The University of Western Australia has been awarded the second highest funding nationally under the Australian Research Council’s Linkage Project funding stream, furthering its reputation as a prestigious organisation with roots firmly in research.
The University of Western Australia has been awarded the second highest funding nationally under the Australian Research Council’s Linkage Project funding stream, furthering its reputation as a prestigious organisation with roots firmly in research.
UWA this year received $8 million out of the total national Linkage Projects pool of $66.7 million, second only to the amount awarded to the University of New South Wales.
The lion’s share of WA’s funding was given to UWA, with the remaining $2.3 million dispensed between Curtin University ($1.1 million), Edith Cowan ($270,000) and Murdoch University ($933,400).
The funding will support 13 UWA projects and the university expects to receive a further $7.26 million from collaborating partner organisations in the projects.
“This latest funding will ensure research at UWA continues to focus on issues of direct importance to communities - locally, nationally and internationally,” acting Vice Chancellor Bill Louden said.
The projects that received the largest amount of Linkage funding focused on sustainable energy solutions for regional communities and improvements to the health and wellbeing of children.
The recipient of the largest grant at UWA is the director of UWA's Centre for Energy, Winthrop Professor Dongke Zhang, being given $2.5 million over five years to develop a secure source of sustainable energy for Australian regional communities.
The project will embrace environmentally sustainable and cost-effective approaches to global climate change and will investigate synthetic natural gas as well as other sources of bio-energy to provide energy to remote communities.
The centre will partner with Bunbury-based thermal processing company ANSAC, BHP Billiton and the Department of Agriculture and Food WA.
Two other projects led by Professor Zhang attracted $730,000 over several years to investigate the conversion of methanol gas into sulphur-free, clean combustion diesel and to develop a biogas from green and animal wastes.
A project headed up by Fiona Stanley received $2 million over five years and will aim to improve developmental pathways for children; the Pathways, Policies and Prevention study will explore how child, family and community level factors affect child health.
The project will be in collaboration with the disability services commission of WA and 11 government departments including, among others, housing, communities, corrective services, education and training and indigenous affairs.
Coordinators of the project expect it will provide a model for population-based research and policy development both nationally and internationally.
Other UWA projects that attracted ARC funding included the restoration of seagrass meadows; developing variations of subterranean clover-feed that will mitigate methane emissions from livestock; and combating fungal diseases in Australia's expanding sandalwood industry.