Research Focus for October 2006

Compiled by Meredith Bacon

• University Research Grant Outcomes
• University Interdisciplinary Research Grants for 2006
• University Research Grants for 2007
• UC Scholarships for 2007
• ARC Linkage Round 2 application process
• External grant successes
• NHMRC project process and anticipated outcomes
• ARC Discovery and Linkage Round 1 Outcomes
• DEST publications
• Committee for Ethics in Animal Experimentation
• External research stakeholders forum
• UC's Research Quality Assessment exercise
• Researcher Reward Scheme
• Meetings with University Research Centres and Research Areas
• Research Postgraduate Information evening
• External Funding Opportunities
• New NHMRC Funding Opportunities
• Conferences, Schools and Tours

University Research Grant Outcomes

The Office of Research and Research Degrees and the University Research Committee are pleased to announce the following recipients of University Research Grants for 2006:

University Strategic Research Grants

Dr Michael Frese, HDS - $15,000, "Human Mx Proteins in Ross River Virus Replication"

Dr David Lin, HDS - $15,000, "Determination of the combined effects among multiple kava components on their toxicity to HepG2 cells to understand the mechanism of kava hepatotoxicity"

Early Career Researcher Support Grants

The following six staff all received ECR Support Grants worth $10,000 plus 50% teaching relief provided by their school:

Dr Affrica Taylor, ComEd; Mr Paul Magee, ComEd; Dr Wanli Ma, BLIS; Dr Daniel Baldino, BLIS, Dr Kerry McCallum - Comed,   Dr Nazrul Islam, HDS.  

University Visiting Research Scholar Scheme

Prof Bill Maher, HDS - $1550; Dr Nazrul Islam, HDS - $2,300; Dr David Tait, BLIS - $774; Dr Coralie McCormack, CELTS - $1,300

The Visiting Scholars are:

Prof. Dr. Dirk Wallschläger, Associate Professor, environmental chemistry,environmental & resource sciences program, Trent University, Peterborough Canada, September 4-8 2006

Prof. Mike Roberts, Adjunct Professor University of Canberra, Senior Principal Research Fellow & Director, Therapeutics Research Unit, School of Medicine University of Queensland February 1-20, 2007

Mrs Rhonda Wheate , Jury Comprehension and Use of Scientific Evidence,

July 28 2006 and Associate Professor Jane Goodman-Delahunty , School of Psychology

University of New South Wales, July 27-29 2006

Professor Catherine Kohler Riessman, Department of Sociology, Boston College Boston University, February 12-16 2007

University Industry Collaborative Research Grants

CIs Dr Sean Doody and Dr Brian Green, HDS - $25,000, "Monitoring and Managing Wildlife on the Wagiman Lands, Daly River", Industry partners - Pine Creek Aboriginal Advancement Association, Northern Land Council (through the PCAAA)

A/Prof. Suresh Mahalingam, HDS - $25,000, "Development of novel antivirals against flavivirus (dengue)",   Industry partner - Biotron Pty Ltd

Applications for the Industry Collaborative Research Grants are open all year and are assessed when received. A number of applications are currently being considered by the University Research Committee.

University Research Funding Application Preparation Awards

Dr Jeremy Huyton, ComEd - $4835,   "An investigation into the role for women in small-scale tourism businesses on the Thai/Lao border, and the feasibility of these, based on the Sustainable Tourism for the Elimination of   Poverty"

A/Prof. Kathryn Moyle, ComEd - $4200, "Diversity in young people's participation in government and community decision making"

A/Prof. Peter Morgan, BLIS - $4,800, "Surface elevation changes on Law Dome and inland towards Vostok, Antarctica"

A/Prof. Suresh Mahalingam, HDS - $5,000, "The Biology of Arbovirus Virulence and Fitness in Arthropod and Vertebrate Hosts In Vivo"

A/Prof. Suresh Mahalingam, HDS - $1,500, "Pathogenesis of virus-induced inflammatory diseases"

Dr Mary Macken-Horarik, ComEd - $2,400, "Redefining School English: Building a Coherent Knowledge Structure across the years of schooling";

A/Prof Kathryn Moyle, ComEd - $2600, "How can measures of costs and values of investments of ICT in schools contribute to data-driven decision-making?"

