$21m in ARC funding to more than 50 Pawsey Users

Some 50 researchers who have enhanced their projects through the use of Pawsey’s supercomputing resources have been awarded over $20 million in funding through the Australian Research Council (ARC).

Minister of Education, Mr Dan Tehan, has recently announced more than $380 million in funding for Australia’s university research projects through ARC.

Over 30 researchers, benefiting from Pawsey Services, have been granted in excess of $11 million on Discovery Projects this year. Among the recipients were:

Associate Professor Tara Murphy’s team, University of Sydney, who received $381,000 to optimise the search and monitoring for future gravitational wave events to provide critical information to reveal what causes some of the most energetic events in the Universe, their environment and how they evolve.

University of Queensland’s, Professor Debra Bernhardt, received $380,000 to have a better understanding into the effects of flow in liquids to control and enhance reactions and develop new technologies, such as lubricants that can withstand the extreme strain.

Aiming to produce green fertilisers and provide renewable energy storage, Dr Yan Jiao and his team, at the University of Adelaide, were awarded $350,000 to work on the next generation of ammonia production under ambient conditions without hydrogen feedstock.

Professor Lloyd Hollenberg from the University of Melbourne has received $553,000 to significantly increase the signal of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) systems by integrating it with quantum hyperpolarisation technology to have a positive impact on the development of new drugs and antibiotics.

For more than three years, two young researchers, who were among the recipients of the Discovery Early Career Researcher Award, have been involved in projects utilising Pawsey services. Dr Hongyi Jiang, a researcher from The University of Western Australia (UWA), was granted $314,574 to study the behaviour of circular cylinders subjected to steady currents that will help to improve the design and safe operations of the sub-sea transmission and communication cables used in the offshore oil and gas industry. Dr Jiang has used Pawsey’s facilities for the last five years. Also from UWA, Mark Lindsay who also used  Pawsey’s facilities over the past three years received $330,000 in funding for his project, which aims to determine the best method to model Australian surface in 4D to help guide government policy.

Researchers across Australia work together in cooperative initiatives to guarantee access to expensive infrastructure for their organisations, and also to industry, that enable scientific outcomes. Out of 36 projects awarded the ‘Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities grant’, six teams included researchers that are currently working with Pawsey. The six projects received more than $7million to complete SABRE South dark matter detector to search for dark matter; build a world-class telescope facility dedicated to the detailed observations of stars; establish the first phase of a nationally networked research collaboration to support smarter urban planning, design and management among others.

Mr Tehan also announced how the National Interest Test (NIT) would apply to future ARC grant applications.

The previous “benefit and impact” application text will be replaced with a required field for the applicant to make their case against the NIT. This statement will be 100 to 150 words and in plain English and the  NIT will apply to all future rounds.

This approach creates no additional burden to researchers in preparing their applications but requires them to address the NIT definition specifically said the media release about the announcement from the Department of Education. This has been initiated so researchers will use lay terminology enabling Ministers to explain the value of each project to every day Australian.

Pawsey sends their genuine congratulations to all the researchers who have been successful in their ARC grant applications, our staff are looking forward to continuing to support Australian researchers to meet the growing demands of data science and HPC enabling the Nation’s to be competitive on the global market.

For more information about the ARC grants, visit here.

Young Scientist using Microscope in Laboratory