ARC divvies up $180m in new grants for research

Universities, research centres and individual researchers got the news they had been waiting for from the Australian Research Council.

Education Minister Simon Birmingham says the centres are incubators for the future.

In today’s Higher Ed Daily Brief: Research grants announced, an Airbus partnership

Cash flows

Many universities, research centres and individual researchers got the news they were waiting for this week when the federal government announced $180 million of new funding through the Australian Research Council.

One hundred mid-career research scholars were funded with Future Fellowships, and 16 more won the equivalent of gold, an Australian Laureate Fellowship, designed to either keep extraordinary talent in Australia or to attract talented Australian researchers back here. There is also funding for four Industrial Transformation Research Hubs and seven Industrial Transformation Training Centres over the next five years.

“In terms of building our research capacity and focus, the ARC Industrial Transformation Research Hubs and Training Centres are the incubators for the next generation of researchers,” said federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham.

Investigating cannabinoids

One of the new groups being set up, La Trobe University’s Research Hub for Medicinal Agriculture, will have more than $20 million in funding. The nearly $5 million from the ARC is augmented by $10 million from the university and $6 million committed from industry partners.

The university’s vice-chancellor. John Dewar, says the hub will “provide a much-needed evidence base around the growth and use of medicinal plants such as cannabis”. These will be examined for their potential to treat chronic medical conditions.

“The hub will use evidence-based research to safeguard quality, safety, purity, mode of action of cannabinoids and scale of cultivation and production of medicinal cannabis,” says Tony Bacic, the director of the new centre.

Flying high

The University of Sydney is code-sharing with Airbus to give engineering students the chance to get inside the aircraft manufacturing company, make contacts, and see how things are done. Students will be able to take part in innovation programs and tackle real industry challenges. “This program will give students best available insights into the opportunities available in the aviation and aerospace industries,” says the university’s Engineering and Information Technologies dean Willy Zwaenepoel. Sydney joins over 20 other universities which have similar partnerships, called the Airbus Global University Partner Programme.