[Aqualist] ARC DECRA and LIEF grants announced

[Simon Haberle]

Dear AQUA members,

Please find below a list of successful candidates in the fields broadly related to Quaternary research (including archaeology) for the ARC DECRA and LIEF announced yesterday.

Congratulations to all those who were successful.

The success rate for DECRAs was 13% and for the LIEF grants was 22%. This is somewhat lower than previous years meaning a large number of people will have missed out. I’m sure there were many great projects worthy of support that were not successful in such a large field. Please remember to provide support and encouragement for those who have taken the time and energy to submit a proposal but were not successful this time around.

Regards, Simon

​__________________________
DECRA


The Australian National University

DE260100521
Dr Shimona Kealy
Crossing Wallace’s Line: Lombok's Role in Early Human Dispersals.
This project aims to explore when and how early humans first crossed Wallace’s Line, focusing on Lombok Island's role in these movements. By using a range of scientific methods and conducting new archaeological excavations, the project will provide fresh insights into the origins of ancient humans in Indonesia and the development of maritime technology that led to the first settlement of Australia. The research is expected to foster strong partnerships between emerging Australian and Indonesian scholars, promote cultural knowledge sharing, and support collaborative efforts that advance Australian science and diplomatic goals included in our economic strategy and scientific diplomacy priorities for the region. $525,035.00

DE260100100
Dr Stephanie Florin
Co-investigating deep time plant use in Sahul for sustainable food futures.
Interweaving cutting-edge archaeological science with the Traditional Ecological Knowledge of Indigenous partner communities, this co-designed research aims to provide new evidence for the nature and deep-time development of plant use and landscape management practices across Australia and New Guinea. Its outcomes will reshape understandings of past Indigenous food systems and economies from the tropics to the arid zone, as well as contribute to global debates about the peopling of Sahul and the origins of agriculture. Benefits will include support for Indigenous partner communities to apply their biocultural heritage to create sustainable food futures, and a deepened understanding of the ancient and dynamic history of this continent. $529,382.00

Monash University

DE260100160
Dr Ariaan Purich
Antarctica is changing - how will this affect Australian climate?
This DECRA project aims to investigate the remote influences of reduced sea ice coverage, increased ice sheet and ice shelf meltwater, and their combined impact, on Australian climate. Using a range of coupled climate model simulations, this project expects to advance our knowledge about sea ice and glacial meltwater processes around the Antarctic margins, and how changes in these processes will impact Australian climate. The expected outcomes directly fill major gaps in Antarctic–Australian climate research and reduce uncertainty in future climate projections. This should provide significant benefit to Australia in developing climate resilience and adapting to global warming. $529,762.00

DE260100532
Dr Anna Lintern
Hotspots and legacies: integrating history into water quality modeling.
This project aims to develop a new transdisciplinary approach to enhance river water quality predictions by unlocking information contained in historical lake sediments. Nutrient pollution in rivers leads to ecosystem collapse and undermines human access to safe and secure water supplies. Catchment water quality models are an essential tool in the fight against pollution. Building upon the CI's previous work with industry and government, this project will generate new knowledge of pollution inputs into rivers, which will be used to develop improved models to predict impacts on water quality. This will enable waterway managers to design effective strategies to safeguard water supplies and ecosystem health for future generations. $528,543.00


Flinders University

DE260100335
Dr Mirani Litster
The first global currency: tracing early Indian Ocean cowrie shell networks.
This project will apply innovative methods in archaeological science to investigate how cowrie shell money from the Maldives—the first global currency—emerged and sustained globe-spanning trade networks for millennia. It will deliver socio-cultural benefits by shedding light on the deep history of trade in our region and generating a better understanding and appreciation of the role of our Indo-Pacific partners in early global trade. The project seeks to engage with communities in India and the Maldives, strengthening regional relationships through collaboration and capacity building. To maximise impact, major findings will be disseminated through an international online exhibition to enhance global cultural awareness.    $529,735.00

