UQ’s exceptional honour roll includes two new ARC Australian Laureate Fellowships, 14 ARC Future Fellowships and funding for an ARC Industrial Transformation Training Centre for Innovation in Biomedical Imaging Technology.
The 17 grants have been awarded to UQ research projects spanning biotechnology, electrochemical energy, ecological impacts of cattle production, antibiotic resistance, cultural history, quantum systems, and atomic physics.
UQ Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Peter Høj said it was an outstanding result for UQ and again demonstrated the strength of the university’s research.
“UQ has been awarded funding for more research projects than any other university in Australia, and we ranked number two for total funding, with $22.6 million in grants,” Professor Høj said.
“UQ has won the lion’s share of ARC Future Fellowships funding - securing $12.1 million which accounts for 15.7 per cent of the total $77 million in grants.
“These results underscore UQ as the destination of choice, given that we have been awarded more ARC Future Fellowships across the life of the scheme than any other university – and it comes less than a week after our researchers were awarded $4.3 million for 12 ARC Linkage Projects.
“This is a real testament to the quality of researchers we have at the university,” he said.
“I’m delighted to note that six of UQ’s 14 new Future Fellows are women.
“There is also an excellent spread of Future Fellowships across UQ’s broad areas of research, with five going to researchers in humanities and other non-science disciplines.”
A full list of the ARC Future Fellowship grants awarded to UQ researchers can be found here.
ARC Australian Laureate Fellowships have been awarded to Professor George Zhao, who is working to develop sustainable electrochemical energy storage technology, wastewater resource recovery expert Professor Zhiguo Yuan.
Professor Zhao, of UQ’s School of Chemical Engineering, will get $2.8 million over five years for research to develop next-generation energy storage applications based upon sodium-ion capacitors.
Professor Yuan, director of UQ’s Advanced Water Management Centre, will get $2.9 million over five years for research into bioconversion of methane into higher-value liquid chemicals.
“Professor Yuan’s work on biotechnology solutions through the cost-effective production of liquid chemicals from biogas could propel Australia to the forefront of sustainable resources research,” Professor Høj said.
UQ will have a new ARC Industrial Transformation Training Centre for Innovation in Biomedical Imaging Technology, backed by $4.7 million in ARC funding and an additional $1 million provided by industry partners.
The centre will train 20 industry-ready innovation scientists to tackle skills gaps in radiochemistry and diagnostic imaging in Australia’s medical technologies and pharmaceuticals sector.
The centre will draw together leading researchers and industry partners to develop novel diagnostics, therapeutics and theranostics for cost-effective diagnostic imaging and improved health outcomes.
Professor Høj said UQ’s powerful performance across the ARC funding projects was further evidence of the University’s commitment to supporting leading researchers and enabling them to create positive change.
