According to the Australian Research Council:

The scheme aims to:

• attract and retain outstanding researchers of international renown
• build and strengthen world-class research capability in Australia
• expand Australia's knowledge base by supporting groundbreaking, internationally competitive research
• forge strong links between researchers, industry and the international research community, and
• support research that will result in economic, environmental, social and cultural benefits for Australia

Below are thumbnails of the projects each will be perusing.

PROFESSOR GEREMIE BARME
Project: Beijing: China’s Heritage and the City as spectacle

Current institution: The Australian National University

Host institution: The Australian National University

Primary research field: Asian History

Professor Barme will investigate the historical context and looming significance of how the Chinese state and the public and semi-private media project the city and culture of Beijing as being a core of Chinese national identity in the post-socialist era (1978- ) and in the years surrounding the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He will use the concepts of heritage and spectacle to study the city and the evocation of history, from imperial times to the present, to construct a global Chinese identity. The project will provide the major national focus for trans-historical research on China, research that is grounded in traditional Sinological skills and addresses some of the important and long-term issues of Chinese history, culture and society and their contemporary relevance in North-east Asia and the Asia Pacific. It will provide a national hub for the study of late-traditional China and its relevance to Australia today and create an opportunity for a multifaceted understanding of the underpinnings of the cultural influence of China in the future.

PROFESSOR ALAN BOND
Project: Integration of Electrochemistry and Green
Chemistry: A Roadmap for Scientific Innovation
Current institution: Monash University

Host institution: Monash University

Primary research field: Electrochemistry

Professor Bond will focus on nuclear magnetic resonance spectra applications revolutionised by integration of instrumental and mathematical advances that transform seemingly incomprehensible data into instantly recognisable images. An analogous electrochemical roadmap for attainment of broad-ranging innovation will be established in this research program. When set in a green chemistry context and specifically interfaced with problems associated with nanochemistry, catalysis, materials science, biologically important reactions and chemical processes of industrial significance, the anticipated outcome is extensive access to exploitable insights of fundamental and applied importance.

PROFESSOR JOHN BOWMAN
Project: Role of an ancient genetic program in the elaboration of plant architecture
Current institution: University of California, Davis
Host institution: Monash University
Primary research field: Genetic Development
 

Professor Bowman’s research program will focus on meristems (organised groups of stem cells found at the tips of plant organ shoots and roots). How leaves and other organs grow depends on positional information provided by meristems. The aims this research are to deduce the role of three inter-related gene programs in regulating growth patterns of leaves and other plant organs and to investigate the evolutionary origins of meristems in all land plants. The ability to manipulate the size and shape of plant organs has broad implications for horticulture, agriculture and forestry. This research will reveal how plant architecture is controlled by genes and, ultimately, help us manipulate plant forms tailored for Australia's crops, pastures and plantations. Potential benefits include larger leaves, more fruits and seeds and timbers with new properties.

PROFESSOR HILARY CHARLESWORTH
Project: Building Democracy and Justice after Conflict
Current institution: The Australian National University
Host institution: The Australian National University
Primary research field: International Law
 

Professor Charlesworth will investigate how war weakens democratic governance and the capacity to deal with crimes committed during the conflict. Her project will advance new ways of thinking about building the structures for democracy and justice after conflict. The focus will be the potential contribution of international law to this enterprise. Through national and international collaboration, she will develop innovative theoretical models to ground international norms about governance and justice after conflict, but also practical proposals to implement them. This project is highly significant to engagement by Australia in nation-building projects, both in its region and further afield. It will build Australia’s expertise in the ways that international law can promote democracy and justice, and develop guidelines for states and organisations involved in peace and nation-building. It will thus contribute to safeguarding Australia by increasing Australia’s capacity to engage with, and interpret itself to, its neighbours and the broader international community.

PROFESSOR JOHN HARTLEY
Project: Uses of Multimedia: Citizen Consumers, Creative Participation and Innovation in Australian Digital Content
Current institution: Queensland University of Technology
Host institution: Queensland University of Technology
Primary research field: Screen and Media Culture
 

Professor Hartley will focus on innovation in digital content and creative industries. New multimedia technologies require new capabilities (literacy). Cultural acceptance and social uptake are more decisive determinants of market success than is technology, but public policy and academic research both focus overly on the production end of the value chain. This project promotes consumer-led innovation in Australian digital content. It will analyse and offer practical solutions for extending the social reach of multimedia literacy. Outcomes include the development of low-cost multi-platform distribution of Australian content for next-generation national networks. Linking professional production and consumer-led innovation will significantly strengthen the service economy.                        

PROFESSOR JOHN HODGES
Project: Human long-term memory and social cognition: An integrated cognitive neuroscience approach
Current institution: Medical Research Council (UK)
Host institution: The University of New South Wales
Primary research field: Neuropsychology
 

Professor Hodges will investigate how the brain represents long-term memory and the processes involved in social cognition. His project will test the hypothesis that temporal regions play a key role in the formation and storage of knowledge, while frontal regions are critical for normal social behaviour such as interpreting the thoughts and emotions of others. The project combines neuropsychological, structural and functional brain imaging and involves patients with and without brain disorders. A long-term goal is to develop widely applicable tasks that can be translated into effective tools for the assessment of patients with disorders affecting these fundamental aspects of human cognition. Impairment of memory is a ubiquitous feature of the dementias. A better understanding of memory processing in the brain is central to developing better tests for early detection and monitoring of disease progression. The study of social cognition is relevant to a range of developmental, psychiatric and neurological disorders. This project will provide the catalyst for the development of a National Memory and Cognitive Disorders Centre for multidisciplinary cognitive neuroscience research. The ultimate aim will be the translation of basic neuroscience into effective tools that will have an impact on the health outcomes of the ageing population.

