591 New Discovery Projects announced for 2021

13 November 2020

591 New Discovery Projects announced for 2021

Delivering safer and more sustainable batteries, improving 3D x-ray imaging techniques and modeling important Australian weather systems that affect wind and rainfall will be the focus of some of the outstanding research projects receiving funding through the Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Projects scheme.

ARC Chief Executive Officer, Professor Sue Thomas, welcomed the Minister for Education Dan Tehan’s announcement of $255 million for 591 ARC Discovery Projects today. 

Professor Thomas said that the Discovery Projects scheme aims expand the knowledge base and research capacity in Australia and support research that will provide economic, commercial, environmental, social and/or cultural benefits for Australia.

“The Discovery Projects scheme provides funding to support high quality basic and applied research projects to be undertaken by individual researchers or research teams,” Professor Thomas said.

“It will support some of Australia’s best researchers to commence important work to expand Australia’s knowledge base and research capability, providing important outcomes for all Australians.”

Some of the ARC Discovery Projects to commence in 2021 include:

• $651,162 to Deakin University to deliver a high energy, ambient temperature sodium metal battery that is more sustainable, safer and better performing than the current flammable and toxic organic solvent-based technology.
• $369,000 to The Australian National University to achieve safer, faster, and cheaper 3D X-ray imaging through a technique known as ghost imaging.
• $659,755 to the University of Technology Sydney to enhance the power of high-tech quantum simulators to meet the demands of computer-modelling intensive industries such as drug and vaccine design and new energy.
• $764,194 to the University of Tasmania to develop high-resolution model simulations that examine ocean-atmosphere interactions along the Indonesian Throughflow (ITF) from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean. The ITF is one of the weather systems that drives changes in winds and rainfall around Australia and the entire Indo-Pacific region.

For a full list of funded ARC Discovery Projects please visit the ARC website.

Media contact
ARC Stakeholder Relations
0412 623 056 or ARCcommunications@arc.gov.au