ANFF-Q clients awarded more than $8.2 million for new ARC Discovery Project, Discovery Indigenous and Linkage Project Grants

ANFF-Q would like to congratulate our clients in securing funding for these exciting new research projects:

Professor Andrew Whittaker, Dr Changkui Fu and their colleagues aim to explore how polymer architecture can enhance biocompatibility and reduce biofouling. The outcome will be a new class of low-fouling polymeric materials with broad application in the biosciences.

Associate Professor Chun-Xia Zhao aims to develop new design principles for engineering nano/micromaterials with tunable mechanical properties for improved cell activation and expansion, and to advance knowledge of the role of particle stiffness in modulating receptor-mediated particle-cell interactions.

Professor Ernst Wolvetang and his colleagues aim to develop safer gene editing tools for Australian livestock and biotech industries.

Professor Geoffrey Goodhill aims to use brain imaging and advanced computational analyses to investigate how early sensory experience affects brain development.

Professor Han Huang, Dr Mingyuan Lu, Professor Lisbeth Grondahl and their colleagues aim to address a timely bottleneck issue in the conventional lapping of difficult-to-machine optoelectronic brittle materials. This breakthrough technology should benefit the design and fabrication of high performance electronic devices for energy, medicine and communication sectors with considerable impact on the Australian economy.

Dr Hoang Phuong Phan, Professor Nam-Trung Nguyen and their colleagues will partner with Sugar Research Australia Ltd to develop a novel on-farm diagnostic device, comprising new nanotechnology and magnetism-induced microfluidics with naked eye observation and electrochemical detection. This device is expected to enable improved disease management strategies through the prediction of potential risks and rapid and effective actions to mitigate impending yield loss.

Professor Hongxia Wang and her colleagues aim to synthesise carbon materials with tailored surface, electrical and structure properties that are required to make a highly functioning shared electrode in monolithic perovskite photocapacitors.

Professor Ian Gentle and his colleagues aim to improved theoretical and experimental approaches leading to new design rules for organic light emitting diodes.

Professor John Zhu and his colleagues will partner with Eden Innovations Ltd to develop novel drawn polymer fibres with aligned carbon nanotubes incorporated inside and also grafted nanotubes on their surface. Such polymer fibres can be used to reinforce thermoplastics to make high performance composites with effective recyclability.

Professor Justin Cooper-White and his colleagues aim to discover new biomaterials and printing nozzles to make bespoke engineered tissues for personalised therapeutic discovery and organ replacement.

Professor Matt Trau, Dr Alain Wuethrich and Dr Abu Ali Ibn Sina aim to develop an entirely new nanotechnology to visualise dynamic molecular circuits in real time, and within any biological sample as small as a single cell.

Professor Michael Yu aims to advance knowledge of how immune systems respond to changes in chemistry and nanostructure of aluminosilicate materials and enable the design of nanoadjuvants with enhanced cellular immunity and reduced toxicity.

Associate Professor Prashant Sonar and his colleagues aim to address the challenges of fabricating stretchable organic transistors for applications in wearable electronics and robotics through the development of new semiconducting polymers with stretchability and integrating them into novel, stretchable organic transistor configurations.

Professor Susanne Schmidt and her colleagues aim to enable Indigenous businesses from bushfoods and native ornamental plants endemic to the Custodial Lands of four Traditional Owner partners.

Professor Sven Rogge and his colleagues aim to create a tool to systematically engineer optical properties of emitters in solids by understanding and manipulating materials atom by atom.

Professor Yuantong Gu, Professor Bhesh Bhandari and their colleagues will partner with ICCON Solutions Pty Ltd to develop a novel multilevel modelling framework for food drying by integrating the micro, macro, and dryer scale transport process and considering the dynamic changes in the drying environment under the intermittent application of microwave energy.

Professor Zhi-Gang Chen, Professor Jin Zou and Dr Min Hong aim to develop cost-effective metal selenide materials for high-efficiency solid-state devices using a novel industry-level approach, coupled with nanostructure and band engineering strategies.

We look forward to supporting these projects and these partnerships.