaxies observed by the telescope for the GLEAM survey. Red indicates the lowest frequencies, green the middle frequencies and blue the highest frequencies, image courtesy: Radio image by Natasha Hurley-Walker (ICRAR/Curtin) and the GLEAM Team. MWA tile and landscape by Dr John Goldsmith / Celestial, image courtesy: IODP / The Australian National University; Bio Pen, used for cartilage regeneration, image courtesy: ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science.

Foreword It is my privilege to present this publication, Making a difference— Outcomes of ARC supported research . This publication is a snapshot of some of the outstanding research outcomes derived from research projects funded by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council (ARC) National Competitive Grants Program (NCGP). The NCGP supports the highest-quality fundamental and applied research and research training through national competition across all disciplines 1 and encourages partnerships between researchers and industry, government, community organisations and the international community. I am immensely proud of the important role that the ARC plays in supporting Australian research and developing Australia’s research capacity. This publication displays the tangible outcomes derived from both the fundamental and applied research undertaken by ARC supported researchers. ARC supported research is delivering cultural, economic, social and environmental benefits to all Australians. The research outcomes highlighted within this publication demonstrate benefits derived from research undertaken across the full spectrum of research supported by the ARC, from the humanities and social sciences (HASS) disciplines through to the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Of course, we could not possibly capture all the brilliant research outcomes delivered by our ARC supported researchers in one publication. While I congratulate the researchers and institutions highlighted in this publication, I also extend my admiration to all the excellent researchers the ARC supports. It is clear to me that ARC supported research is making a real difference to Australia and the world.

Ms Leanne Harvey Acting Chief Executive Officer Australian Research Council

1 Clinical and other medical research is primarily supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council.

The Discovery Program supports fundamental research, essential to Australia’s innovation system, for the development of new ideas, job creation, economic growth, and an enhanced quality of life in Australia. The Discovery Program schemes include: Discovery Projects; Discovery Indigenous; Australian Laureate Fellowships; Future Fellowships; and Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. The Linkage Program promotes national and international collaboration and research partnerships between key stakeholders, in research and innovation, including higher education providers, government, business, industry and end-users . Research and development is undertaken to apply advanced knowledge to problems, acquire new knowledge and as a basis for securing commercial and other benefits of research. The Linkage Program schemes include: ARC Centres of Excellence; Industrial Transformation Research Hubs; Industrial Transformation Training Centres; Linkage Projects; Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities; and Special Research Initiatives. Stock image—Abstract blue biotechnology shape. Image courtesy: ©iStockphoto.com/shuoshu.

Contents

2 7

Understanding our world and translating fundamental research

Generating economic impacts

12 17 22 27 32 37 42

Developing innovative technologies

Advancing environmental science and management

Understanding our society and culture

Improving education and well-being

Research leadership

Funding research infrastructure, equipment and facilities

ARC scheme information

UNDERSTANDING OUR WORLD AND TRANSLATING FUNDAMENTAL RESEARCH Image: Two Black Holes Merge into One. Image courtesy: SXS, the Simulating eXtreme Spacetimes (SXS) project. 2 - Detecting gravitational waves - Smart needle to make brain surgery safer - Finding the world’s richest ore deposits - Powerful research-industry partnership

DETECTING GRAVITATIONAL WAVES Perhaps the most exciting discovery in fundamental physics for decades was the detection of gravitational waves at the US-based Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (Advanced LIGO). The discovery, announced in February 2016, was followed by the announcement of a second detection only a few months later. Then, in June 2017, a third detection of gravitational waves was announced, demonstrating that a new window in astronomy has been firmly opened. These discoveries have opened up new possibilities in exploring the universe through its most enigmatic objects: black holes, while at the same time testing our current understanding of the physical laws underpinning the universe. The first detection of gravitational waves was the result of an international effort spanning fifty years in which Australian researchers played an important part, and the ARC provided significant support. This support included substantial ARC Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities scheme funding to The Australian National University and The University of Adelaide for Australian researchers to travel to Advanced LIGO to install and operate instruments, as well as ARC Linkage Projects and Discovery Projects scheme funding to develop specific technologies. With the existence of gravitational waves proven, a new ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav), led by Professor Matthew Bailes at Swinburne University of Technology, will now capitalise on these historic first detections to understand the extreme physics of black holes and warped spacetime. The first detection of gravitational waves in late 2015 confirmed a major prediction of Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity, exactly 100 years after it was published.

Image: Inspecting LIGO’s optics for contaminants prior to sealing up the chamber and pumping the vacuum system down, by illuminating its surface with light at a glancing angle. Image courtesy: Matt Heintze/Caltech/MIT/LIGO Lab.

