UNSW Science success in ARC Industry Fellowships
Academics from UNSW Science have secured seven ARC Industry fellowships in the last two years.
Published on the 14 May 2024 by Lilly Matson
The Australian Research Council’s (ARC) Industry Laureate Fellowships scheme was developed in 2022 to create a pathway to support academic researchers in establishing careers in industry, and industry-based researchers to work in university settings.
The aim of the funding is to increase two-way mobility and skill-building in research collaboration, translation and commercialisation.
There are three Industry Fellowships Program schemes available – Early Career Industry Fellowships, Mid-Career Industry Fellowships, and Industry Laureate Fellowships.
In the last two years, seven outstanding UNSW Science academics have been awarded an ARC Industry Fellowship to help translate innovative ideas into outcomes that benefit industry partners, end-users and the Australian economy.
Only eight Industry Laureate Fellowships are awarded nationwide each year, providing salary contribution for up to 5 years and project costs up to $1,500,000. Over the last two years, UNSW Science have won a quarter of the Laureate Fellowships funding, for projects ranging from research into ecosystem conservation, to revolutionary quantum computing technology.
UNSW Science has seen first-hand that partnerships between academic and corporate Australia are critical to the understanding of science as the solution to the world’s most important issues, which led to the development of the Pact for Impact. The Pact is an Australian-first collective commitment to define and measure the impact we collectively make through science.
The success of UNSW Science in the Industry fellowship program highlights the ongoing commitment that UNSW Science academics have made to industry partners, to continue prioritising impact and improving the world we live in.
“I am proud of the impact that UNSW Science researchers achieve with their partners outside academia, and the success of the ARC Industry Fellowships is testament to their ongoing commitment to strengthening industry collaboration,” says Scientia Professor Sven Rogge, Dean of UNSW Science.
Professor David Keith, Laureate Industry Fellowship, 2024
Photo: UNSW
Professor David Keith of the School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences will receive $2.5 million to bring his expertise in environmental science to a project designed to help sustain healthy ecosystems, with benefits to the health, social, economic and cultural wellbeing of all Australians.
Prof. Keith’s project will work with Commonwealth, state and international partners to develop foundations for leading the nature positive ecosystem conservation agenda.
Professor Justin Gooding, Laureate Industry Fellowship, 2024
Photo: Australian Academy of Science.
Prof. Gooding, from the School of Chemistry, has been awarded close to $3.7 million to partner with Nutromics Pty Ltd to better understand how electrochemical sensors operate and in turn to bring this newfound technology to the market of wearable sensors for personal wellbeing.
Prof. Gooding, who was recently recognised by the Australian Academy of Science for his advancements in chemical research, will work on developing biosensing technology for the continuous monitoring of many biomarkers.
Scientia Professor Veena Sahajwalla, Laureat Industry Fellowship, 2023
Photo: UNSW
Scientia Professor Veena Sahajwalla, Director of the UNSW Centre for Sustainable Materials Research and Technology (SMART@UNSW), the ARC Research Hub for Microrecycling of Battery and Consumer Wastes and the NESP Sustainable Communities and Waste Hub, received $3.5 million of funding for the project ‘Recycling innovations to transform electronic waste into green metals’.
The project will develop novel approaches to use waste as a resource – enabling the recovery of valuable metal alloys, rare earth elements and other critical materials which have high market values.
Professor Alexander Hamilton, Laureate Industry Fellowship, 2023
Scientia Professor Alexander Hamilton from the School of Physics was awarded close to $3.8 million for the project ‘Unleashing the combined power of electrons and holes for quantum computing’.
The Fellowship partnered with Diraq, a UNSW spin-off company based at the Kensington campus. Diraq is developing a revolutionary new silicon quantum computing technology to solve key issues in the race to scale from small-scale prototypes to industrially relevant quantum computers.
Associate Professor Pramod Koshy, Mid-career Industry Fellowship, 2024
Photo: UNSW
UNSW Sydney Associate Professor Pramod Koshy, from the School of Materials Science & Engineering, has secured more than $1.07 million from the Australian Research Council’s (ARC) Mid-Career Industry Fellowships program for his waste reutilisation project.
The ARC funding will enable A/Prof. Koshy’s team, to continue their work with industry partner Vecor Technologies to convert fly ash – a major by-product from power stations – into a new material that can be used in many products, such as paints, plastics, rubbers, composites and powder coatings.
Professor Dewei Chu, Mid-career Industry Fellowship, 2023
Professor Dewei Chu from from the School of Materials Science & Engineering received $1,019,275 from the ARC for ‘Bio-inspired Sustainable Materials for Self-powered Environmental Sensing’.
This project aims to address the industry need for self-powered, lightweight and durable Internet of Things (IoT) devices for environmental sensing applications. The key outcome will be a new class of IoT devices with high power density, sustainable output, and real time environmental monitoring capabilities, that will directly benefit Australian industry by providing cost-effective and efficient ways to support safe working environments.
Dr Samuel Gorman, Early Career Industry Fellowship, 2024
Dr Gorman, from the School of Physics, who is working with industry partner Silicon Quantum Computing, will receive $375,794 to improve the performance of scalable sensors for quantum computing.
The expected outcomes of project include the discovery of novel processes of scalable sensors that will benefit quantum computing companies in Australia focused on spin qubits. The project will benefit researchers, industries, and further cement Australia's lead as a leader in the emerging quantum industry.