 |
ANSTO has welcomed the recent announcement of nine scientific research grants worth $7.7 million from the Australian Research Council (ARC) and National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) for the work it is involved in.
The most significant grant - at $1.8 million - was from the NHMRC to a team led by the University of Queensland with whom ANSTO's Dr Suzanne Smith is investigating the toxicology of nanomaterials, a subject currently under public scrutiny.
This research will help scientists understand the effects of nanoparticles once released into the surrounding environment.
ANSTO’s Acting Chief of Research, Professor Rob Robinson, said the grants were significant and recognised the importance of the scientific work conducted at ANSTO.
“The ARC is the primary source of competitive grants for Australian universities, and ANSTO researchers participate in ARC Discovery and Linkage projects as partner investigators, brought into the projects by the university teams for thei expertise and access to ANSTO’s capabilities,” he said.
“The projects awarded ARC funding in which ANSTO participates will be led by the University of Sydney (three grants), the University of New South Wales (two grants), the University of Western Australia, the Australian National University and the University of Wollongong.
“The scientific areas the grants will cover range from structural biology through to climate change,” he said.
“In addition, two further successful ARC grants, totalling $1.2 million, involve Australian Institute for Nuclear Science and Engineering (AINSE) research fellows based at the University of Wollongong and University of Melbourne, where the OPAL reactor will be a strong factor in their research programs."
Over the next three to five years, the ARC-funded project teams will investigate:
- Nanostructure in lead-containing piezoceramics - the key to improved and environmentally-friendly materials
- High performance ceramic-based thermoelectric materials for power generation
- Memory effects in magnetic metals using layered nanopatterns
- Molecular mechanisms of two-component signal transduction in bacteria
- Microprobe and nanoprobe studies on intracellular disease processes and their treatment
- Frustrated magnets: a new platform for multiferroic materials
- Industries of Angkor: material production and the decline