SMART NEEDLE TO MAKE BRAIN SURGERY SAFER The ‘smart needle’ is an outstanding example of how ARC-funded research can translate into real world benefits—in this case, commercially for the medical technology industry and, ultimately, improved health services for Australians. Researchers at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale BioPhotonics (CNBP), led by Professor Mark Hutchinson and based at The University of Adelaide, have developed a revolutionary new medical device that will make critical neurosurgery safer. A tiny imaging probe, encased within a brain biopsy needle, lets surgeons ‘see’ at-risk blood vessels as they insert the needle, allowing them to avoid causing bleeds that can potentially be fatal. The device contains a tiny fibre-optic camera, the size of a human hair, shining infrared light and allowing the needle to see where it is going. This is combined with smart image processing software to detect vessels before they are damaged and alert the surgeon. The smart needle project, led by Professor Robert McLaughlin, Chair of Biophotonics at CNBP, is a collaboration with The University of Western Australia and Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital. Professor Christopher Lind, Consultant Neurosurgeon, successfully demonstrated the smart needle in a pilot trial with 12 patients undergoing neurosurgery. The smart needle will be ready for formal clinical trials in 2018, and the CNBP is pursuing international medical device manufacturers to commercialise the smart needles in Australia.

Image: Team members testing the smart needle in surgery. Image courtesy: The University of Adelaide.

FINDING THE WORLD’S RICHEST ORE DEPOSITS Led by Emeritus Professor Ross Large from the ARC Centre of Excellence in Ore Deposits (CODES), researchers from the University of Tasmania, in collaboration with their University of California counterparts, have discovered when and why some of the richest ore deposits on the planet were formed. The team recorded subtle changes in the level of oxygen in the Earth’s ancient atmosphere using a laser-based analytical technology developed in the University of Tasmania laboratories. Their fundamental research provides a clearer understanding of how oxygen changed in the ancient atmosphere, and how this relates to the generation of large and rich ore deposits in ancient rocks. Their research revealed that when oxygen levels were very low in the atmosphere and oceans, giant ore deposits of gold, iron and nickel formed in the oldest (Archean) rocks. Then, following the Great Oxygenation Event (about two billion years ago), when oxygen levels significantly increased, there was a switch to giant deposits of copper, Professor Ross Large, former zinc, silver and uranium. Some of Australia’s biggest and richest ore deposits at Broken Hill (zinc-lead-silver), Olympic Dam

(copper-uranium), Ranger (uranium) and Mt Isa (copper-zinc-lead-silver) formed after this switch.

ARC Centre Director, and his team from the ARC Centre of Excellence in Ore Deposits at the University of Tasmania,along with collaborating institutions, received the UNSW Eureka Prize for Excellence in Interdisciplinary Scientific Research for the Trace Elements in Past Oceans (TEPO) project.

These fundamental research findings enable the ups and downs of oxygen in the past atmosphere to be precisely determined to predict the times in geological history when and where other giant ore deposits may have formed in Australia. This will assist geologists in the discovery of rich deposits of copper, zinc and uranium.

Image: Professor Ross Large. Image courtesy: Karen Brown / University of Tasmania.

POWERFUL RESEARCH-INDUSTRY PARTNERSHIP The ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES), led by ARC Australian Laureate Fellow, Professor Gordon Wallace—and the Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF) have forged a powerful partnership that is catapulting fundamental research into practical and useful structures and devices.

Professor Gordon Wallace, an Australian Laureate Fellow and Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science at the University of Wollongong, received the CSIRO Eureka Prize for Leadership in Innovation and Science.

ACES, administered by the University of Wollongong, undertakes fundamental research to understand material cellular interactions and discover how these interactions can influence biological processes. ANFF—established under the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy—links eight university-based nodes to provide researchers and industry with access to state-of-the-art fabrication facilities. Their partnership is bringing together scientists, engineers and clinicians to undertake interdisciplinary research that is enabling existing industries to explore new opportunities and is creating new manufacturing industries. Recent research outcomes include: • Cartilage Regeneration: printing of cartilage regeneration biomaterials that can be implanted into patients suffering from conditions like arthritis • Islet Cell Transplantation: the development of an ink containing biomaterials that protect islet cells during the 3D printing process to help treat type 1 diabetes • AquaHydrex: new materials that facilitate the breakdown of water into important fuels—hydrogen and oxygen. By coupling world-class research expertise with quality facilities and equipment, the ACES-ANFF partnership has positioned itself as an outstanding commercial researcher partner. For example, Aquahydrex Pty Ltd, a start-up company based on fundamental research from ACES, extensively utilised the fabrication capabilities of ANFF. The ACES team expects other new commercial opportunities in 3D bioprinting to emerge in the near future.

