[Aqualist] LIEF grants and more successful ARC Discovery and FF awards for 2013-2014

[Simon Haberle]

Dear all,

LIEF awards have also been announced with some impressive facilities being established over the next year. Congratulations to the all involved in the 5 successful bids (one related to Archaeology) listed below. A number of awards were missed in the email I sent out on Friday (see below). Congratulations to all those who were successful in this years ARC Discovery and Fellowship rounds. There are now 15 Discovery projects in total related to Quaternary research (including 7 in Archaeology). There are 7 Future Fellowship awards (2 in Archaeology), 2 DECRA awards (both Archaeology) and one Discovery Indigenous Award. Apologies again to those I have missed….

Cheers, Simon


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LIEF

The Australian National University

LE140100047
Arculus, Prof Richard J; Rohling, Prof Eelco J; Roberts, Prof Andrew P; Exon, Prof Neville F; Yeats, Dr Christopher J; O'Reilly, Prof Suzanne Y; George, Prof Simon C; Muller, Prof Dietmar; Aitchison, Prof Jonathan C; Webster, Dr Jody M; Coffin, Prof Millard F; Vasconcelos, Prof Paulo M; Welsh, Dr Kevin J; McCuaig, Prof Thompson C; George, Prof Annette D; Skilbeck, Prof Charles G; Baxter, Dr Alan T; Hergt, Prof Janet M; Gallagher, A/Prof Stephen J; Fergusson, A/Prof Christopher L; Sloss, Dr Craig R; Heap, Dr Andrew D; Schellart, A/Prof Wouter P; Stilwell, A/Prof Jeffrey D; Foden, Prof John D; Kershaw, Em/Prof Arnold P; Howard, Dr William R; Clennell, Dr Michael B; Daniell, Dr James J; Collins, Prof Lindsay B
Total: $3,600,000.00
GEOLOGY
Partner/Collaborating Eligible Organisation(s)
Queensland University of Technology, The University of New England, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Geoscience Australia, James Cook University, Marine Geoscience Office, Curtin University of Technology, Monash University, The University of Adelaide, Macquarie University, The University of Sydney, University of Tasmania, The University of Queensland, The University of Western Australia, University of Technology, Sydney, The University of Melbourne, University of Wollongong
Project Summary
Australian membership of the International Ocean Discovery Program: This project is for an Australian membership of the International Ocean Discovery Program. The Program will recover drill cores, situate observatories, and conduct down-hole experiments in all the world's oceans from lowest to highest latitudes to address fundamental questions about Earth's history and processes within four high-priority scientific themes: climate and ocean change - reading the past and informing the future; biosphere frontiers - deep life, biodiversity, and environmental forcing of ecosystems; earth connections - deep processes and their impact on earth's surface environment; earth in motion - processes and hazards on a human time scale.

LE140100189
Farquhar, Prof Graham D; Brocks, Dr Jochen J; Bird, Prof Michael I; Cernusak, Dr Lucas A; Fallon, Dr Stewart J; Foley, Prof William J; Holtum, Prof Joseph A
Total: $191,095.00
ECOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS
Partner/Collaborating Eligible Organisation(s)
James Cook University
Project Summary
A shared mass spectrometer with compound-specific capabilities to support innovative research in biology, the environment and geology: Stable isotope studies have huge and increasing relevance to environmental studies, many of which form the backbone of understanding Australia's terrestrial and marine systems. Compound-specific isotope analysis yields much more information than is available through bulk methods. The problem has been that the separations were labour-intensive and employed complex wet chemistry. New methods reduce the work-load enough to make compound-specific studies possible. In the case of carbon isotopes, new liquid chromatographic technology removes the need for derivatisations which dilute the natural signal and can render it unusable.


The University of New South Wales

LE140100088
Baker, Prof Andrew; Turney, Prof Chris S; Cartwright, Prof Ian; Shulmeister, Prof James P; Larsen, Dr Joshua; Jenkins, Dr Kim M; Moss, Dr Patrick T; Timms, Dr Wendy A; Pickford, Dr Russell
Total: $150,000.00
GEOCHEMISTRY
Partner/Collaborating Eligible Organisation(s)
Monash University, The University of Queensland
Project Summary
A coupled high temperature elemental analyser - gas chromatograph - mass spectrometer for climate, water and ecological research: This project is for a high temperature, elemental analysis, gas chromatography, isotope mass spectrometry facility. This would permit the analysis of the isotopes of up to four elements in a range of environmental samples such as tree cellulose, ecological samples and dissolved nutrients in surface and ground waters. Results will help improve our understanding of climate - surface water - ground water interactions, ecosystem function, and past climate and environmental change. The new facility will meet the need for organic isotope analyses to better understand the underlying physical processes.

