The ARC has announced more than $370 million in funding for over 520 new projects under the 2026 Discovery Projects scheme, reinforcing its commitment to bold ideas, collaboration, and long-term national benefit. Also, $22 million in funding has been granted under the 2025 Round 1 ARC Linkage Projects scheme, supporting over 40 new collaborative research initiatives.
Here are the innovative projects happening on campus that were successfully granted funding:
ARC DISCOVERY PROJECTS
Professor Matthew Gilliham; Professor Bronwyn Barkla; Dr Lim Chee Liew; Emeritus Professor Stephen Tyerman; Emeritus Professor Rainer Hedrich
$960,000 – 4 Years
Crop production uses >50% of Australia’s fresh water. With droughts and heatwaves predicted to increase, reducing crop water use while maintaining yield is a national priority. This project aims to identify new regulators that reduce plant water loss. A ground-breaking approach combining innovative light-activated ion transporters with single cell transcriptomics and phosphoproteomics is expected to deliver new targets for breeding or genetic manipulation, and demonstrate the utility of these cutting-edge tools for discovery. Likely outcomes include translation of findings from model plants to canola and providing validated candidates for extension to other crops to benefit food sovereignty and agricultural sustainability.
Dr John Green; Dr John Maclean; Professor Andrew Bernoff; Dr Camille Buhl; Dr Stephan Leu
$765,513 – 3 Years
A key yet unrealistic assumption of many collective motion models is that individuals are identical. This project aims to extend these models and build a unified framework to predict animal collective motion when individuals have heterogeneous influence on the collective. It will study (a) locusts, a major agricultural pest, where behaviour is linked to hunger and individuals appear identical to conspecifics and (b) sheep, a core Australian livestock, where individuals recognise each other and build social relationships. The strength of this project is its multispecies and multi-disciplinary approach, linking biological experiments, data science and mathematical biology to improve predictive tools used to manage these groups.
ARC LINKAGE PROJECTS
Professor Rachel Burton; Dr Cristian Varela; Dr Patricia Rohs
Industry Partner: VIA BioFuels; $623,000 – 3 Years
This project aims to advance Australia’s positioning in the global transition to a net zero economy by leveraging potential from the high-biomass, climate-resistant plant, agave. Using the transformational 3-methylanisole technology from VIA BioFuels, the project will develop yeasts that are effective and efficient in converting plant juice into sustainable biofuels and green materials. Expected outcomes include optimised and validated technologies and capacity for a valuable Australian-grown agave-for-biomaterials industry. The project should provide significant benefits, such as improved use and productivity of otherwise non-arable land, and renewable feedstocks to suit a range of applications for Australia’s carbon-neutral future.