Image: Bio Pen, used for cartilage regeneration. Image courtesy: ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science.

GENERATING ECONOMIC IMPACTS 7 - 3D-printed jet engines are just the beginning - New software to detect money laundering - Improved subsea pipelines - Leading the way for innovative dairy products

Stock image—Business graph with arrows tending downwards. Image courtesy: ©iStockphoto.com/peshkov.

3D-PRINTED JET ENGINES ARE JUST THE BEGINNING

The development and commercialisation of this advanced 3D metal printing technology is an excellent example of Australia’s world-class research translating into 'real world' commercial impact.

Researchers at the ARC Research Hub for Transforming Australia’s Manufacturing Industry through High Value Additive Manufacturing , led by Professor Xinhua Wu at Monash University, are successfully commercialising their innovative 3D printing technology. In 2014, the Research Hub revealed the world’s first 3D printed jet engine at the Melbourne International Airshow. Then, in late 2016, the Research Hub announced it had become a qualified aerospace supplier, signing an agreement to print turbojet components for Safran Power Units, a French-based global aerospace and defence company. Although 3D printing has been used for many years in the aerospace industry to create polymer parts, printing metallic parts for functioning jet engines is much harder. In order to print alloys that are tough and strong enough for jet engine parts, Professor Wu’s team engineers parts to incredible levels of precision, drawing on their deep reserve of metallurgical knowledge and specialist research equipment. 3D printing technology holds the promise of transforming manufacturing processes in many different fields of engineering. The Research Hub expects that this is just the beginning, with many other opportunities on the horizon to attract business investment and develop other applications of this technology, including printing biomedical implants.

Image: 3D printed jet engine. Image courtesy: Monash University.

NEW SOFTWARE TO DETECT MONEY LAUNDERING Searching through millions of financial transactions in order to discover evidence of money laundering is a growing challenge for the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC), the intelligence agency in charge of keeping Australia’s financial system free from criminal abuse. Supported by ARC Linkage Projects scheme funding, researchers at RMIT University, led by Professor Xinghuo Yu, are helping AUSTRAC by bringing machine learning and artificial intelligence tools to the task of detecting and deterring suspicious activity. Together they have developed new software that can detect unknown money laundering networks faster and more accurately than ever before. Their system has demonstrated its ability to detect with efficiency and precision transactions that meet criteria for further investigation by analysts, freeing analysts from manually examining large volumes of raw financial data and enabling complex financial crimes to be more easily detected. In the 2015–16 financial year, financial intelligence derived from AUSTRAC data contributed to government partner organisations saving Australia millions of dollars, including $8.3 million in welfare fraud, $130 million in liabilities from Serious Financial Crime Taskforce activities, and $152 million in income tax assessments. Working with RMIT University’s researchers, AUSTRAC’s continuous innovation has enabled the agency to remain effective in deterring and detecting money laundering and terrorist financing and related criminal activities.

Stock image—Money laundering. Image courtesy: ©iStockphoto.com/AlexSava.

IMPROVED SUBSEA PIPELINES Led by ARC Future Fellow, Professor David White, researchers at The University of Western Australia (UWA) are collaborating with national and international industry partner organisations, including Woodside and Chevron, to improve modelling of ocean-pipeline-seabed interactions. Until recently, interaction forces between pipelines and the seabed were poorly understood. However, UWA researchers have overturned conventional thinking by demonstrating the seabed is less stable than the pipeline, meaning that the pipe will generally become buried through scour and sediment transport. This has transformed how the seabed is characterised and how pipeline-seabed interactions are assessed. Their research has been adopted by every major recent Australian offshore project, as well as numerous international projects. The geotechnical design of new pipelines planned in Australia now relies on this research. The UWA pipeline research program is also becoming embedded in international design practice. The development of offshore petroleum contributes $25 billion annually to the Australian economy. After applying this research to a first project, Woodside found it had already yielded a benefit-to-cost ratio of 10:1. In the long term, the anticipated savings for industry extend into the hundreds of millions of dollars, as Australia’s offshore pipeline network grows. This collaborative research has led to more accurate, reliable and cost-effective design of pipelines, resulting in safer and more reliable energy supply in Australia and worldwide.

Image: Researchers with subsea pipeline in the lab. Image courtesy: University of Western Australia.