The University of Adelaide

DE260102056
Dr Anna Kotarba
Developing the Climate Heritage Resilience Framework for Indigenous Futures.
This project will generate new knowledge on the impacts of climate change on Indigenous heritage in the Kaurareg Archipelago, southwestern Torres Strait, and develop an innovative, scalable Climate Heritage Resilience Framework. It will integrate predictive climate risk modelling, advanced digital heritage documentation, 'braiding' it with Indigenous Traditional Knowledge to identify, record, and monitor at-risk cultural sites with unprecedented accuracy. By co-developing practical, community-led adaptation strategies, this research will deliver tangible outcomes for Indigenous governance, national disaster resilience planning, and climate policy, ensuring cultural heritage protection amid climate crisis is proactive, rather than reactive. $528,590.00


The University of Notre Dame Australia

DE260101842
Dr Melissa Marshall
Conserving rock art: collaborative innovation for climate-changed futures.
The project aims to address limitations in existing rock art conservation and management techniques by evaluating practice and advancing collaborative innovation of improvements to mitigate environmental and human impacts. As our changing climate affects preservation and use of heritage places in unexpected ways, strategic investment of potential alternate methods and technologies collectively developed by First Nations people and academics is imperative to preserve these significant places. Research at select World Heritage and Nationally-heritage listed places will contribute substantially to future foundations, developing conservation outcomes for heritage places of national and international benefit in design, application and impact. $530,079.00


LIEF GRANTS

Flinders University

LE260100176
Dr John McCarthy; Associate Professor Jonathan Tyler; Dr Alexander Francke; Professor Jonathan Benjamin; Dr Chelsea Wiseman; Professor Ian Moffat; Professor Sean Ulm; Professor Julien Louys; Associate Professor John Tibby; Dr Mark de Bruyn; Associate Professor Graziela Miot da Silva; Mr Mathieu Bestille
Submerged Environments Survey and Sampling Suite.
The Submerged Environments Survey and Sampling Suite includes two marine geophysical sonar sensors and one marine geotechnical coring platform. Together these marine survey items provide an integrated affordable capacity for Australian universities to expand their research into deeper waters and deeper underwater sediments in both marine and freshwater environments. The R2Sonic Multibeam is optimised for high resolution 3D sonar seabed mapping, paired with an Innomar Compact Subbottom Profiler to map the shape and depth of shallow sediments below the seabed. A floating UWITEC coring platform then allows recovery of deep samples of those sediments to extract evidence of past environments for archaeological and paleoenvironmental research. $450,603.00


The University of Adelaide

LE260100034
Associate Professor Lee Arnold; Dr Martina Demuro; Professor Bruno David; Professor Andy Herries; Professor Mike Morley; Professor Christopher Clarkson; Professor Gavin Prideaux; Associate Professor Bastien Llamas; Dr Matthew Meredith-Williams; Dr Elizabeth Reed; Dr Anna Kotarba; Dr Ashleigh Rogers; Dr Mathieu Duval; Dr Justin Shiner; Dr Shaun Adams
Australian Optical Dating and Archaeological Luminescence Facility: AusOpAL.
AusOpAL aims to transform our understanding of human evolution and past human interactions using next-generation innovations in luminescence dating. It addresses significant limitations in the scope and capacity of the national geochronology portfolio, unlocking Australian-first capabilities in emergent feldspar and quartz dating techniques and direct dating of archaeological materials such as stone tools. Expected outcomes include benchmark reconstructions of past human dispersals and cultures, advances in dating reliability and training of future geoscience expertise. This will provide important benefits for improved temporal appraisals of human history, including timing of human settlement and causes of megafauna extinction in Australia. $688,334.00

__________________________

Prof Simon Haberle
Professor of Natural History & Palaeoecology

Director, Canberra Pollen Monitoring Program

School of Culture, History and Language

College of Asia & the Pacific
Coombs Building (Rm 3.218), Fellows Rd
The Australian National University
Canberra ACT 2600
+61 2 6125 5125 (ph)  0424453861 (mob)

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