LE140100151
Ross, Dr Shawn A; Curnoe, A/Prof Darren K; Field, Dr Judith H; Letnic, Dr Mike I; Mooney, Dr Scott D; Hunter, Prof Jane L; Fairbairn, Dr Andrew S; Weisler, Prof Marshall I; Manne, Dr Tiina; Thompson, Dr Jessica C; Johnson, Dr Ian R; Gibbs, Dr Martin D; Murray, Prof Tim A; Webb, Dr Jennifer M; Stern, Dr Nicola; Frankel, Prof David; Burke, A/Prof Heather D; Morrison, Dr Michael J; Davidson, Prof Iain; Boyd, Prof William E; Thurbon, Dr Joe; Borda, Dr Ann; Brin, Mr Adam; Kansa, Dr Eric C; Schloen, Ms Sandra; Richards, Prof Julian
Total: $400,000.00
ARCHAEOLOGY
Partner/Collaborating Eligible Organisation(s)
University of California, Berkeley, The University of Chicago, The University of York, UK, The University of Queensland, The University of Sydney, La Trobe University, The Flinders University of South Australia, Southern Cross University, Intersect Australia Ltd, Victorian Partnership for Advanced Computing, The Center for Digital Antiquity
Project Summary
Federated archaeological information management systems project: transforming archaeological research through digital technologies: This project will embed the federated archaeological information management systems infrastructure within six leading archaeology departments across Australia. It will develop and expand the mobile field recording system, the national data repository and a suite of online editing and visualisation tools to support archaeologists conducting research projects of national significance. By working closely with research projects and integrating the mobile platform and digital infrastructure within their workflow, this project will ensure that Australian archaeological research data is created in digital, structured, and reusable form, benefiting the preservation of Australian cultural heritage and promoting new research for decades to come.


University of Wollongong

LE140100023
Dosseto, Dr Anthony; Chivas, Prof Allan R; Murray-Wallace, Prof Colin V; Aubert, Dr Maxime; Nutman, A/Prof Allen P; Bennett, A/Prof Victoria C; White, Dr Duanne A; Joannes-Boyau, Dr Renaud; Burton, A/Prof Edward D; Johnston, A/Prof Scott G; Scheffers, A/Prof Anja M; Sullivan, Prof Leigh A; Cartwright, Prof Ian; Fink, Dr David; Cendon, Dr Dioni I; Baker, Prof Andrew; Graham, Dr Ian T; Norman, Dr Marc D; Cohen, A/Prof David R; Eggins, Dr Stephen M; Hesse, Dr Paul; Westaway, Dr Kira E; Goodwin, A/Prof Ian D
Total: $360,000.00
GEOCHEMISTRY
Partner/Collaborating Eligible Organisation(s)
Southern Cross University, The Australian National University, University of Canberra, The University of New South Wales, Monash University, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Macquarie University
Project Summary
Innovative isotopic techniques to study the response of soil and water resources to modern and past climate change: The emergence of innovative isotopic tools has provided unprecedented opportunities to improve our understanding of the processes that shape the earth's resources and environment. The plasma-source mass spectrometer will be dedicated to applying these techniques to earth surface processes, and establishing unique capabilities to decipher how soil and water resources respond to modern and past climate change in Australia.



DISCOVERY PROJECTS (missed in first circular)

University of Wollongong

DP140104093
Chivas, Prof Allan R; Tyler, Dr Jonathan J; Drysdale, Dr Russell N
Total: $450,000.00
GEOCHEMISTRY
Project Summary
Clumped-isotope geochemistry, a novel method for measuring the temperature of formation of carbonate minerals, will be applied to terrestrial materials (soil carbonates, lake deposits and speleothems) from Australia and New Zealand. The method relates the abundance or 'clumping' of rare isotopes (for example, carbon dioxide of mass 47 as carbon-13, oxygen-18, oxygen-16) extracted from carbonates to their formation temperature and is independent of the oxygen-18:oxygen-16 value of the host water from which the mineral precipitated. The materials to be investigated span the Last Glacial-Interglacial Transition and will provide robust past temperature estimates and the delta-oxygen-18 values of waters, thereby permitting hydrological balances (for example, precipitation/evaporation) to be constructed.


FUTURE FELLOWSHIPS

University of Wollongong

FT130100532
Rogers, Dr Kerrylee
Total: $747,020.00
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENTAL GEOSCIENCE
Project Summary
Saline coastal wetlands store large amounts of carbon and are potentially the most efficient sinks of carbon amongst natural ecosystems. This project will use isotopic tracers to quantify carbon retention within saline coastal wetlands in southeastern Australia, establish the vulnerability of these wetlands to sea-level rise using estimates of sediment accretion and surface elevation change, and use this information to predict the distribution of saline coastal wetlands and estimate the carbon sequestration potential of coastal wetlands within a ‘low-carbon economy’. This project will remove impediments to the proper economic evaluation of saline coastal wetlands and enable restoration coastal wetlands to be used to offset carbon emissions.


The University of Adelaide

FT130100748
Ridgwell, Prof Andrew
Total: $971,644.00
GEOLOGY
Project Summary
Earth history is punctuated by a huge variety of transitions and perturbations in climate, biogeochemical cycling, and ecosystems, some of which may hold direct future-relevant information. In the oceans, these are closely linked in a complex web of feedbacks, as well as to the oxygenation of the ocean and the ultimate geological fate of excessive carbon released into the atmosphere – burial of carbon in sediments. This project will develop a computer model representation of this coupled carbon-climate-life system and test this against the geological record, explore the causes and consequences of carbon release events and extinctions as well as how the ocean floor delivery and preservation of organic carbon responds.