Research Projects
Technology Identification to Optimize Malaria Vector Surveillance (Old ID 23637)
Tom Burkot
01 Sep 2017 - 30 Nov 2019
The proposed investment will undertake an analysis of vector surveillance in priority elimination programs against recommended surveillance practices. This analysis will include evaluations of data, programmatic capacity and technical attributes of the surveillance systems currently in use by NMCPs of selected countries. This assessment will identify gaps/limitations and constraints that impede present surveillance programs from achieving the implementation of best practices.
Northern Australia Health Service Delivery Situation Analysis (Old ID 26543)
Maxine Whittaker
10 Jul 2019 - 09 Mar 2020
This project will identify key challenges and opportunities facing the northern Australian health service delivery sector and explore potential developmental scenarios and/or identify the most strategic research projects and development priorities for further investment. This will include but not be limited to infrastructure, clinical issues, policy, new models of care, investment, knowledge, training and human capital gaps and the research or alternative solutions to address them. This report will provide recommendations in all key areas identified to provide a better environment for growth and development on the northern Australian health service delivery sector.
Blue carbon and cane land restoration methods development (Old ID 26857)
Nathan Waltham
31 Dec 2019 - 16 Jul 2024
The Project seeks to advance the development of a blue carbon methodology under the Australian government’s emissions reduction fund, by undertaking a project to restore tidal connectivity and wetlands in a selected catchment. The Project team will collect baseline data (GHG emissions, carbon storage, water quality and biodiversity) to inform the blue carbon methodology and undertake post-restoration assessments to quantify carbon and co-benefits arising from the restoration. The Project also seeks to undertake terrestrial restoration on a small section of low productivity farmland, to quantify whether there is a business case for land use change to carbon farming in an intensive farming environment. The Project will then support the farmer/s within the Project boundary to transition to best management practice agriculture, and to quantify whether this transition satisfactorily offsets land taken out of production for the i) wetland restoration and ii) terrestrial revegetation undertaken.
Reef Restoration and Adaptation –Regulatory and Policy Environment (Old ID 27114)
Mia Hoogenboom
30 Mar 2021 - 30 Jun 2024
The existing regulatory and policy frameworks have originally been designed as part of the conventional approach to reef management. As such, they are not entirely fit for purpose to address unconventional technological interventions for reef restoration and adaptation. These interventions, given their innovative and emerging nature, challenge existing regulatory frameworks to address novel risks and impacts and make decisions based on information with relatively high levels of uncertainty. Critical to the feasibility and viability of RRAP R&D programs is, therefore, an enabling regulatory environment that can effectively and timely assess the range of risks and impacts associated with unconventional reef restoration and adaptation interventions. In this context, the objectives of this project are to: (i) Investigate the capacity of the existing regulatory and policy frameworks to address R&D and deployment of RRAP interventions (ii) Scope which interventions are permitted and under what conditions (e.g., scale, location and timing) with the aim to inform the R&D programs (iii) Help enhance the capacity of the regulatory system to assess the range of risks and impacts associated with R&D and deployment of interventions
Research capacity building for control of neglected tropical diseases: A path for sustainable societies on the tropics (Old ID 27483)
Maru Castellanos Reynosa
01 Apr 2022 - 28 Feb 2023
The international community has pledged through the Sustainable Development Goals to eliminate neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) by 2030. NTDs are distributed in several regions in the world, including Oceania and The Americas, and are estimated to affect close to 2 billion people. Guatemala and Queensland, Australia share similar ecological and tropical environments that enhances their susceptibility to epidemics caused by NTDs, particularly considering the effect of climate change. The Universidad del Valle de Guatemala (UVG) and James Cook University (JCU) will conduct a project to build NTDs data analysis capacity and support the efforts of early and middle career researchers to conduct collaborative research in Australia and Guatemala. The project consists of a mixture of online workshops and online research meetings.