LEADING THE WAY FOR INNOVATIVE DAIRY PRODUCTS The ARC Dairy Innovation Hub , led by Associate Professor Sally Gras, is based at The University of Melbourne. In collaboration with The University of Queensland and their major partner organisation, Dairy Innovation Australia Ltd, the Research Hub is carrying out transformational research to underpin the future of the Australian dairy manufacturing industry. Funded under the ARC Industrial Transformation Research Hubs scheme, the Research Hub is investigating how dairy manufacturers can recover high-value ingredients from increasing volumes of by-products to maximise commercial returns. For example, using an electrically-driven membrane process, Professor Sandra Kentish and Dr George Chen developed a new technique to separate the different components of whey from milk, allowing them to select the beneficial parts and leave behind the unwanted lactic acid. The by-products can then potentially be used to make ingredients for other desirable products, such as baby formula, energy bars, drinks and desserts. Once this technology is adopted, it could reduce disposal costs and allow recovery and use of protein and sugars in this by-product stream, generating ~$26 million per annum across the industry.

To date, the ARC Dairy Innovation Hub is estimated to have contributed to over $151 million in increased sales and commercial benefits for the companies involved.

Image: Dr George Chen. Image courtesy: JJFotoz / The University of Melbourne.

DEVELOPING INNOVATIVE

TECHNOLOGIES - Improving sewer odour and corrosion control - Advanced microscope enabling real-time imaging of living cells - Nanopatch—revolutionising treatment of disease across the globe - Bionic eye implant restoring a sense of vision 12

Stock image—Global Strategy Virtual Icon Innovation Graph Interfaces. Coworkers Making Hand. Image courtesy: ©iStockphoto.com/Pinkypills.

IMPROVING SEWER ODOUR AND CORROSION CONTROL Led by Professor Zhiguo Yuan, researchers at The University of Queensland have been working to improve the function and reduce maintenance costs of sewers. The team, supported by ARC Linkage Projects scheme funding, are working in collaboration with eleven industry partners who collectively provide wastewater services to around two thirds of Australians, as well as other parts of the world. Together they have developed a tool, called SeweX, supported by fundamental knowledge generated from in-sewer physical, chemical and biological processes. Using sophisticated mathematical modelling, SeweX can pinpoint corrosion or odour hotspots in sewer infrastructure, determine the service life of sewers, and optimise migration strategies through catchment-scale modelling. The team has also delivered several new, highly innovative technologies for more cost-effective mitigation of sewer corrosion and odour, which are being commercialised worldwide. For example, the research team showed that a common coagulant added during water treatment, aluminium sulfate, is a key precursor that contributes to rapid concrete degradation. Their solution to switch to sulfate-free coagulants, at little or no extra cost, will generate savings in sewer maintenance and corrosion costs. The impact of the team’s research on the water industry has been recognised worldwide, including by the International Water Association, which awarded their project the 2014 Global Project Innovation Award (Applied Research).

SeweX modelling has delivered hundreds of millions of dollars in cost-savings to the Australian water industry.

Image: Researchers onsite at a wastewater treatment site. Image courtesy: The University of Queensland.

ADVANCED MICROSCOPE ENABLING REAL-TIME IMAGING OF LIVING CELLS Researchers at The Australian National University, including ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) recipient and biomedical optics engineer, Dr Steve Lee, an associate investigator of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Advanced Molecular Imaging , have built an advanced microscope that can film moving blood cells and neurons firing in living animals in real-time. The innovation developed by Dr Lee’s team is a modernised polygon mirror microscopy system with advanced electronics and software controls. Their invention doubles the imaging speed of conventional scanning microscopes on the market. The microscope uses a ‘barcode’ scanning mirror device with up to 36 mirror facets to scan a high quality laser beam across the biological sample in a few thousandths of a second. Dr Lee is now developing an industry partnership with a life science company in Melbourne, under Innovation Connections (AusIndustry), to commercialise the advanced microscope in Australia. In addition, Dr Lee has also secured a Global Connections Priming Grant (through the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering) to collaborate with a US-based industry optics partner to further expand the capability of the advanced microscopy system by integrating new active micro-optics devices.

This advanced microscope is much more flexible than other microscopes. It can be sped up or slowed down to capture live neurons firing rapidly in the brain or slow moving cells in a blood stream. This allows scientists to analyse complex medical problems, ranging from blood disorders and cancer to neurological disorders.

Image: Dr Steve Lee, from The Australian National University Research School of Engineering, with the microscope. Image courtesy: Stuart Hay / The Australian National University.

Professor Mark Kendall’s pioneering needle-free immunisation technology has been recognised nationally and internationally. Most recently, he received the 2016 CSL Young Florey Medal. Professor Kendall’s research group also received the Eureka Prize for Research by an Interdisciplinary Team in 2011 and won the 2011 Australian Innovation Challenge.

