$38.6M Awarded For ARC Discovery Projects Leadership

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2026 Discovery Projects

• Professor Michael Bell , $649,359 - Using the first national traffic management database to create a better way to predict how new developments affect traffic.
• Professor Michiel Bliemer , $584,440 - Future-proofing funding for essential road infrastructure projects by analysing how road user charges for cars can be made fairer and more effective.
• Associate Professor Arianna Brambilla , $600,000 - Helping people live in healthier houses by using artificial intelligence and affordable sensors to find out how common mould is in Australian homes and how to spot it early.
• Dr Manisha Caleb , $682,000 - This project will use a powerful telescope to learn more about rare space events like fast radio bursts and neutron stars, and create new tools for finding them.
• Professor Thomas Carlson , $934,240 - Encouraging healthier diets by exploring how what we see affects the food choices we make, using brain scans and behaviour studies.
• Professor Anthony Cesare , $845,791 - This project will study how a key DNA repair process also controls cell death and growth, using advanced technologies including CRISPR to understand how our cells respond to damage.
• Professor Wenlong Cheng , $918,789 - Developing fingertip-wearable sensors that can quickly detect tiny amounts of chemicals on surfaces - from fruit to skin and even banknotes - to enhance food safety, law enforcement and public health.
• Professor Matthew Cleary , $713,533 - Making aerospace engines lighter more efficient by optimising how air mixes and burns with advanced fuel sources.
• Associate Professor Christopher Coady , $468,365 - This project will look at how Aboriginal and African American musicians influenced ideas about democracy in Australia and the US during the 1960s in the lead-up to the 1967 Australian Constitutional Referendum and the 1964/65/68 Civil Rights Acts in the US.
• Dr Nathan Cross , $818,348 - Developing 'fingerprints' of sleep that characterise memory performance - using advanced brain imaging technologies - to provide a clearer picture of how sleep affects memory and identify how sleep can be harnessed to improve memory performance as we age.
• Dr Tiangang Cui , $668,039 - Creating new mathematical tools to help predict complex systems like climate or biology, making forecasts more reliable.
• Associate Professor Ilan Dar-Nimrod , $891,239 - Exploring why people see social groups as very different from each other and test ways to reduce prejudice by encouraging more flexible thinking.
• Professor Anthony Don , $729,747 - Investigating why the protective coating on nerves (myelin) is lost as we age, which affects our thinking and movement, and identifying the underlying biological processes which could be targeted to increase healthy lifespan.
• Dr Matthew Doyle , $870,255 - Finding new ways to fight superbugs by revealing how certain protein bridges in bacteria help them resist antibiotics and cause infections.
• Professor Nicholas Enfield , $783,252 - Comparing how people from different cultures explain their actions, to better understand reasoning and decision-making.
• Professor David Handelsman, $1,087,049 - Testing if a hormone surge in newborn male mice creates a lasting muscle memory, which could change how we understand hormones in health and disease.
• Professor Justin Harris , $1,125,323 - Using information theory to better understand how animals, including humans, learn from experience, with important implications for education and machine learning.
• Professor Edward Holmes , $686,135 - Using artificial intelligence and genetic sequencing to discover new types of RNA viruses in Australian marine and freshwater sediments and understand how they evolve.
• Professor David James , $928,137 - Understanding how cells adapt to changing environments by studying how cells control which nutrients enter or leave the cell.
• Dr Katherine Kenny , $640,000 - Exploring how people and communities experience living with "forever chemicals" and related autoimmune health issues, to improve public understanding and policy, and improve health outcomes in less affluent communities.
• Professor Jinman Kim , $549,163 - Using artificial intelligence to turn 2D medical images into 3D ones, making advanced imaging more accessible and affordable for research and healthcare.
• Associate Professor Yu Heng Lau , $958,564 - Developing tiny protein cages to improve how plants use carbon, water, and nutrients, aiming to boost crop yields.