Mapping of Hervey Bay and Great Sandy Straits seagrass meadows post floods (Old ID 27628)
Michael Rasheed
29 Apr 2022 - 29 May 2026
This project will map seagrass meadows across Hervey Bay and collect data on intertidal seagrass habitats in Great Sandy Straits to provide post flood update on the state of seagrass meadows in the region.
Development of in situ Sr isotope analyses in shark vertebrae (Old ID 27633)
Brandon Mahan
01 Jan 2022 - 31 Mar 2023
Accurately ageing sharks underpins sustainable harvest and population recovery. The conventional ageing technique consists of counting growth bands in vertebrae, however, this approach suffers errors associated with over- and under-counting due to misidentifying periodic features and in-complete. More recently, element-to-element ratios have been explored as complementary tools for determining age and migratory, and in this context Mn:Ca shows promise as an age-specific fingerprint, and Sr:Ca has shown promise as one of the most prominent indicators of fresh/estuarial vs. marine environment (along with Ba:Ca), because marine environments typically have significantly higher Sr (and lower Ba) concentrations. This means that Sr:Ca—alongside Mn:Ca and Ba:Ca—can potentially be used as an annual marker, in particular for female sharks that annually return to freshwater environments to pup. It is well-known from fish otoliths (a calcified part of the inner ear) that marine and freshwater environments display distinct Sr isotope signatures (87Sr/86Sr ratios), and that fresh vs marine signatures can be readily distinguished at requisite length-scales (e.g. 50 microns) using in situ (“in place”, i.e. non-destructively) laser ablation multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (or LA-MC-ICP-MS). Moreover, it is well-established that 87Sr/86Sr ratios can be determined in situ in bio-apatite (calcium phosphate or bone, such as that in fish vertebrae), and 87Sr/86Sr ratios in bio-apatite can be used to determine sub-annual mobility. And yet to date, Sr isotopes have never been investigated in shark vertebrae towards these ends. This study will combine in situ elemental compositions and 87Sr/86Sr ratios in the vertebrae of sharks to determine their ultimate viability as complementary ageing, environmental and migratory reconstruction tools.
REACHING FOR YOUR WORDS: A Phase IIa umbrella trial of integrated Upper limb & Language Impairment and Functional Training (UPLIFT) after stroke (Old ID 27743)
Ruth Barker
04 Apr 2022 - 30 Nov 2026
Losing the ability to use your arm and communicate is extremely debilitating. It affects 1 in 6 survivors at 3-months post-stroke and remains unmet long-term. We propose a new model of rehabilitation: integrated UPper limb & Language Impairment & Functional Training (UPLIFT) during community living. Using a novel trial design we will efficiently identify the most promising UPLIFT intervention(s), which will directly impact how we organise and deliver rehabilitation in Australia.
Social Psychology in Mental Health Studies: Showcase of Postgraduate Research in the Asia-Pacific Region
Wendy Li
11 Jan 2024 - 28 Jun 2024
We intend to invite 15-20 postgraduate students and 8-10 academics (including early- and mid-career researchers and senior academics) to join this Asian Association of Social Psychology's (AASP) Small Group Meeting (SGM). The SGM aims to: 1) showcase the achievements of our next generation of social psychology researchers who are working on research in the intersection between social psychology and mental health via research presentations and Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition; 2) Organise a “Research Capacity Building Workshop”; 3) support research students in the Asia-Pacific region to publish papers in this research field via the “Conversations with Editors”; 4) inspire research students via “‘What Next’ Dialogues with Academics”; and 5) promote AASP among research students in Asian countries, Australia and New Zealand.
Drought and Heatwave Social Network Analysis
Rachel Hay
04 Feb 2024 - 30 Sep 2024
The project aims to complete a whole of network analysis to identify the structure and characteristics of drought and climate resilience actors (for example, programs and organisations that have a climate/drought/heatwave focus) to identify groups, clusters, or gaps within the network. The analysis will view through a dynamic lens to understand the dynamic nature of policy over time. Social Network Analysis is a powerful tool used to understand complex systems, identify key actors, to detect communities and investigate structural roles that can assist in the prediction of future interactions that will deliver upon the projects objectives.