UNE > News and Events > Browse by article > UNE awarded almost $3 million in research grants

Next UNE political scientist appointed to national civics education body October 16, 2006  

Previous Biosecurity course to address growing threat October 12, 2006 

UNE awarded almost $3 million in research grants

October 13, 2006

FloodP.thumb.jpg
The Australian Research Council (ARC) has awarded The University of New England funding of almost $3 million for research in disciplines including biological sciences, psychology, mathematics, performing arts, education, human geography, religious studies, and Australian cultural history.

The newly-announced funding for 11 research projects administered by UNE will begin in 2007. Funding for individual projects ranges from $128,000 to $600,000, and is for periods of three, four or five years.

UNE's Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research), Professor Peter Flood (pictured here), said he was "delighted" by the outcome of the latest ARC funding round for the University. "Our application success rate has improved by about 35 per cent over that of the past three years," he said.

The grants to UNE have been awarded through two funding schemes included in the ARC's National Competitive Grants Program: "Discovery Projects" and "Linkage Projects". Nine of the successful UNE applications were for "Discovery" projects, and two for "Linkage" projects.

Eighteen per cent of UNE applications for "Discovery" grants in this round were successful. "This is only marginally less than the national average of 20 per cent, which includes all of the Go8 and research-intensive universities," Professor Flood said. "This encouraging result augurs well for the positioning of UNE in the Federal Government's forthcoming Research Quality Framework exercise that will redistribute research funding based on both 'quality' and 'impact'."

The titles of the successful projects, and the names of the UNE researchers involved in them, are as follows:

DISCOVERY GRANTS
Ecology of insect herbivore assemblages: influence of climate, evolutionary history and plant traits. Dr Nigel Andrew.

Evolution and development of a lateralised brain: A behavioural ecology
perspective. Dr Culum Brown.

The Amenity Principle: The causes, incidence and land-use planning implications of amenity-led rural settlement in Australia. Dr Neil Argent.

Alternative models of governance for Australian local government: Classification, evaluation and policy. Professor Brian Dollery.

A biographical study of Barry Humphries. Dr Anne Pender.

Behaviour-genetic studies of literacy, language and attention. Professor Brian Byrne, William Coventry.

Basil of Caesarea and the nexus of Greek, Latin and Semitic cultures in late Antiquity. Dr Anna Silvas.

Music and modernity in Osaka during the inter-war years. Associate Professor Hugh de Ferranti.

Sharp transitions in partial differential equations and related problems. Associate Professor Yihong Du, Dr Shusen Yan.

LINKAGE GRANTS
An investigation into the contribution of the national adult education system to the post-conflict reconstruction and development of East Timor. Dr Bob Boughton, Dr Rebecca Spence.

Fire severity, habitat heterogeneity and life histories. Resolving the persistence ability of plants in frequently fired landscapes. Associate Professor Peter Clarke.

A number of UNE researchers are involved in newly-funded ARC projects administered by other universities. These include Dr Neil Argent (two projects), Associate Professor Tony Sorensen, Professor Jim Walmsley, Professor Mike Morwood, Professor Michael Bittman, and Professor Adrian Kiernander.

Posted by Jim Scanlan at October 13, 2006 09:53 AM