Mr James Neill, HDS - $4970, "A longitudinal and comparative investigation of the personal, social and environmental impacts of, and causative processes involved in, journey-based outdoor education programs with school students"

University Interdisciplinary Research Grants for 2006

The University of Canberra Interdisciplinary Research Grants are now open. The guidelines / conditions are on the Research website, under Funding Opportunities ? Strategic Grants .

  These grants are designed to promote collaboration between researchers from different disciplines and Research Areas. Staff wishing to apply should ensure they have assembled a sufficiently diverse group of investigators

In addition to the requirement that applicants for a grant come from different disciplines, there is now an additional requirement that they come from different Research Areas / University Research Centres too.

The location of application forms is given in the guidelines / conditions. Application is a two-stage process, with preliminary applications closing on 13 October and full applications on 17 November.

Enquiries to: Ron Murnain or Brian Fisher

University Research Grants for 2007

Watch this space and uc-staff announcements for the opening of applications for University Strategic Research Grants and Early Career Researcher Support Grants for 2007. These programs will be advertised in the next few weeks.

UC Scholarships for 2007

Also available are

•  UC Honours Scholarships

•  UC Collaborative Scholarships,

•  the Vice-Chancellor's PhD Scholarship.

Ten University of Canberra Honours Scholarships are offered to students who are Australian citizens or permanent residents. The scholarship provides a total of $5,000 to each successful applicant. For further information on these contact the Honours Coordinator in your school or Division or the Scholarships and Prizes Office (through UC Student Centre).

UC Collaborative Scholarships are open all year round and comprise 25% from the Division, 25% from the University Research Committee and 50% from the Partner Organisation. Details on these are available at http://www.canberra.edu.au/student-services/scholarships/research-scholarships

The Vice-Chancellor's PhD Scholarship will support one student of exceptional research potential to undertake a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Degree course within a University of Canberra Research Centre. For details of this scholarship please contact the Scholarship and Prizes office.

ARC Linkage Round 2 application process

The ARC application and rejoinder processes for Discovery and Linkage Round 1 are complete and it is time to prepare for Linkage Round 2. Linkage Round 2 Application form is now available on gams and Funding rules, instructions, draft funding agreement, certification proforma and draft application form for the scheme are available at http://www.arc.gov.au/apply_grants/linkage_projects.htm

The UC closing date for Linkage applications is Fri 10 November.

If you intend applying for a Linkage grant in Round 2 this year for funding in 2007 please notify Meredith Bacon in ORRD as soon as possible

Staff requiring a gams id are requested to provide their full title, contact details and full date of birth to Meredith.Bacon@canberra.edu.au and this will be requested from the ARC. If you are a researcher who has moved institutions and have previously held a gams id you will need to contact gamsids@arc.gov.au and have your id number transferred to University of Canberra.

If you anticipate being an investigator on a proposal being put forward by another institution please advise us. NB:A full copy of the application will be required by ORRD prior to any signoff by PVCR&IM.

If you require any support in preparing your application and would like input from ORRD please contact us for an appointment.

External grant successes

ORRD would like to congratulate the following staff on their recent successes in external funding:

NHMRC Ageing Well, Ageing Productively

Dr Laurie Brown and Prof. Ann Harding who are part of a team led by Dr Kaarin Anstey, ANU, have won an NHMRC Ageing Well, Ageing Productively program grant of $2 million over five years. UC's component of the grant is approximately $400,000. The project, " Using health outcome data from pooled Longitudinal Studies of Ageing

to develop statistical and microsimulation models to determine how to best

compress morbidity and optimize healthy and productive ageing", draws together data from nine Australian longitudinal studies of ageing covering over 50,000 participants.

ARC Thinking Systems

Prof Michael Wagner is part of a successful ARC Thinking Systems being led by Dr S Cassidy from Macquarie University.

SR0567319                  Dr S Cassidy; Dr R Goecke; Dr PA Watters; Dr M Buchhorn; A/Prof. DM Powers; Prof. M Wagner; Dr LM Barwick; Prof. R Dale; Dr JH Simpson

Title:   DADA-HCS:   Distributed Access and Data Annotation for the Human Communication Sciences

2005 :   $72,500      

2006 :   $72,500

Category:           2801            -         INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Administering Institution:                Macquarie University

Summary:

To build a National storage network for human communication sciences data which will enable subscribers to publish their own data and make use of data provided by other subscribers or third party suppliers. The network will provide infrastructure for rights management of data, in particular making sure that any original conditions on the collection and publication of data are respected. The project will support collaborative annotation of data stored in the network so its use can be maximised across disciplines.

