Research Story, Media Release

$2.74 million for health, environment and industry

The University of Adelaide has won $2.74 million for new collaborative research projects ranging from forecasting the effects of climate change on marine habitats to exploring the potentially beneficial biological functions of vitamin D.

Nine University of Adelaide-led projects with industry and government have been awarded funding under the Australian Research Council's (ARC) Linkage Projects [1] scheme announced by Federal Education, Science and Training Minister the Hon. Julie Bishop. This is 68% of the total funding granted for South Australian projects.

"This is an excellent result for University of Adelaide and for South Australia with a success rate of 82% in this first round of ARC Linkage grants for 2008," said Pro Vice-Chancellor Research Operations Professor Richard Russell.

"This new funding is for research conducted in collaboration with industry and the business community and these projects have the potential for a huge impact on health, the environment and our marine, agricultural, horticultural and other industries."

The successful projects are:

• $76,881 to a team led by Dr Peng Bi, School of Population Health and Clinical Practice [2], for a study on migrant health in Australia
  
• $276,000 to researchers led by Associate Professor David Callen, School of Medicine [3], for research into the regulation of vitamin D metabolism which may open up new avenues for the development of preventative approaches and treatment of cancer
  
• $296,112 to a team led by Associate Professor Sean Connell, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences [4], for a project aimed at forecasting marine habitats under realistic scenarios of climate change
  
• $395,000 to Professor Alan Cooper, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences [5], for developing new methods to retrieve and analyse preserved DNA
  
• $454,232 to a team led by Dr Michael Gold, School of Paediatrics and Reproductive Health [6], for a study exploring the legal and ethical issues around linking data at national level
  
• $130,000 to Professor Graeme Hugo, School of Social Sciences [7], and others for investigating the processes that shape material culture diversity using a New Guinea dataset
  
• $248,752 to researchers led by Dr Mike McLaughlin, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences [8], to determine the effect of drought and rainfall patterns on the efficiency of fertiliser use by crops
  
• $550,000 to a research team led by Professor Gus Nathan, School of Mechanical Engineering [9], for developing technology to reduce the emissions of fine particle pollutants
  
• $317,343 to a team led by Associate Professor Eileen Scott, School of Agriculture, Food and Wine [10], to investigate the control of fungal diseases of horticulture crops using milk components