A cohort of outstanding early and mid-career researchers are poised to deliver innovative, high impact research for the grains industry with the announcement of early and mid-career research fellowships awarded by the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC).
GRDC has announced 17 successful recipients of its 2025 Early and Mid-Career Research Fellowships, designed to build research excellence and capacity for the Australian grains industry. The fellowships represent $11.3 million in investment from GRDC over the next three years.
Fellows will undertake research in areas aligned with GRDC's RD&E Plan 2023-28 and identified as critical to the grains industry including crop and cultivar selection, biosecurity, soil and nutrition and systems integration.
GRDC Managing Director Nigel Hart said the fellowships provide opportunities to attract bright minds to the grains industry, and for early career and mid-career researchers to focus and scale their research. Photo: Nicole Baxter/GRDC
GRDC Managing Director Nigel Hart said the Early and Mid-Career Fellowships program aims to accelerate the delivery of novel solutions to long-standing production constraints and explore new value creation opportunities.
"It can be difficult for post-doctoral students to establish their careers. Similarly, those that have are often juggling multiple commitments," Mr Hart said.
"The fellowships provide an opportunity to attract bright minds to our industry, and for early career and mid-career researchers to focus and scale their research.
By supporting talented researchers at pivotal stages of their careers, GRDC is ensuring the industry remains at the forefront of innovation, tackling key challenges and unlocking new opportunities for growers.
The announcement of the fellowships follows a GRDC open call in 2024 for Australian post-doctoral fellow-level researchers in priority fields. The following researchers have been awarded fellowships commencing in 2025:
Early Career Fellowships
- James Manson (CSIRO): Critical period benchmarks: Cheaply and objectively assessing crops and explaining the yield response to management
- Siddulu Naidu Talapaneni (Jupiter Ionics Pty Ltd): Novel Ammonia Carrier Technology to the Field
- Chloe Lai (University of Southern Queensland): Sodicity Management and Remediation Tool (SMART): APSIM-Based Decision Support Platform
- Chenchen Zhao (University of Tasmania): Decrypting waterlogging tolerant genes underlying elemental toxicity in barley
- Arineh Tahmasian (CSIRO): Exploring new opportunities for Australian canola
- Simon Michelmore (SA Research and Development Institute): Pulse Plant Architecture
- Nick Fradgley (University of Sydney): Global Adaption of Wheat
- Shovon Chandra Sarkar (Murdoch University): Enhancing biocontrol of pests in grain crops through generalist predator training
Mid-Career Fellowships
- Xia (Emma) Liang (The University of Melbourne): Rectifying soil nitrogen mining cost-effectively for sustainable grains production
- Alex Wu (The University of Queensland): Crop modelling approaches for optimising water-limited yield potential in grain crops
- James Lloyd (University of Western Australia): Reprogramming plants with previously unobtainable agriculturally beneficial traits
- Julian Greenwood (Australian National University): Establishing transient assays to rapidly assess resistance responses in canola
- April Hastwell (The University of Queensland): Modulating nodulation and nitrogen fixation for yield benefits in chickpea
- Lachlan Lake (SA Research and Development Institute): Hyper-yielding lentil in mid and high rainfall environments of southern Australia
- Brendan Brown (CSIRO): Improved Integrated Profit-Risk decision making
- Elizabeth Czislowski (Curtin University): NanoTrap – Development of a nanoparticle-based protein trap as a novel fungicide technology
- Mareike Moeller (Australian National University): Smart detection tools for rust disease control in a new era of plant protection
Each fellowship covers salary and institutional oncosts, field and laboratory costs and travel costs. Fellows will engage directly with growers and industry through GRDC-supported events and professional development activities.