NHMRC project process and anticipated outcomes

A reminder to staff who have applications in with the NHMRC for project grants: With the new Intent to Apply process this year, the NHMRC have discontinued their rejoinder process for project grants. Applicants who are unsuccessful will receive a more detailed report in lieu rejoinder comment and we can expect that outcomes could be announced any time from now on.

Researchers are encouraged to consider the new streams the NHMRC have developed for their Research Funding and to make themselves aware of possible options for funding sources for 2008 in preparing any applications in 2007.

ARC Discovery and Linkage Round 1 Outcomes

Staff who have applications in for Discovery and Linkage Round 1 commencing in 2007 should watch the Minister's and ARC websites for an announcement sometime in the next month

DEST publications

ORRD submitted the return for 2005 publications to DEST at the end of June. The full list of publications will be published in the 2006 annual report. Researchers will be aware that the Research Quality Framework will require a comprehensive list of research publications to be officially recorded in the University Collection. Ensuring that all your publications have been recorded in the University's database is also important in the context of the University's staff promotion process and the new Researcher Rewards Scheme. If you have produced publications in 2006 now is the time to start gathering your supporting documentation and filling out forms and making them available for entry into the database. New forms for 2006 will soon be available at: http://www.canberra.edu.au/research/publication/authorforms

If you have any questions about the documents required please speak to your Divisional data collector. These people are Jane MacIntosh in Communication and Education, Maria Tatarow in Business Law and Information Sciences, and Judy Linton-Smith in Health, Design and Science.

Committee for Ethics in Animal Experimentation

The Closing dates for meeting papers for the final meeting for 2006 is Monday 6 November. Please ensure that your papers are provided by the deadline. Papers received after this date may need to be held over to the first meeting in 2007.

Project application and renewal forms for research involving experimentation with animals are available at http://www.canberra.edu.au/research/ethics/animal

External research stakeholders forum

The University Research Committee held a productive meeting with stakeholders on 1 September which has provided feedback toward the development of the University's Strategic Research Plan. Consultation meetings with internal stakeholders, including staff, will be arranged within the next few weeks.

UC's Research Quality Assessment exercise

Moderation, within the University, of researchers' self-assessments of the quality of their research outputs and of the impact of their research was completed some time ago. This was done by small panels of senior researchers. Since then, UC has been trying to initiate the inter-university moderation by the 10 New Generation Universities involved in the trial; we have identified some 30 cases we intend feeding into that process.

However, difficulties seem to have arisen with this further phase of the exercise, and it is not clear whether it will proceed. This should become clear within the next couple of weeks. If it does not proceed, UC researchers' self-assessments will have to be returned with feedback from the internal moderation only.

That would not mean the exercise has not been of significant value to the University; the lessons learned by the University and the experience researchers have had in completing the self-assessments should serve us well in the first application of the Research Quality Framework in 2008.

Researcher Reward Scheme

Researchers who are to receive rewards under the new scheme should have received letters from the PVC, R&IM, advising them of the amount of their reward, and that their Head of School has received the payment for allocation to them. This is the first allocation of funding under this Scheme.

Meetings with University Research Centres and Research Areas

PVC R&IM Prof. Andrew Cheetham and Director of ORRD Dr Ron Murnain have recently visited all University Research Centres and Research Areas to discuss a range of subjects including annual reporting of research information, Researcher Reward Scheme and associated issues.

Research Postgraduate Information evening

A welcoming evening for research students new to the University took place on 15August. This was an opportunity for the students to gather useful information in a relaxed setting. Students were officially welcomed by PVC Research and Information Management, Prof. Andrew Cheetham and the evening was facilitated by Ms Sally Webster, the student representative on the University Research Degrees Committee.

Staff from the three divisions addressed topics such as 'Working with your supervisor' (A/Prof. Chris Aulich, Dr Affrica Taylor and Dr Michele Fleming) and 'Ethics' (Prof. Debra Rickwood). Dr Michele Fleming gave a very encouraging speech on perseverance. Learning plans were introduced by Dr Coralie McCormack, while Dr Linda Li, Ms Pat Tandy and Dr Joelle Vandermensbrugghe introduced support programs available at the University.

