WESTERN Australia’s four public universities have been awarded a total of $5 million in the federal government’s latest round of Linkage Project grants.
The main winner was the University of WA, which was awarded $3.2 million for 10 research projects, while Curtin University was awarded $1 million for six projects.
Nationally, the government announced total funding of $67 million for 219 projects.
It said that partner organisations would top-up the government funding with an additional $139 million in cash and in-kind support.
UWA acting vice-chancellor Robyn Owens said the university’s strong record in gaining research funding in WA was a direct result of its ability to attract high-quality researchers.
“This is competitive funding and as such is an indicator of the standing of our researchers in an Australian context,” Professor Owens said.
UWA’s School of Animal Biology will get funding of $629,000 over six years to examine the reasons for pollination failure of threatened plant species during habitat restoration.
Its School of Civil and Resource Engineering received $199,332 over four years to develop techniques for earthquake-resistant bridge design.
The ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology received $288,000 over four years to develop a new method to control chewing insect pests.
Edith Cowan University has been awarded $180,000 to reprocess satellite data into a form that will assist community decision making at times of fire stress.
The University of Queensland was the most successful applicant, gaining $11.2 million for 22 research projects.