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Monash secures $32 million in ARC funding

16 November 2005

Monash researchers have received $32 million, including $6 million from industry partners, for 85 projects announced last week through the Australian Research Council's (ARC) National Competitive Grants Program.

Discovery grant: Dr Jamie Rossjohn is chief investigator of the team that will investigate the processes that control infection.

Monash received funding for research into how immunity and infection are controlled, earthquake prediction, traffic flow in ant colonies, predicting the behaviour and spread of bushfires, why people choose teaching as a career and how the brain controls people's response to stress.

The university's largest Discovery grant of $1.7 million is being led by senior research fellow Dr Jamie Rossjohn from Monash's Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Dr Rossjohn, in collaboration with Professor James McCluskey from the University of Melbourne, is using synchrotron radiation to investigate the processes that control infection.

Monash led the Victorian universities in funding received through the ARC's Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities grants, receiving $5.4 million to fund five projects including $570,000 for research into new techniques for disease diagnosis.

The vice-chancellor, Professor Richard Larkins, congratulated the researchers on their efforts.

"The scope of projects receiving funding this year emphasises the diverse range of areas Monash staff are working in," he said. "All staff should feel proud of their success."

The largest Linkage Project grant awarded to Monash went to the Civil Engineering department, which received more than $720,000 from the ARC and $350,000 from industry for a project that aims to predict, control and reduce water and gas leakage in underground pipes.

Monash's second largest Linkage Project grant, totalling $712,000, was awarded to a team led by the School of Chemistry for a three-year collaborative research project with Australia's largest chemical manufacturing company, Orica.