Administrative matters to consider were traversed by Gay Landau from ORRD. Divisional Research Student Officers Antoinette Nash, Cath Raby and Jennifer Towie, Admissions and Enrolments Officer Jennie Robens and Scholarship Officer Stacey Durell were also present to distribute information and respond to queries.

Some of our 'old' existing students - Kate Armstrong, Sandra Burr, Graham Durant Law, Marian Hoy - shared their experience.

External Funding Opportunities

FEAST-France 2007 FAST call for proposals

The French Embassy has advised that:

The Australian Government in conjunction with the Government of the Republic of France has established the French-Australian S&T (FAST) Programme. The Programme is jointly managed by the Department of Education Science and Training and its French counterparts, the Ministry of National Education, Universities and Research and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The objective of FAST is to promote and support scientific and technological cooperation between Australian and French researchers in both public and private sectors.

The 2007 call-for-proposals round opened on Monday 4 September 2006 and close on Friday 13 October 2006.

For more information, please visit:
http://www.ambafrance-au.org/article.php3?id_article=1851

ALL ENQUIRIES TO:

 Mr Frédéric Vanhove Embassy of France in Australia Science and Technology Section 6 Perth Avenue - Yarralumla ACT 2600 science@ambafrance-au.org http://www.ambafrance-au.org/science/ Tel     : (61-2) 6216 0131 Fax     : (61-2) 6216 0156

Department of Environment and Heritage Programmes

Australian Biological Resources Study and Commonwealth Environment Research Facilities Programme

Applications are invited for Research Project Grants and Biodiversity Information Product Grants for 2007/8 in areas that support the Australian Government National Research Priorities. Applications close 10 November. Postgraduate scholarships are also available to support studies in systematics research of Australian flora and fauna. Applications close 3 November.

For further details go to www.deh.gov.au/biodiversity/abrs/admin/grants/index.html or ph 6250 9554 or email abrs@deh.gov.au

Details of the Commonwealth Environment Research Facilities Programme are found at www.deh.gov.au/cerf

The Carrick Institute and Australian Flexible Learning Framework

The Carrick Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education offer a range of projects. To find out more about the Institute visit www.carrickinstitute.edu.au

For information on the Australian Flexible Learning Framework visit their website at

www.flexiblelearning.net.au

National Association of Research Fellows of NHMRC Incorporated

The NARF Post-Doctoral Investigators Award 2006

This annual award by NARF recognizes outstanding independent health/medical/biomedical research achievement by an Australian postdoctoral fellow at an early stage of their research career. The intention of the Award is to recognize such achievement and to encourage the career aspirations of young Australian investigators in health/medical/biomedical research.

The NARF Postdoctoral Award for 2006 is for AUD $1500

Deadline: Applications must be submitted by 31st October 2006

For further details contact Professor Seong-Seng Tan ( stan@hfi.unimelb.edu.au )

New NHMRC Funding Opportunities

For information on the following funding opportunities please go to the NHMRC Noticeboard at http://www.nhmrc.gov.au/news/noticeboard/index.htm

The New Australia Fellowship for Health and Medical Research
Invitation to apply - funding to commence in 2007 ; and Diabetes Vaccine Development Centre Expressions of Interest for funding in 2007 now open

Conferences, Schools and Tours

Send in any conferences you know of or are involved in and we will advertise them in research focus or via our researcher list

More information about the grants and other subjects covered here

Contact Meredith Bacon in ORRD, e-mail meredith.bacon@canberra.edu.au , or phone 6201 2955

Please submit a copy of your grant applications to ORRD in hard and electronic format. All external applications for research grants and tenders require an ORRD Application for External Funding cover form available at

http://www.canberra.edu.au/research/funding

It would be appreciated - required in the case of applications for Australian Competitive Grants - if the application and form could be provided at least 2 weeks before the application / tender is due accompanied with any guideline documentation.

Closing dates for external and internal funding schemes and other ORRD significant dates are available on the research calendar at http://www.canberra.edu.au/research/2006-calendar

Meredith Bacon is the University of Canberra's Research Administrative Officer

Previous columns

March 2006

November 2005

June 2005

April 2005

February 2005

UC grant recipients announcement Nov 2004

Bulletin July 2004

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Last Updated on August 1, 2005