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Louise Templeton
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louise.templeton@unsw.edu.au

UNSW has secured more than $9 million in the latest round of the Australian Research Council’s (ARC) Discovery Early Career Research Awards (DECRA).

The federal government awarded $84 million to 200 projects that support Australia’s next generation of researchers working in key priority areas to grow Australia’s research and innovation capacity.

The 22 UNSW projects awarded funding include research investigating developmental communication approaches for displaced young people; big spatiotemporal data analytics to promote the power industry’s transition to a sustainable future grid; and use of new technologies that will lead to smaller and safer implants for restoring function in people living with disability.

UNSW Pro Vice-Chancellor, Research, Professor Ana Deletic, congratulated the successful applicants on securing grants in this round.

“This is an excellent result for UNSW and reflects the high quality and broad-ranging research being carried out by this promising group of early career researchers. I am proud to say this is the highest number of grants awarded to UNSW in the DECRA scheme since 2015. This success underscores the University’s commitment to delivering future-thinking research to help produce positive outcomes for all Australians,” she said.

Successful UNSW DECRA researchers are: 

From the Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences:

  • Dr Valentina Bau $416,530  

From the Faculty of Engineering:

  • Dr Souradeep Gupta $450,000
  • Dr Udo Romer $442,408
  • Dr Mehrisadat Makki Alamdari $430,075
  • Dr Kefeng Zhang $425,952
  • Dr Mahesh Pralhad Suryawanshi $423,193
  • Dr Chaojie Li $415,675  
  • Dr Ruopian Fang $412,748
  • Dr Chuangang Hu $403,948
  • Dr Md Arifur Rahim $395,000
  • Dr Wafa Benkaouar Johal $344,896
  • Dr Priyank Vijaya Kumar $360,000

From the Faculty of Law:

  • Dr Monika Zalnieriute $426,530
  • Dr Janina Boughey $334,775

From the Faculty of Science:

  • Dr Sina Jamali $458,665
  • Dr Jasmine Fardouly $450,488
  • Dr Sophie Claire Andrews $437,623 
  • Dr Alice Katherine Towler $427,320
  • Dr Dong Jun Kim $417,000
  • Dr Anna Wang $414,000
  • Dr Jessica Lee $380,868

From UNSW Canberra:

  • Dr Tristan Edward Moss $378,213

A full list of recipients and project details are available on the ARC website.