UNE’s research-profile was boosted with 20 researchers receiving internal grants to fund their work.

This strategic research funding is awarded annually to support high quality research proposals from individuals and small research teams across the University.

The UNE Internal Funding Scheme awards grants of up to $10,000 to early career researchers (ECR) and mid-career researchers (MCR) to promote impactful research.

“The fund specifically targets researchers with 15 years or less since conferral of their PhD to motivate them to complete exploratory or pilot projects that will eventually support national competitive grant applications,” said Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research Professor Chris Armstrong.

“The funding will also assist with the resubmission of highly-ranked but unsuccessful applications in externally funded programs such as those run by the Australian Research Council or National Health and Medical Research Council.

“Lastly, it enables us to foster new basic and applied research projects which involve industry collaboration and may lead to successful externally-funded competitive grants.”

Applications were reviewed against quality of the proposed research, strength of research team, future trajectory of the project and its strategic alignment with UNE’s aspirations.

The Research Division will also be working to foster opportunities to engage with UNE undergraduate students on funding the recipients’ research and research careers.

Congratulations to all the recipients!

Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences & Education (ECR)

• Dr Jo Bird (Education): Big Transitions Matter Too: Building wellbeing with STEM in the transition from primary to secondary school.
• Dr Caitlin D’Gluyas (HASS): Developing Research with Impact: Understanding the archaeological resource of Parramatta, NSW.
• Dr Xiang Gao (HASS): Language in diplomacy: Chinese foreign policy discourses in the Indo-Pacific.
• Dr Lisa Hackett (HASS): Mapping Australian Aviation: A pilot study for the digital linking of archival material.
• Dr Isara Khanjanasthiti (HASS): The rise of airport-based regions? An international review of Australia and Thailand’s aerotropolis plans.

Medicine & Health (ECR)

• Dr Rikki Jones (Health): Understanding trauma-informed approaches to disclosures of child sexual assault.

Science, Agriculture, Business & Law (ECR)

• Dr Jessica Monk (ERS): Development of a novel lateralisation test and cognitive enrichments for goats as measures of welfare, learning and production performance.
• Dr Anna Probert (ERS): Building better border biosecurity: determining the risk of fire ant dispersal via agricultural pathways.
• Dr Shabah Shadli (S&T): Developing a diagnostic tool for anxiety disorders using behavioural and electroencephalography (EEG) data.
• Dr Fareed Ud Din (S&T): AoCA: A DSM-5 compliant framework for Agent-oriented Cognition-based Smart Assistant for Old Aged People living with or at the Risk of Dementia.

Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences & Education (MCR)

• Associate Professor Jill Fielding (Education): Affordances of a natural environment setting for developing authentic teaching of mathematics inquiry-based learning practices into integrated STEM contexts.
• Dr Jennifer Hamilton (HASS): The Armidale Climate and Health Project Phase 2: Designing and Building Local Community Food Infrastructure.
• Dr Zuocheng Zhang (Education): Choosing to stay: International graduates’ transition to Australia’s regional workplaces.

Medicine & Health (MCR)

• Dr Kylie Rice (Psychology): Farmers on the frontline of extreme weather events: Exposure, mental health and adaptation.
• Associate Professor Sarah Wayland (Health): Through another lens: Establishing safe reporting of Australian missing persons in the media.

Science, Agriculture, Business & Law (MCR)

• Dr Alfonsina Arriaga Jimenez (ERS): Cryptic Diversity and Conservation Challenges of Cephalodesmius armiger complex, a Flightless Native Dung Beetle from Fragmented Australian Rainforests.
• Dr Subrata Chakraborty (S&T): Regulating the trustworthiness of Artificial Intelligence systems in Australia.
• Dr Lucie Newsome (Business): Identifying Trends in Australian Intergenerational Farm Succession.
• Associate Professor Mia Rahim (Law): Nanomaterials in Foods Regulation at the Crossroads of Science and Law.
• Dr Nicholas Tailby (ERS): Finding small ways to help address Australia’s big critical metal shortage.