ARC funding success at the Monash BDI

Monash University has been awarded more than $32 million supporting 81 projects, in the latest round of Australian Research Council (ARC) funding.

Minister for Education and Training Simon Birmingham announced the $333.5 million of funding across 859 research projects as part of the ARC National Competitive Grants Programme.

Monash’s Biomedicine Discovery Institute (BDI) received funding for seven Discovery Projects, one Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities (LIEF) scheme and three Discovery Early Career Researcher Awards (DECRA), cumulatively receiving $4.8 million.

Professor John Carroll, Director of the Monash BDI, said: “It was a great year for Monash in the ARC funding round and I particularly want to congratulate all those in the BDI who were successful this year. Projects ranged from how to punch holes in cells, to laws of attraction, to secretion systems, to neural circuitry in decision-making, to immune cells in the CNS and much more. A beautiful example of the diversity of world-class research we undertake.”

Monash BDI ARC Discovery Project recipients

  • Professor Kieran Harvey: The Hippo signalling pathway in dividing and non-dividing cells,
  • Associate Professor Michelle Dunstone: How do MACPF/CDC proteins punch giant holes in lipid membranes?
  • Professor Brian Cooke: Novel Babesia proteins and their roles in the pathogenesis of tick fever,
  • Professor Dena Lyras: Mechanism of action of a novel multifunctional bacterial secretion system,
  • Associate Professor Anna Roujeinikova: Laws of attraction and repulsion -a novel family of bacterial chemosensors,
  • Professor Matt Watt: Characterising the lipid droplet - mitochondria proteome,
  • Professor Ross Coppel: Investigating pathways of lipoglycan formation in the bacterial cell wall.

Monash BDI ARC DECRA recipients

Each DECRA recipient receives salary support for three years and up to $40,000 in additional funding per year for other costs essential to their project.

  • Dr Maureen Hagan with her research focusing on the integration of feedforward and feedback circuits for decision-making,
  • Dr Qi Zhang with her research investigating molecular mechanism for the regulation of Polycomb repressive complex 2,
  • Dr Samantha Dando with her research focusing on novel immune cell subsets in the CNS and supporting tissues.

Monash BDI ARC LIEF scheme success

  • Dr Georg Ramm, Cryo EM Platform: 3D Cryo Correlative Light and Electron Microscopy Facility.

Congratulations to each of these researchers on their ARC funding success.

Senior Vice-Provost and Vice-Provost (Research), Professor Pauline Nestor said the result reflected the broad potential impacts of the research being undertaken at the University.

“Our researchers continue to be at the forefront in the development of new responses to the challenges facing the world today,” Professor Nestor said.

“These responses drive long-lasting positive change and today’s results indicate that the ARC recognises that potential. I thank the Council for their ongoing support.”