Research Projects
Rebuilding with Nature - Japan
Rebuilding with Nature is a company in Japan looking to partner with JCU to explore research capabilities and areas in the marine and coastal ecosystem space. The Non-Disclosure Agreement will commence discussions and to explore research opportunities.
Peer Mentoring and Community Building Among Australian and Korean Working Holiday Makers
This project seeks to enhance Australia–Korea people-to-people engagement through a bilingual peer mentoring program and a digital platform tailored for current working holidaymakers. It will connect Korean participants in Australia with Australian participants in Korea through structured mentoring sessions, intercultural exchange activities, and the formation of a sustainable support network.
In addition, an alumni storytelling initiative — featuring former participants of the Australia-Korea Working Holiday Program (referred to as 'working holiday alumni') — will showcase the diverse experiences and contributions of past participants. While the project supports all participants, it pays particular attention to the gendered experiences of female working holidaymakers, recognising their unique challenges and contributions. Through these efforts, the project promotes cross-cultural understanding, career resilience, and long-term bilateral ties—bridging geographic distance and fostering digital and human connections between Australia and Korea.
Youth Alcohol Use in the Digital Age: Harnessing longitudinal cohort data and living systematic reviews to inform prevention and harm minimisation
Alcohol is a leading cause of disease burden in young Australians aged 15-24 years. The proliferation of digital technology and social media have seen concerning increases in access to alcohol among young people, yet the impacts of this accessibility are largely unknown. This project aims to identify and evaluate the risk and impact of increased access to alcohol on the physical and mental health of young Australians. We will do this through two scientifically rigorous methodologies.
First, we will extend a 16-year Australian longitudinal cohort study that has assessed children’s health and development since birth, to create a new, in-depth survey in adolescence. This survey will be co-designed with consumers and partners, and will focus on emerging methods of how young people access alcohol, the influence of social media, and associated patterns of use and alcohol-related harm. The cohort was originally established to identify the antecedents of alcohol use in children and families, and thus has comprehensive data on individual, family, peer and community risk and protective factors that will inform key prevention targets in early development.
This work will be complemented by a series of ‘living’ systematic reviews examining the impact of increased access to alcohol use on adolescent and young adult physical and mental health. We will use innovative artificial intelligence software to enable rapid updates as new evidence emerges, and to facilitate more seamless knowledge translation through our leading national partners headspace, the Australian Drug Foundation and ARACY. This project aligns with the key goals of the funding scheme and the Australian Medical Research and Innovation Priorities of: (1) preventative/public health research; (2) priority populations (young people); and (3) consumer-driven research. Results will inform approaches to public health, prevention and harm minimisation to reduce the adverse health impacts of alcohol on young Australians.
Dating West Antarctic ice sheet collapse using molecular sequence data (Old ID 24850)
This project aims to investigate the past stability and configuration of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet by examining genomic signatures in present day bottom-dwelling Antarctic marine animals. By employing this novel biological approach to address a key question for physical scientists, this project will provide an independent test of the hypothesis that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet collapsed during the most recent interglacial and formed a transAntarctic seaway. Expected project outcomes include increased resolution of the most recent collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. This should provide significant benefits in predicting future collapse and its impact on sea level rise which is a key uncertainty resulting from climate change.
Testing established methods of early prediction of genetic merit in abalone broodstock (Old ID 24872)
There is a need in the abalone industry to improve production animals. However, abalone are relatively slow growing animals and take several years to reach harvest size. This means that during the establishment of foundation broodstock populations it may be several years before the relative genetic merit of each of the broodstock can be determined and the first selection decisions made. Researchers at JCU have addressed this time-lag problem of obtaining accurate genetic estimated breeding values (gEBV) in other species. They have shown that broodstock gEBV can be estimated accurately from larvae as early as 18 days through the targeting of growth processes at the cellular level that predict genetic-determined long-term growth. This method is as yet untested in abalone, but if successful, has great potential in helping screen broodstock. This project will test the efficacy of this early prediction method in abalone. The impact of this early detection method would be to save costs by assisting in the selection of superior broodstock individuals which would produce faster growing offspring. Currently new broodstock animals are unevaluated with regard to their genetic merit.
Supply of training services for half day courses on 1)Fish Stock Handling and 2) Aquaculture Disease Prevention and Response
This ITQ invites training providers to submit proposals to conduct training courses for aquaculture farmers. To contribute to Singapore’s “30 by 30” local production goal, farmers will need guidance to mitigate the increased risk of diseases as they intensify production on limited space.
Development of the Singapore Workplace Wellbeing Scale
The present research described the development of the Singapore Workplace Wellbeing scale which identified the factors that influence employee wellbeing in the Singapore workplace context. Participants from various industries in Singapore completed an online survey containing a battery of measures including the new workplace wellbeing measure in two separate studies. Study 1 involved (N = 318) conducting a parallel analysis followed by exploratory factor analysis on items generated from a qualitative study by Yip et al., (2024) in which the authors identified 13 distinct factors that contributed to workplace wellbeing and concluded that expression of these factors was unique to the Singapore context. A confirmation factor analysis was conducted on study 2 (N = 303) which confirmed a 13-factor scale with 99 items. These factors were support from boss, fairness, autonomy, meaningful work, co-worker relationship, role clarity, work-life balance, learning and professional growth, person-organization fit, employee engagement, employee recognition, flexitime work, accomplishment, and organization support. The new scale showed sound construct reliability, internal consistency, convergent validity, discriminant, and nomological validity. Importantly, the scale showed significant and positive association with job performance and flourishing, but a significant and negative association with burnout and the negative emotional state of depression, anxiety, and stress. The scale has significant potential to be used as workplace wellbeing screening tool and in research in the the Singapore context. Implications, future directions, and limitations of the research are discussed.
LoRaWAN Rain Gauge Prototype Field Testing (Old ID 26229)
This project involves conducting field testing of a LoRaWAN rain gauge prototype that was developed collaboratively between JCU and CSIRO. The prototype system uses cutting-edge low-power long-range IoT communications technology to transmit rainfall data from rain gauges in to a cloud system designed by CSIRO. The objective of the field testing is to determine whether the developed prototype is suitable for a deployed system in the Wet Tropics.
Understanding the hydrology and water quality of a natural tropical wetland
This is a non-funded project done in collaboration with QLD DETSI, DPI and Terrain NRM to examine the hydrology and water quality behaviour of a natural wetland in tropical Far North Queensland. We will use tracers and extensive field monitoring to determine the water budget, residence time and dominant flow pathways of water through the wetland. We will also calculate nutrient/carbon/pesticide/herbicide load reductions from this natural wetland. These aims are achieved via multi-approach field data collection that includes water and soil sampling for nutrients, pesticides/herbicides, carbon and eDNA. This project represents a crucial collaboration between Queensland Government (DETSI) and important NRM group in our region and has the potential to secure future funding from the Federal Government.
Centre of Research Excellence in Tuberculosis Control on both sides of our border. (Old ID 26555)
This is a capacity building project on tuberculosis research including clinical trials, genomics, immunology and modelling for policy decision support. It involves researchers at USyd, U Melb, Monash and JCU. My role is in mathematical modelling of tuberculosis and this work will provide a network of tuberculosis researchers with which to collaborate.