• Professor Qing Li , $778,360 - Creating new ways to design smart structures that can change shape or function in response to their environment.
• Associate Professor Tongliang Liu , $710,928 - Making large language models (like AI chatbots) safer by finding and fixing weaknesses that allow harmful responses.
• Professor Joel Mackay , $913,638 - Investigating how cells turn genes on and off, which is important for health and disease.
• Dr Laura Manenti , $776,629 - Protecting quantum computers from radiation, making them more reliable for future technology.
• Associate Professor Robert Marangell , $613,747 - Studying how the shape of mathematical solutions affects how systems change over time, with applications in technology and science.
• Professor Thomas Maschmeyer , $834,628 - Developing new, sustainable ways to make nitrogen-based chemicals from air and water, helping agriculture and the environment.
• Professor Greg Neely , $811,367 - Studying the venom of the Irukandji jellyfish to understand how it affects humans and find ways to treat its dangerous effects.
• Dr Hoang Ling Nghiem, $482,133 - Creating better statistical tools to help scientists make sense of complex data in biology and social networks.
• Associate Professor Maureen O'Malley , $448,400 - Exploring how ideas about microbes living in and on us have changed over time, helping us understand health and disease.
• Associate Professor Ellis Patrick , $845,524 - Developing new methods to study how cells interact in their natural environments, improving research in biology and medicine.
• Professor Richard Payne , $826,529 - Creating new types of stable proteins that could lead to better medicines.
• Dr Alison Peel , $947,343 - Studying how stress and immune systems in bats affect the viruses they carry, helping prevent future pandemics.
• Associate Professor Louisa Peralta, $636,919 - Uncovering how teenagers use digital health information to help create better health education programs.
• Professor Hilda Pickett , $833,191 - Studying how the structure of DNA in cells affects how they repair damage, which is important for understanding diseases.
• Professor Olivier Piguet , $716,079 - Creating a new model to understand how memory changes as people age.
• Professor Louis Rendina , $945,813 - Developing a new tool to measure energy production in cells, which could help research into aging and disease.
• Professor Mary Roberts , $531,541 - Analysing how artists in the 19th century represented the Middle East and Europe, how these images shaped cultural attitudes, and how this applies to modern diplomacy in Australia, the Middle East and Europe.
• Dr Sasha Rubin , $649,596 - Developing better ways for computer programs to make decisions when they don't have all the information, improving robotics and AI.
• Professor Luming Shen , $755,902 - Improving methods for predicting and managing geothermal energy, helping provide clean and reliable power.
• Dr Ting Rei Tan , $604,329 - Testing how quantum error correction can improve the accuracy of quantum measurements, with benefits for science and technology.
• Dr Amy Way , $1,107,778 - Working with Indigenous partners to study early human life in Australia's high-altitude areas, adding to our understanding of history.
• Professor Martin Wechselberger , $660,464 - Developing new mathematical tools to predict when ecosystems might suddenly change due to rapid environmental shifts.
• Professor Anthony Wirth , $646,671 - Designing new computer algorithms that work well with advice from AI, making them more effective and reliable in real-world situations.
• Dr Anusha Withanage Don , $954,679 - Developing new ways to use fungi to recycle organic waste into useful products, making manufacturing more sustainable.
• Dr Justin Wong , $927,705 - Studying how RNA controls the formation of white blood cells, which is important for health and fighting disease.
• Dr Shuying Wu , $696,329 - Creating new materials to reduce vibrations in airplanes and spacecraft, making them last longer and perform better.
• Professor Xioke Yi , $600,995 - Developing tiny, high-tech sensors for precise measurements, with uses in environmental monitoring, robotics, and the Internet of Things.
• Dr Xinyue Zhang , $511,592 - Studying how to better manage large, complex projects by improving how different groups work together for better social and environmental outcomes.
• Professor Rongkun Zheng , $710,500 - Improving the stability of solar cells, making green energy more reliable and affordable.