PROFESSOR MICHAEL KEANE
Project: Understanding and Modelling Individual Choices in Applied Economics
Current institution: Yale University
Host institution: The University of Technology, Sydney
Primary research field: Microeconomic theory
 

Professor Keane will investigate how individuals and organisations make uncertain or risky choices that impact on current and future costs and returns. His work will significantly advance knowledge in such areas as the design of health insurance markets, tests for adverse selection in insurance markets, the ability of people to plan for retirement (superannuation choices), the ability of people to plan and choose in dynamic environments, and decisions to adopt new technologies and products in evolving markets. The outcome will be new ways to understand and predict choices that can significantly improve practices in business and other organisations.

DR CAMERON KEPERT
Project: Advanced Molecular Nanomaterials
Current institution: The University of Sydney
Host institution: The University of Sydney
Primary research field: Structural Chemistry
 

Dr Kepert will focus on the strategic design of advanced nanomaterials. This requires both the control of nanoscale structure and the incorporation of specific function into that structure. He will develop sophisticated molecular design principles to generate materials that display an array of unusual and highly useful properties: anomalous thermal expansion, electronic and magnetic response to guest-exchange, chiral selectivity, hydrogen storage and controlled release. His approach addresses key questions in the science of nano-scale systems and will lead to fundamental breakthroughs in understanding. Commercialisation of the materials is expected to lead directly to the generation of innovative high-level technologies over a broad range of applications in electronics, photonics, molecular sensing, drug synthesis and purification, clean energy and the controlled release of agrochemicals and pharmaceuticals.

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR BOSTJAN KOBE
Project: New approaches to functional and structural
genomics
Current institution: The University of Queensland
Host institution: The University of Queensland
Primary research field: Functional Genomics
 

Professor Kobe’s program will contribute to the worldwide effort in sequencing the genomes of humans and other organisms. This work has identified a large number of proteins with unknown functions. Determining the functions of these proteins is one of the next great challenges in biology. This program of research will pursue novel approaches for determining protein function, using three-dimensional structural information of proteins as the basis. In the first approach, the available structural information will be explored to develop bioinformatic tools that will enable functional annotation of proteins computationally. In the second approach, new ways of identifying and structurally characterising cellular protein complexes will be pursued. The proposed research will lead to the discovery of new biological molecules, interactions and processes essential for the function of cells, identify new therapeutic targets and strategies to combat disease and identify new concepts in bio- and nanotechnology.

PROFESSOR PHILIP MAINI
Project: Multiscale modelling: Applications to the
Biomedical Sciences
Current institution: University of Oxford
Host institution: The University of Sydney

Primary research field: Biological Mathematics

Professor Maini will use a multidisciplinary multi-scale approach to investigate tumour growth and analyse dermal wound healing. Outcomes are expected to include development of a virtual tumour which will allow different clinical and surgical procedures to be simulated and tested, and new treatments for wound healing and chronic disease. The expected benefits of this research include significant reductions in the costs of developing pharmaceutical treatments, substantial reduction in hospitalisation costs and improved treatment of wounds, a significant cause of chronic ill-health and high health care costs.

DR LARRY MARSHALL
Project: Optical Semiconductors for next-generation
lasers, optical processors and integrated optical chips
Current institution: Arasor Corporation
Host institution: Macquarie University
Primary research field: Optics and Opto-electronic
Physics
 

Dr Marshall will create a generic optical source and processor technology, integrating semiconductor and non-linear elements in chip-scale optoelectronic devices. He will address scientific and technical challenges in resonator design, nonlinear processes, waveguides, understanding fundamental processes affecting performance and lifetime, and integration of semiconductor and non-linear optical elements. This technology, exploiting the scale and economic advantages of microelectronics fabrication, is expected to open the way to a vast array of low-cost applications in biomedicine, industry and defence, and place Australia in a leading position to benefit from key skills and intellectual property.

PROFESSOR JOHN MATTICK
Project: The genomic programming of complex organisms
Current institution: The University of Queensland
Host institution: The University of Queensland
Primary research field: Genetics

Professor Mattick will investigate ribonucleic acids, which comprise 98 per cent of the output of the human genome. He will use a combination of genetic, biochemical, bioinformatic and mathematical approaches to explore the hypothesis that higher organisms have evolved an advanced genetic operating system based on a network of digital RNA signals the function of which is to integrate complex suites of gene activity. The project may transform our understanding of genetic programming of higher organisms, their evolutionary history and the basis of the phenotypic diversity of individuals and species, including quantitative trait variation and disease susceptibility. It is expected to have far-reaching consequences in medicine, agriculture, engineering, biotechnology, information science and associated industries. It should provide a platform for the rationalisation of genetic epidemiology and improvement programs, development of new diagnostics and therapies, new core technologies and practical approaches in genetics and genetic diversity, a framework for advanced genetic engineering, development of new principles and systems for information storage and transmission, and design of artificial systems capable of self-referential assembly in other environments.