NANOPATCH—REVOLUTIONISING TREATMENT OF DISEASE ACROSS THE GLOBE Professor Mark Kendall, an inaugural ARC Future Fellow who has also received support from the ARC Discovery Projects scheme, developed ‘Nanopatch’. Nanopatch is a small square of silicon that sticks on the skin like a postage stamp and delivers vaccine directly to the body’s immune system. Professor Kendall’s method of vaccine delivery has important advantages compared to traditional syringes—it is painless, requires a fraction of the dose, and does not need refrigeration during transportation and storage. Professor Kendall’s research and development has led to The University of Queensland spin-out biotechnology company, Vaxxas. In 2014 Vaxxas signed an agreement with the World Health Organisation (WHO) to trial the Nanopatch delivery system for polio vaccines. Currently, polio vaccines are delivered around the world in liquid form, and administered either orally or through a needle and syringe. While there remain only a handful of countries that have never stopped transmission of polio (primarily Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria and Syria), as long as a single case of polio infection remains, all countries risk an outbreak in their unimmunised populations. The WHO predicts that an international resurgence could lead to as many as 200,000 cases a year within a decade.

Image: Researchers with Nanopatch. Image courtesy: The University of Queensland.

BIONIC EYE IMPLANT RESTORING A SENSE OF VISION Globally, over one and a half million people have progressive vision loss. In Australia, over 50,000 people suffer from profound blindness. The financial cost of profound vision loss is significant. In Australia alone it has been estimated at upwards of $2.5 billion annually. Bionic Vision Australia (BVA) is a national consortium of researchers—from The University of Melbourne (administering organisation), The University of New South Wales, Western Sydney University, Bionics Institute, Centre for Eye Research Australia, National ICT Australia (now Data61), Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital and National Vision Research Institute—working to develop bionic eye devices that will restore the sense of vision to people with vision impairment. Initially funded through the ARC’s Research in Bionic Vision Science and Technology Initiative, BVA received total funding of $50 million (2010–2015). During that time, BVA’s research program included successful testing in patients of a prototype implant system right through to the development of an implant system ready to undergo clinical regulatory testing and commercialisation. In early 2017, BVA announced that its commercialisation company, Bionic Vision Technologies, had secured foreign investment of $18 million (USD) from Hong Kong based company, China Huarong International Holdings Limited, together with State Path Capital Limited BVI, to manufacture devices and commence a human clinical trial of the bionic eye implant.

The commercialisation of BVA’s bionic eye implant is an impressive example of the translation of publicly funded research to deliver significant social and economic benefits to Australia. The device, implanted in the rear of the eye (the retina), will initially provide light perception and enable some vision to blind patients with degenerative retinal conditions. BVA will utilise Australia’s existing world-class manufacturing expertise to produce this life-changing device.

Image: The bionic eye. Image courtesy: Bionic Vision Australia.

ADVANCING ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND MANAGEMENT - New solar glass a ‘game changer’ for the glass and building industries - Improving natural resource management decision making and policy - Faster, stronger, longer: accelerated evolutionary change in the cane toad - Step towards a sustainable future using microfactory technology 17

Stock image—Wind Energy Blows Into Future Amarillo. Image courtesy: ©iStockphoto.com/Suwanmanee99.

Image: Professor Kamal Alemeh with solar glass. Image courtesy: Edith Cowan University.

NEW SOLAR GLASS A ‘GAME CHANGER’ FOR THE GLASS AND BUILDING INDUSTRIES A research team, led by Professor Kamal Alameh at Edith Cowan University, has developed a breakthrough new technology—a clear glass that harvests energy directly from the sun while letting most of the visible light through. The glass is embedded with nanoparticles and micro-structured elements that help absorb and re-distribute, internally, up to 90 per cent of the ultraviolet (UV) light energy and a good fraction of infrared rays’ energy from the sunlight. The energy is then transferred to solar cells embedded around the edges of the glass panel. While it is not the only solar glass product on the market, it is the first of its kind, because it is clear glass without lines, dots or visible squares of solar panels.

New energy-harvesting clear glass technology has many applications, with a strong potential identified in creating new smart greenhouses, which power their own water filtration, irrigation, heating and cooling.

The glass has already been used in a self-sustainable bus shelter in Port Melbourne. Now, the technology is being developed commercially, in collaboration with partner organisation ClearVue Technologies, with plans to build an advanced energy efficient glasshouse near Perth and trial the product in Singapore and South Africa.

