ARC Linkage Projects success for Sydney researchers
More than $1.5 million was awarded to Sydney projects in the Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Project outcomes announced last week. These projects will see University of Sydney researchers join forces with high-profile industry partners on projects to improve the financial capability of Australians, build gender equality into the future of work, and advance Australia’s manufacturing capacity.
Sydney researchers were also awarded more than $900,000 during a round of ARC Linkage funding announced in March. These projects will improve the effectiveness of probiotics, and provide new knowledge on powder dispersion behaviour for various industry sectors, including the environmental, bulk chemical and food industries.
The Linkage Projects program supports academics to work with government and industry partners to tackle complex problems and fast-track solutions to benefit end-users.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Duncan Ivison said: “I am delighted to see our researchers collaborating with industry and community partners on important projects that gets our research out into the world to help improve the lives of Australians.”
Successful Linkages projects
Projects announced in April 2020:
Better communication to solve the under-saving, under-spending puzzle
A multi-university team led by Professor Susan Thorp from the Business School was awarded $392,445 to work with the Construction & Building Unions Superannuation (Cbus) to investigate why people don’t save enough while they’re working and spend more when they’re retired. The outcomes will help improve financial capability of Australians and improve communications from superannuation funds.
Designing gender equality into the future of work
Professor Rae Cooper and Dr Meraiah Foley from the Business School and Professor Ariadne Vromen from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences were awarded $470,501 to work with the Law Society of New South Wales, the Women Lawyers Association of New South Wales and the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association to investigate how women and men understand and experience the changing nature of work and their hopes and fears for the future. This work will bring significant benefits including better living standards for individuals and families and improved profitability and productivity for businesses.
Advanced hard metals: microstructure-property-processing relationships
A multi-university team led by Professor Simon Ringer from the Faculty of Engineering and the Australian Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis and Director of the Core Research Facilities was awarded $714,296 to work with CERATIZIT Austria GmbH to understand the origins of the properties of tungsten-carbide cobalt based hard metals and how these may be tuned via alloying and processing. This outcome strengthens Australia's manufacturing capability with technology that is relevant to our aerospace, agriculture, biomedical, construction, defence, mechatronics, mining, and oil and gas industries.
Projects announced in March 2020:
Design a targeted delivery system for probiotics
A Faculty of Engineering team including Professor Fariba Dehghani, Associate Professor John Kavanagh, Dr Peter Valtchev and Associate Professor Aaron Schindeler was awarded $439,588 to partner with the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network (Westmead and Randwick hospitals), and Pharmacare on a project to improve the viability of probiotics.
High-load powder dispersion and aerosol delivery: an integrated approach
Faculty of Medicine and Health researcher Professor Hak-Kim Chan and Dr Agisilaos Kourmatzis from the Faculty of Engineering will partner with Chinese medical equipment company Suzhou Singmed Medical Device Science and Technology Ltd on a $463,597 grant to develop a novel design toolbox that can accurately predict dispersion performance of a range of powder systems for high-dose inhaler devices.
Information about additional ARC Linkage projects previously announced in January 2020 is available here.