UNSW researchers awarded more than $3m in ARC funding
Eight UNSW projects received $3.3 million in the latest round of the ARC Linkage Project scheme
Eight UNSW projects received $3.3 million in the latest round of the ARC Linkage Project scheme
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Projects helping reduce stress among emergency services staff, improve communication in courtrooms for non-English speakers, increase equality in early childhood education and enhance the way Australian conservation agencies implement fires have successfully secured funding in the latest round of Australian Research Council (ARC) grant awards.
Eight UNSW projects received $3.3 million in the latest round of the ARC Linkage Project scheme announced Friday by Minister for Education Dan Tehan.
Scientia Professor Richard Bryant from the School of Psychology was awarded $664,511 to investigate the impact of stress on emergency service staff. This project aims to improve productivity and reduce compensation costs by evaluating a program that reduces stress reactions, such as absenteeism and lost productivity.
“The project plans to deliver a more effective strategy of reducing stress reactions in emergency service personnel, and to reduce the human and economic costs of psychological injuries suffered by 10% of these workers,” said Professor Bryant.
An individual program will be administered to 120 police, firefighters, and paramedics in NSW who have difficulty maintaining their work duties because of stress reactions.
Dr Jennifer Skattebol, from UNSW’s Social Policy Research Centre, is lead researcher on a project awarded $399,000 that will investigate engagement in early childhood education. It will look at the inequalities in children’s participation in high-quality early childhood education.
Dr Skattebol said high-quality early childhood education and care can support children from disadvantaged backgrounds have better school and health outcomes, but many of the children who can benefit the most are missing out.
“This research begins with an exploration of the everyday lives of families most disadvantaged by the current system and documents families’ assets and challenges. It will then explore how exemplary services best respond to the resources and circumstances of these children. A strong Indigenous focus will contribute to researcher training and knowledge.”
In another successful project granted $252,000, Associate Professor Ludmila Stern from Arts and Social Sciences will examine the ways judicial officers can improve courtroom communication and prevent miscommunication and error, particularly in criminal cases where speakers of the 'new and emerging' and Aboriginal languages are involved, and where interpreters receive limited training.
“The project will help improve access to justice in courts and, hopefully, wider multicultural society, raise awareness of interpretation users about their own responsibility for quality interpreted communication, and prevent unnecessary delays in legal matters, appeals and even miscarriage of justice,” said Professor Stern.
Other successful projects were:
Professor Nicholas Fisk, UNSW Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research, congratulated the University’s researchers for successfully receiving funding for their projects that will tackle a multitude of community and environmental issues.
“This funding will support our highly talented academics in solving, in concert with industry, a diverse range of problems both locally and around the world,” Professor Fisk said.
The projects were part of the federal government’s announcement of $28.7M in total in ARC Linkage Projects funding for 66 projects. The ARC Linkage Project scheme brings together higher education and industry to conduct research into pressing issues affecting Australians.