IMPROVING NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT DECISION MAKING AND POLICY The ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions (CEED), at The University of Queensland, led by Professor Kerrie Wilson, is a world-leading research centre that is pushing the frontiers of environmental decision science. Research undertaken by CEED is helping managers, policy makers, non-government organisations and other researchers to make better-informed decisions about natural resource management. Historically, the practice of conservation planning has not been systematic and new reserves have often been located in places that do not contribute to the representation of biodiversity. CEED researchers are changing this, thanks in part to their work developing and improving a specialist conservation planning software tool, called Marxan 1 . Marxan is used to solve environmental management problems and evaluate the outcomes of environmental actions, by incorporating the best scientific information to make the costs and benefits of alternative decisions clear. Marxan has now been applied to hundreds of spatial conservation planning problems around the world and CEED researchers are using it to assist stakeholder driven decision-making processes. For example, collaboration between CEED researchers and the Malaysian Government resulted in the creation of Malaysia’s biggest marine protected area. The software allowed information provided by local communities to be used to help decide which areas should be protected and which should remain open for different kinds of fishing. 1 Marxan was initially co-developed by Ian Ball and Hugh Possingham at The University of Adelaide as part of Ian’s PhD at that institution. Professor Possingham and programmer Matt Watts developed Marxan further at The University of Queensland from 2004 to the present, funded by a wide variety of sources, especially the Australian Research Council and the National Environmental Science Program (Australian federal government). The Marxan family of tools continues to be developed, trained and applied by many CEED researchers in a wide diversity of partnerships. In March 2017, CEED researchers—Professor Kerrie Wilson (current Centre Director), Professor Hugh Possingham (former Centre Director), and Dr Erik Meijaard—won Malaysia’s 2016 Mahathir Science Award which recognises scientists, institutions or organisations worldwide for tropical research that improves society’s well-being. In May 2017, Professor Wilson received the prestigious 2017 Australian Academy of Science Nancy Millis Medal for Women in Science, recognising her significant discoveries in the environmental sciences that have resulted in more effective conservation practices. Image: Malaysian artisanal fishers, Northern Sabah.

Image courtesy: M. Beger / ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions.

FASTER, STRONGER, LONGER: ACCELERATED EVOLUTIONARY CHANGE IN THE CANE TOAD Professor Rick Shine, an ARC Australian Laureate Fellow from The University of Sydney, is undertaking important research focussed on protecting Northern Australia’s peak predators, snakes and lizards, from invasive pest species, such as the cane toad. Recent research undertaken by Professor Shine and his team has shown that the annual rate of progress of the cane toad invasion has increased five-fold since their introduction into Queensland in 1935. Cane toads expanded their range by about 10km a year during the 1940s to 60s, but are now invading new areas at an expedited rate of over 50km a year. By attaching radio transmitters to the toads, their research found that toads with longer legs move faster and are the first to arrive in new areas. They also found that toads at the front have longer legs than those in older (long-established) populations. These long-legged toads also had more endurance, travelling about half a kilometre further in a three-day period. The research demonstrated that these changes in a toad’s body shape, its behaviour, dispersal ability and tactics are heritable. That is, offspring resemble their parents, even if they have been raised under standard conditions. These findings indicate that evolutionary forces are likely to fine-tune organism traits in ways that facilitate more rapid expansion of the invading population, and that control efforts against feral organisms should be launched as soon as possible, before that invader has time to evolve into a more dangerous adversary. Image: Cane toad yellow. Image courtesy: Matt Greenlees / The University of Sydney.

Professor Shine was awarded the 2016 Prime Minister’s Prize for Science for his work using evolutionary principles to address conservation challenges.

STEP TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE USING MICROFACTORY TECHNOLOGY

Using breakthrough technology, ARC-funded researchers at The University of New South Wales (UNSW) are recycling common waste plastics into plastic filaments that can be used to 3D print new green materials. Their research represents a remarkable step towards a sustainable future and opens up infinite possibilities for other potential products made from composite waste. The technology is the result of research led by Scientia Professor Veena Sahajwalla, an ARC Georgina Sweet Australian Laureate Fellow and Director of ARC’s Industrial Transformation Research Hub for Transforming Waste Directly in Cost-effective Green Manufacturing —a unique collaboration between researchers and industries that is transforming all types of waste into valuable resources. The Research Hub has developed a custom-designed small-scale microfactory, that could be located almost anywhere, to transform waste into valuable resources. Replica ‘Gandhi glasses’ made at the microfactory were presented to the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, by Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, during an Australia-India Skills Conference held in India in April 2017.

New microfactory technology, which produces value-added green materials and products made from 100 per cent waste materials, offers new opportunities to generate income from waste and to create local jobs, while delivering local and global environmental benefits.

Image: Professor Veena Sahajwalla, with 100% recycled plastic filament. Image courtesy: UNSW Sydney

UNDERSTANDING OUR SOCIETY AND CULTURE - Reimagining the role of museums and archives in guiding our remembrances of war - Whistling while they work: Improving managerial responses to whistleblowing in public and private sector organisations - Bilingualism in the bush - Creating next generation social robots 22

REIMAGINING THE ROLE OF MUSEUMS AND ARCHIVES IN GUIDING OUR REMEMBRANCES OF WAR A research team led by Scientia Professor Dennis Del Favero from The University of New South Wales, in collaboration with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Department of Veterans Affairs, Australia Council and Museums Victoria, is using breathtaking visual technology to explore new ways to communicate and understand the collective experiences and memories of war. Bringing together expertise in the media arts and artificial intelligence, with the active participation of defence personnel and their families, the team launched a computer graphic installation, Retrospect: War, Family Afghanistan at Melbourne Museum to mark Remembrance Day in November 2016. The exhibition, a world-first in interactivity and archiving war stories, aimed to reformulate war memories as an interactive narrative. Using unseen footage from the conflict in Afghanistan, the project is helping Australians understand the impact that service has on the families of defence force personnel, and of what the men and women of the Australian defence forces are experiencing on the ground in conflicts overseas. By communicating the experience of war using modern day forms of digital communication, and making them more widely accessible through parallel online interactive website, radio and television programs, this project has reimagined the role of museums and archives in guiding our remembrances of war.

This research project provides access to a vast digital database of veteran and family memories that can be explored across a range of interactive platforms, including online, radio, television and 360-degree 3D interactive cinema.

Image: Photo assets within the project database. Image courtesy: ABC Archives.

WHISTLING WHILE THEY WORK: IMPROVING MANAGERIAL RESPONSES TO WHISTLEBLOWING IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTOR ORGANISATIONS Whistling While They Work is the world’s leading current research into public interest whistleblowing, when employees or other members of organisations speak up about wrongdoing within or by the organisation, to people who can—or should—do something about it. Led by Professor A J Brown from Griffith University, and supported by ARC Linkage Projects scheme funding, this three-year project is identifying the factors that influence good and bad responses to whistleblowing across a wide range of institutions. The research has systematically compared responses and outcomes between public and private sector organisations, and between multiple state and national jurisdictions (Australia and New Zealand). Professor Brown’s research is providing a clearer basis for evaluation and improvement in organisational procedures, better public policy, and more informed approaches to the reform or introduction of whistleblower protection laws.

Professor A J Brown’s research is ensuring that whistleblowing plays a productive role in support of public integrity, and institutional accountability and performance in an ever more complex world.

BILINGUALISM IN THE BUSH University of New England-based Associate Professor Elizabeth Ellis, and Early Childhood specialist, Professor Margaret Sims, are leading a three-year project, Bilingualism in the Bush, which is working with children aged 2-7 and their families to document ways their home language is maintained at home and in society. Research has shown that bilingual children, those who can speak more than one language, often have improved social and intellectual skills through using their language abilities. This also translates into greater employment opportunities, enhanced social identity and other benefits in life. However, maintaining their home language in rural and regional areas, where a critical mass of speakers, social networks and resources do not exist, is a challenge. With ARC Discovery Projects scheme support, the researchers have recruited migrant families in regional Australia and have tracked their attempts to maintain their home language within the broadly monolingual environs of northern NSW. They are investigating how migrants in this part of regional Australia draw on their repertoire of multiple languages in different ways and employ a variety of strategies to assist their children to grow up bilingual. Families report that being involved in the project has raised their awareness of language practices in their family and renewed their enthusiasm for bringing their children up bilingually. Associate Professor Ellis’ and Professor Sims’ research is being disseminated through parent networks and academic publications. Their work is also informing policy and community services in regional Australia, filling critical gaps in our understanding of migrant family support.

Research informing community and educational services to assist children in regional settings realise the benefits of growing up bilingual, including improved cognitive, social and academic skills.

CREATING NEXT GENERATION SOCIAL ROBOTS Professor Mary-Anne Williams, Director of the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Innovation and Research Laboratory (aka The Magic Lab, a centre for social robotics), is leading a team at UTS who are running novel human-robot interaction experiments in the real world to develop increasingly sophisticated social robot technologies. Social robotics is an emerging field that studies the design and impact of robots interacting with people in public spaces, workplaces and our homes. Robots are a disruptive technology that can solve problems and undertake complex tasks; social robots are not just problem solvers, they have emotional and social intelligence that allows them to collaborate with people in safe, fluent and enjoyable ways. Professor Williams and her team are applying the outcomes of their research, undertaken through an ARC Discovery Projects scheme grant, to a new partnership with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA). They are working alongside CBA and its major customer, Stockland, in the CBA Innovation Lab. The CBA Innovation Lab is a testing

environment for students and academics of Australia’s leading technology universities to conduct research and development using Chip, a humanoid robot owned by the bank and the only one of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere. The collaboration is creating unique opportunities for UTS students to explore social robotics in a wide range of innovative ‘real world’ applications, ranging from enhancing customer experience to providing assistance to humans in airports and hospitals. This research is allowing CBA to assist its customers in every industry better understand how social robots will disrupt their business and uncover critical ethical, legal and societal issues that arise when people interact and collaborate with intelligent social robots. Image: Magic Lab PhD students working in the CBA Innovation Lab on Human-Robot Interaction Experiments with CBA Customers. Image courtesy: University of Technology Sydney.

This corporate-academic partnership is exploring the opportunities and limitations of human-robot interaction, and pursuing commercial applications of social robotics across a number of industries in Australia.

IMPROVING EDUCATION AND WELL-BEING 27 - Understanding and preventing injuries in outdoor education and recreation - Science of Learning Research Centre providing an evidence base for education - World-first tablet computer game helping children - Improving educational outcomes of Indigenous higher education students

UNDERSTANDING AND PREVENTING INJURIES IN OUTDOOR EDUCATION AND RECREATION ARC Future Fellow, Professor Paul Salmon at the University of the Sunshine Coast, is leading the Understanding and Preventing Led Outdoor Accidents Data System (UPLOADS) research program which is reducing injuries and making outdoor education and recreation experiences safer for all. Experiencing the great outdoors is critical for our development, health and well-being. The outdoor education sector provides led outdoor activities (LOAs) for this purpose and are keen to ensure that these activities are safe. Supported by ARC Linkage Projects scheme funding and partnerships with over 30 organisations in the LOA sector, including the Australian Camps Association; Outdoors Victoria; the Outdoor Education Group; Sport and Recreation Victoria; the Outdoor Council of Australia; and YMCA Victoria, UPLOADS is one of the world’s first attempts at translating contemporary accident causation theory and analysis methods into practical tools that can be used by practitioners to support accident analysis and prevention activities. The UPLOADS program of research involved developing, implementing and testing new tools for identifying risks and preventing LOA injury incidents, such as at school camps. This has enabled the creation of an incident dataset that collects information about near misses, injury incidents and participation rates, which in turn provides a standardised, national approach to incident reporting and learning for the outdoor education sector in Australia.

UPLOADS tools are now being utilised by Australian outdoor education and recreation providers to report, analyse and prevent injury incidents.

SCIENCE OF LEARNING RESEARCH CENTRE PROVIDING AN EVIDENCE BASE FOR EDUCATION The ARC Special Research Initiative for a Science of Learning Research Centre (SLRC), now led by Professor Pankaj Sah from The University of Queensland (UQ), brings together neuroscientists, psychologists and education researchers from across the country, collaborating on programs to better understand learning, using a range of innovative experimental techniques and programs. Facilities at the centre include specially-designed research classrooms at UQ and The University of Melbourne. Physically structured like a conventional classroom, these revolutionary facilities offer researchers the opportunity to observe a class behind a one-way mirror and analyse classroom interactions at an unprecedented level of detail. Lessons given in the Melbourne classroom are recorded through up to sixteen high definition video cameras and

thirty-two fixed and portable microphones. The educational neuroscience classroom at UQ enables simultaneous measurement of brain activity, eye movements and physiological responses of participants, providing a truly multi-modal investigation of factors underlying successful learning. The centre’s work is translating research into relevant, future-focused, practical information for teachers to improve learning outcomes for their students. For example, SLRC researchers, led by Professor Martin Westwell at The Flinders University of South Australia, have collaborated with teachers in public pre-school, primary and secondary schools across the Port Augusta-Quorn region, in a program designed to innovate mathematics and

The SLRC has a broad national reach, with more than 100 members spread across nine Australian research organisations, as well as partnerships with three state Benevolent Society and Questacon in Canberra, enabling it to translate its interdisciplinary research into improved student outcomes. education departments, four international universities, the

numeracy teaching. Their work has led to teachers reporting major shifts in students’ thinking, improved NAPLAN results and a reduction in students’ stress levels. Image: Using research findings to develop mathematical thinkers at Koonibba Aboriginal School, SA. Image courtesy: Florence Gabriel / Flinders University.

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